Wont eat her feed with medicine in it? Help!

[Shannon_Clover]

She got chest infection and we must give her antibotic granudle, powder medicine to mix in her feed and also include vitamin/minerals tonic.
But she wont touch it!! :eek:
My dad test her with a 'clean' feed without the drug and tonic and she finish it.

How do I fool her into eating her her 'drug' feed with tonic? :o
She must have this for five days.

[Est]

Ria hoovered up her powdered antibiotics in her feed, but I encouraged her by adding the water from soaked sugar beet - i.e. full of molasses!
You could try adding pure apple juice either.
Another trick is to put the antibiotics into a honey or treacle sandwich (literally 2 slices of bread stuck together).

Good luck! :D

[scoob&lill]

marmite sandwiches and fresh carrot juice!! echo the juice from sugar beet as a back up plan, but any type of sandwich and fresh juice always works with my lot!
x

[ponylover88]

You could get an apple, and cut a section out putting the antibiotics inside, then putting the section back in, or use sugarbeet as Est says.

[poniesrule]

I used to grate an apple into the feed bucket, them mix the powders into it. Works every time:D

[scoob&lill]

dont you find it scary that we are all devious at getting nasty stuff into horses!!! everybody has obviously had many times to perfect their theories:D

[Tots N Dots]

soak some beetpulp with a tablespoon full of black treacle mixed in the water ;) hides the taste and the smell :D

[poniesrule]

dont you find it scary that we are all devious at getting nasty stuff into horses!!! everybody has obviously had many times to perfect their theories:D

He He!!! we're like witches and their cauldrons!! i'll wear a pointed black hat next time im mixing powders into the feed:D

[vikkig]

i put spearmint in my horses feed and he will eat whatever is in the bucket, very good for antibiotics

[Roofio]

my two always lap anything up disguised by a bit of speedibeet or fibrebeet - have hidden tablets in carrots in the past though!

[ILurfSmurf]

our old vet gave us a needle for one horse, told us to mix powder with water, and inject it into the apple. Horse downed the apple before he realised it was 'good' for him :D

murph isnt quite so bad, just have to syringe it with him , and get fingers bitten off and toes broken at the same time :rolleyes:

[star*]

Put loads of treacle on a slice of bread, add th medcine and fold it in half then feed it.

[Tatooed Lady]

hmm...mix with applesauce...or molasses...peppermints...or some other rather pungent food your horse eats quickly.

[xloopylozzax]

we used jam sandwiches when we had to give our horse powder antibiotics- use a plain jam sandwich so they know its nice and sweet first then add the medicine

[Shannon_Clover]

Thanks for all the ideas.

Update:
My horses are fussy, they dont like like apples and carrots.
My mare didnt like the tonic either but I am going to use it anyway for both of them as it as expensive and just give a tiny bit to start with until gradually increasing amount to suit their weight.
Her colt didnt mind the tonic at all.

I try the jam and bread, nope.
The dogs were gagging for it, desperately waiting for me to pass it them when the horses show no interest in the bread/jam. I even smear jam on their lips, clover was a funny to watch and he even try to smell it on his lips - the lip curling trick. :p
Eventually the dogs won. :D

Today Dad got a different brand of feed just for Shannon (mare) called Simply Naturally and she ate it all this evening so we are going to add the antibiotic into tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

[janette carter]

Does she/he have a sweet tooth? Get some ready made icing from your local supermarket, roll it out thinly into an oblong and sprinkle powder over one half. Fold over other half and break up into treat sized lumps. Might be worth including some "clean" bits as well. Feed as fast as possible so horse doen't have too much chance to taste.

[Tatooed Lady]

I made some treats that my girl and our dogs would happily remove my fingers to get at. It's pretty basic...wheat flour, cinnamon, honey, oats, applesauce and water....I THINK that's it? All human grade ingredients, and when I make it, I make 2 batches....in the one for our horse, I add a touch of molasses. ;)
This makes rather solid lumps of treat, they smell WONDERFUL, and make me drool! :D Something like this might work, also....depends, I guess.

[mikh]

Had same prob - I added molasses and garlic and always made up a fresh feed and added some water to swirl the taste of garlic and molasses throughtout the whole feed.

[Nik-n-Kia]

i swear by peppermint oil!!!

Kia loves mint and this hides everything lol. I mix it with water and beetpulp then pour it over the medicine.

Gone everytime!!

Nikki xxxx

[evilgiraffe]

What worked quite well with Boycie was to put the antibiotic in a small pot with lots of dry mint, a small amount of water and mix it before adding to the feed. Also with him what helped was to add something he doesn't normally get - like a mix with oats in it, or some molasses.

The other thing is to make sure you mix it REALLY well into the feed, to spread it as thinly as possible so the horse doesn't come across any bits that taste nastier than other bits.

[lachlanandmarcu]

My horse isnt fooled by any of the above so with stuff like bute I have an equine size syringe and dissolve the bute in warm water and syringe it straight in his mouth/throat. Otherwise he wasnt getting all the bute and I wouldnt know quite how much, this way it is quick and he is OK with it and its all gone straight in.

he esp hates the so called palatable bute.:)