How to feed bute tablets?
Hilary Beech
My (leased) horse has been prescribed bute tablets by the vet for
soreness in her legs. I have been unsuccessful getting her to
eat these when they are crushed and mashed with honey or apple
sauce or grain. Today I'm going to try a syringe filled with
honey and the mashed tablets ( a helpful hint
from a colleague) and see if that does the trick.
Do you have your own tricks for feeding bute successfully?
I'd love to hear suggestions...
/Hilary
Lizannhill
a "popcorn ball" type thing. That's the only way my finicy appaloosa mare
will eat it. Good Luck!
Liz Hillebrand
Sullys Maze
confidentally call myself the syringe queen of California. I can
get every drop of medicine gunk down the horse! It does help that
I am about 6 ft. tall, but....
I will give you a few tricks. I use a 60 cc syringe, and you
never want to fill if over half full, because then it is too
hard to empty with one hand. Make sure the rubber washer thingy
slides very easily in the syringe and doesn;t stick. I use a
tiny coating of veg. oil just to make sure it slides fast.
I dissolve the bute in as little water as possible, again, you
don't want to exceep about 30 ccs total. Pull plunger out of
syringe (do not try to suck gunk up into it) Pour a little bit
of pancake syrup into the end of syringe (finger over tip)
Pour in dissolved bute. INsert plunger barely, and turn syringe
over so tip is in air. A small bit of syrup will blip out ( but not
the medicine-so do the syrup FIRST) Push plunger in rest of way.
I have a technique whereby I grab the horse under the jaw firmly
Then insert the syringe ALL THE WAY into the mouth as far back
as you can reach while depressing the plunger. If you only get
the tip of the plunger in the gap in the teeth the horse will
spit half of the gunk out.
If this doesn't work give me a holler. I am considering a
profession where I travel all over syringing difficult horses.
Wait a minute, maybe I should be charging for this information.After
all, it is a little more complicated than unravelling strings from
a feed bag...
Karen (maybe a little spacey tonite)
John & Lisa Grasser
<hbe...@ix.netcom.com> writes:
>
>Hi-
>
>My (leased) horse has been prescribed bute tablets by the vet for
>Do you have your own tricks for feeding bute successfully?
>I'd love to hear suggestions...
>
>/Hilary
>
I had a filly who required prolonged treatment with bute for
epiphysitis. It was a challenge, especially at first, to be sure she
ingested her prescription. The following will sound really funny;
however, it took both my husband and I to do it, and it was *somewhat*
easy to do because she was a calm yearling at the time:
My husband would grind up the bute tablets and put the powder in a
spoon. I would then halter the filly and back her into a corner. Next
we would somehow open her mouth, and my husband would *shoot* the
powder onto the back of her tongue, much like flinging peas in a food
fight (he has excellent aim). I laugh just thinking of it. The poor
filly didn't like it one bit, but she never threw a fit as you would
imagine a horse would.
I relay this story more for laughs than to really recommend it. PLEASE
PLEASE don't try it unless you're sure the mare will stand for it.
More seriously, I have had luck getting horses to eat bute by putting
it into alfalfa-molasses or oat hay-molasses and adding rice bran.
Also, I withhold any other feed until they have cleaned it up (my
horses tend to be chow hounds so it doesn't take them long to realize
they ain't getting dinner til they take their medicine).
I bet that you'll find that the syringe did the trick, though. You
might want to try using apple sauce in the syringe because it will be
easier to clean than the honey.
Good luck! Let us know what works!
-- Lisa G.
Vista, California
Jane Kilberg
I have given bute two ways, and both are successful pending on the horse.
The first
method is bute paste. The second is crushing up tablets. I crush them
real fine, then
mix in a "Karo" type syrup, enought to fill about 3/4 of a deworming
tube. I save the
panacure-safeguard type tubes as they are big enough to hold mixture.
Never had any
problems in getting the bute down the horse.
down the sunny trails....
Jane Kilberg
Rocking Double J Ranch
Sundance 500 Newsletter € the appaloosa appreciation society
Phone: (409) 231-2035 € Fax (409) 231-2083 € EMail:
jkil...@mcia.infohwy.com
Peggy K775
half a small coffee can of bran and adding just enough water to make it
moist (but not soupy). This assumes, of course that your horse eats wet
bran. You may have to mix the bran/bute mix with something sweet (A&M,
powdered jello, Caro syrup, molasses, etc) initially before graduating to
the unsweetened mixture. This worked for me with a very finicky TB.
Previously, I had tried the Carosyrup/water/bute mix in the syringe
routine but didn't want to have to do this forever since this horse (24
yrs old) stays on Bute all the time.
If you don't like crushing the bute each time, you can grind up about 20
or so tablets at a time in a spice/coffee grinder and put the whole
powdery mess back in the bottle. Then, you can measure it out by the tsp
(I think 1/4 tsp = 1 tablet)
All of which reminds me of a funny Bute story. My vet prescribed bute to a
horse. The owner wasn't sure how to feed the Bute and asked if he could
just put the (uncrushed) tablets on top of a flake of hay since the
grinding a mixing routine seemed so tedious.
