Getting a horse to take a pill..?

Question

My mother has a 9 month old Quarter Horse filly that has a joint infection. For those of you that don't know joint infections are pretty serious. The filly is on two different antibiotics. One of which is in pill form that she has to take 3x a day! Our problem is that the filly is refusing the pills. My mother gooed them up in feed and molasses but she still refuses. Do any of you all have any good innovative ideas for us? If we can't get these pills down her the vet said she could die. We are really concerned so any help is greatly appreciated. Please pray for this little filly.

I want to thank all of you for these wonderful answers. They have helped immensely. My mom is going with the syringe to give the meds and so far it is working. Thank you all so much.

Answer 1

You can take a knife and make a wedge in a carrot, put the pill in the wedge, turn it upside down so she can't see it then give it to her.

Answer 2

I've had and have horses all my life. My two horses now will not eat anything out of their grain no matter how I try to hind it in treats. So I have to syringe all meds by mouth. Get a few big 60cc syringes from your vet cut the tip off a bit so meds can flow through. Crush your pills, put in syringe, put your finger over the tip add hot water put plunger back in finger still over tip shake. Then carefully orally syringe in mouth use a halter for better control. I know this is such a pain and time consuming but you will know that your filly is getting her meds. It might take a little time coordinating meds in syringe just be patient. Have someone to help go slowly and quietly with her so it's a good experience. Keep adding water till all meds are gone in syringe. Good luck

Answer 3

Ahw, I hope she gets well soon. It is horrible when a horse is sick :-(

What we did was we got a few large syringes from the veterinarian and cut the tips off so there was just a larger hole in the bottom.

We then smashed the pills with a mortar and pestal and mixed in some light Karo syrup (corn syrup, it is usually in the baking aisle of the supermarket) (or you could use molasses, but it is messier), diluted with a little water, just don't make it too thin, or it won't stay in the syringe! We then used the syringe like a regular paste wormer, stuck it in the corner of her mouth and pushed the pluger. Make sure to hold her head up, my horse had a tendency to try and spit it out. This is a good way to ensure she gets all of her medications. The idea of the syrup is to mask the taste.

We had a horse with chronic founder who was on bute a lot. It was the only way we could get her to take bute.

Answer 4

Horses are always quick to catch on to things like this, so at the vet's clinic we have a list of ways in which the owners can give pills, without having to buy pill poppers, until it is a last resort.
1- Limit her water, I know this sounds cruel, but don't give her free choice of water. Feed her ration of feed without the pill, and a few saltine crackers. Make her wait about an hour, finely crush up the pill and put it into her water bucket and offer it to her. She should more than welcome the water bucket. Use only one pill the first time, just to make sure she will take it that way. Don't use a whole bucket either, use like half of the bucket, then refill and let her drink normal water until she doesn't want anymore, then take away the bucket. Water her only after an hour she has eaten. Don't leave water for her to get as she pleases.
2- Make a warm mash, again finely ground the pill (to ground a pill place it in a plastic bag, put the bag on a hard surface and beat with a hammer. Once it is fairly broken up roll the hammer back and forth grinding the chunks even finer. ) Mix the pill into the mash (mash- oats, corn chops, sweet feed) put treats of cut up apple and carrot into it as well.
3- Place a ground up pill into several pieces of apples and/or carrots. Make sure the first few pieces don't have anything in them, so she will more readily take the others. another thing you can do is offer her a piece of whole grain bread (white is bad for horses) then the next piece you offer has the meds on it. Sprinkle the ground pill across the bread, then using your fingers press it into the bread and fold it in half and offer it to her.
4- Actually go to a feed store or tack store, or any kind of ag/animal store and get a pill gun. You place the pill at the end of the gun stick it to the back of her throat and pull a trigger, or push the end of it, so it shoots the pill down her throat.

When trying to trick her using any food, remember to ground the pill and put it into a few differnt pieces and be sure there are a few pieces with no pills in them.

Answer 5

This is what I did. I crushed the pill up very fine, mixed it with peanut butter (horse loved the stuff) and gave it to my horse via a syringe like wormer. Worked great, just use a syringe that has a larger opening like the paste wormer ones do. I just cut the end off (where the needle would go) of one that I had on hand. Good Luck and I will keep her in my prayers.

Answer 6

The easiest method is to disolve the pills in water and then mix in applesauce - Draw it into a large syringe or an old cleaned out wormer.... To prep the horse to take it easly go out a few time with just teh applesauce in teh wormer and give it to her... She will be begging for the meds... And worming her will be much easier also.

PS... Make sure she does not have hay or feed in her mouth because she can spit out the mixture easily.
GOOD LUCK!

Answer 7

Any medication I have to give in pill form, I usually take the pill and grind it up with pill grinder (crusher) that can be bought at any feed store or the vet.

I also place it in a plastic bag and hammer it into fine powder.

I then take 20 cc surenge and make the little whole (where normally the needle goes) just a tiny bit bigger.

I feel it up with half way of water and place the powder in it. I shack it up for at least 30 mins and let it sit and shake it up more for another 30 mins.

Then I place it/surenge it in the back of the throat (having an assistant can help to keep the head up high to get the liquide down the throat and not spit it out).

After awhile, my horses get used to it.

When my mare got deathly sick, I had to give her 10 cc of dext once a day, with 20cc of penniciline twice a day in the neck or buttocks. She got so sore and I asked to go for the pill form, which is like 20 small pills at once.........yeah, I learned quick how to give it to her the least hardest.

I give a lot of my horses medication, worming etc by mouth so it gives me experience, keeps my horses used to it and I know for sure they got it.

a friend of mine used to place it in small amount of brand soaked in apple or carrot juice. Her horse loved that stuff, but not every horse will do so.

Answer 8

A nine month old filly should (hopefully) have some experiance with worming by now. get a big syringe, mash up the pill and mix it with applesauce and squirt it in her mouth, like wormer.

Answer 9

If the molassis isn't working try inserting the pill into a few other of her favorite treats.

If this doesn't work, I'd ask the vet if someone could physically come on site to help with the ingestion of the pills (perhaps a vet tech).

Answer 10

I have inserted pills deep into chunks of apple for horses, and another way is to have someone else hold the filly, and slip the pill way back into her mouth, from the side, where her teeth end, then hold her mouth shut until it goes down.

Answer 11

I had a pony who was bad for shots, as well. I do not believe that you can get horse vaccines in pill form. Strangles can come in a non-injectible form, though. I'm not sure if that is an oral vaccine or one that goes in the nostril.