Peggy, Jive and Cool
Palos Verdes,
near Los Angeles, California, USA
(pegg...@aol.com)
Ricky Roberson
Crush the tablet with the back side of a spoon against the wall of a bowl,
cup, etc. Mix in just enough molasses to make a paste. Add a little
water to make it "syringable". Pour it into a syringe, push plunger back in.
Open horse's mouth and put syringe as far back as possible and push
plunger. Done.
The secret is to NOT add too much water. The stickiness of the molasses
will prevent them from spitting it back out. Mine think it's a treat!
Rick
Rita Hollingsworth
pills on the back of the tongue. I then hold the horse's nose up and massage
the throat area. After medicine is swallowed.....horse gets to eat grain.
This does work but you must be able to handle the insides of your horse's
mouth....just takes training.
Rita
Jessica Jahiel
mouth -- bute tablets that stay in contact with the inside of the
esophagus can be uncomfortable and cause local irritation, even potential
injury. Now, if you could get the horse to swallow his pill and take a
drink... but isn't there a saying about that (You can lead a horse to
water, but you can't make him swallow a bute tablet and drink.. ;-) )
I'm definitely an applesauce fan. You can buy little containers that can
stay in your tack box for a long time, and applesauce is better than
molasses, as far as I'm concerned, for two reasons. One: it works all
year 'round -- in our area, winters are so cold that unless you bring
your bute-and-molasses syringe from home, and keep it warm in the car,
and administer it the second you walk into the barn, the darn stuff just
won't MOVE and you can't get it out of the syringe. Two: applesauce
rinses off your hand, the syringe, your horse's nose/neck/chest, your
shirt, your shoes....
molasses tends to "stick around," so so speak!
- Jessica
--
jja...@firefly.prairienet.org | Jessica Jahiel, Ph.D.
Voice: (217) 359-9880 | * Lessons * Training * Clinics *
FAX: (217) 359-9774 | Emphasis on communication
| between horse and rider.
===========================================================================
"God forbid that I should go to any heaven in which there are no horses."
-- R. B. Cunningham Graham
===========================================================================
Nancy J. Davis
Hilary Beech <hbe...@ix.netcom.com> writes:
> Today I'm going to try a syringe filled with
> honey and the mashed tablets ( a helpful hint
> from a colleague) and see if that does the trick.
I take a slightly different approach than the others. I recommend
using an apple corer to core an apple. Remove the core. Cut core in
half. Fill the inside of the apple with crushed bute and a little
honey, then shove the pieces of core back in their respective ends and
feed the apple to the horse. Hope this helps!
Mel McM
matter what we gave him, he would eat everything and spit the tablet out.
Very rude I think! Anyway, now we pulverize the tablets, mix it in his
grain and pour molasses over the top and he takes it everytime. Just make
sure you use a little more bute with this method since some gets lost in
the grinding and mixing.
Melody McMahon
Piscataway, NJ
Dawna Clephas
I wonder if you could make round Rice Krispie cookie balls and insert a Bute
into the middle before they cool and get hard!
The difference between administering pills to dogs vs to horses is that dogs
will generally "wolf" down a tasty morsel before they find out there's a
yucky surprise in the middle. Horses must spend more time breaking down
fiber in the foods they eat before the gastric juices can take over, so they
tend to chew everything (even peppermint candies) to death and expose
the bitter Bute.
My recipe was a mix of grated apple, grated carrot, molassas, and powdered
Bute, mixed in thoroughly with my mare's feed. She didn't love me for it, but
she didn't waste a bite.
FYI, I made a big batch of the above sauce and kept it in the fridge at the
barn. I added the bute at the last minute before feeding.
--Dawna
Dawna E. W. Clephas
dewc...@roanoke.infi.net
Clephas, Johnson & Associates - Business Information Systems Consulting
Roanoke, Virginia USA
Frank Vaughn
>
>Hi-
>
>My (leased) horse has been prescribed bute tablets by the vet for
>eat these when they are crushed and mashed with honey or apple
>honey and the mashed tablets ( a helpful hint
>from a colleague) and see if that does the trick.
>
>I'd love to hear suggestions...
>
>/Hilary
>
The plastic balling guns they make for cattle work very well. Use it just like
you were going to administer paste wormer.....
Frank
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank Vaughn frank....@stpaulmn.attgis.com
AT&T GIS, Network Hardware Development
St. Paul, MN.
Joel B Levin
the-throat technique. They don't like it much but it's quick and
easy. I did it once, but it spooked me enough having my arm in his
mouth far enough that his front teeth were at my elbow that I never
quite felt like insisting again. But I suspect that at least some
old fashioned vets and horse-keepers still do it that way. And it's
still how I do the dogs and cats, more or less.
/J
--
Nets: le...@bbn.com | "How does a mouse let me move the cursor anywhere
or j...@levin.mv.com| I want?" "What are address busses?" "How do
pots: (617)873-3463 | icons work?" --Time-Life Books
ARS: KD1ON |
Mary Healey
dewc...@roanoke.infi.net (Dawna Clephas) writes:
>I wonder if you could make round Rice Krispie cookie balls and insert a Bute
>into the middle before they cool and get hard!
Anyone with a roommate (or 2) should, of course, clearly label these
"HORSE MEDICINE".
Geez-o-Pete, I didn't know how lucky I am! When Regis is on Bute,
he gets it in his morning/evening grain, usually one crushed
tablet each feeding. Admittedly, he's such a sloppy eater that he
might not get all of it, but he isn't a bit finicky.
--
Mary & the Ames (Iowa, USA) National Zoo:
Raise a Fund ("Regis", 10 yo TB); ANZ Sam-I-Am ("Sam", 5 yo ACDx);
ANZ Noah Doll, CGC, OFA Good ("Noah", 2 yo ACD); kitties from h*ll;
finches; fish; Guinea pigs (a1....@isumvs.iastate.edu)
Dawna Clephas
>
>In article <405pdd$5...@allnews.infi.net>,
>dewc...@roanoke.infi.net (Dawna Clephas) writes:
>>I wonder if you could make round Rice Krispie cookie balls and insert a Bute
>>into the middle before they cool and get hard!
>
>Anyone with a roommate (or 2) should, of course, clearly label these
>"HORSE MEDICINE".
WHOOPS! Thanks, Mary. I forget what it's like having kids (and hungry
roommates) around.
I wonder if I could sneak some beets inside a cookie and get my husband
to eat it? 8-)
Linda Cowles @ PCB x5624
|> mouth -- bute tablets that stay in contact with the inside of the
|> esophagus can be uncomfortable and cause local irritation, even potential
|> injury. Now, if you could get the horse to swallow his pill and take a
|> drink...
How I pill horses:
Show the horse a carrot or two. SHow the horse a pill or two ("eeewwww!")
I "pill" all of my horses by standing to the right of the horse facing
the same direction they are with their head over my left shoulder, grabbing
their tongue with my left hand and pulling it out of the left side of their
mouth (way out - these are loooong tongues), then placing a bute (or whatever)
pill far back in their mouth, beyond their molars, giving a bit of a half-halt
on the old tongue and -TWANG!!! let the tongue loose. The tongue, pill and
all, gets retracted damned fast.
To insure that everything went down okay, I then raise the snout, keep my
right hand over the front lips (lightly, saying "don't spit") and slide my
left fingers lightly on the tougue, entering the mouth from the left side.
I offer them water. You may not be able to teach a horse to "drink" on
command, but mine are taught to "sip". To anthropomorphosize (or however
you spell it) they do this with a very patronizing look of resignation on
their faces. "If we sip, she'll shut up... <sigh>"
If they won't take a *real* drink (a good gulp or two), I feed them carrots.
Well, they get the carrots anyway. My training methods tend to include
compromises. Because there isn't a mouthfull of bute-taste to deal with,
they will eat the carrots.
Dr. Kerry had to laugh when I did this with Cammie (16.1) because she kind
of goes crosseyed in the process (expressive appy eyes), but he feels its
safe. I've also asked lots of UC Davis doctors and my regular vets and vet
friends, and as long as they swallow, it's okay.
--
Linda Cowles
Mentor Graphics Corp
San Jose, Ca
linda_...@mentorg.com
Kitty Omitt
>
> In article <403a5k$8...@ixnews4.ix.netcom.com>
> Hilary Beech <hbe...@ix.netcom.com> writes:
>
> > honey and the mashed tablets ( a helpful hint
> > from a colleague) and see if that does the trick.
>
> using an apple corer to core an apple. Remove the core. Cut core in
> half. Fill the inside of the apple with crushed bute and a little
> honey, then shove the pieces of core back in their respective ends and
> feed the apple to the horse. Hope this helps!
I have had a horse on bute since 10/94... We have tried many things
including apples, yogurt, just giving the tablet to chew. (He got really
good at looking you straight in the face, chewing like mad, appearing
to swallow and the minute you left - putey out through the bars into the aisle
way>) The thing we have had the most success with is canned frosting,
Either coat the tablet with the frosting or grind and mix it up.
Kitty
Three Rivers Arabians
Home of Tah Zaman+ and Bey Toven
Brady Bartolini
water, then pouring it over the horses supplement.
-------
ProLine: bra...@pro-amber.cts.com
Jodie Gilmore
as much as two tablets twice a day. I grind it up with a steady downward
pressure of a hammer (don't hit it) on a plastic lid from a small bucket
(like Source comes in), and then just tip it into her sweet feed. A quick
stir with my hand, and she eats it right up! She also eats, without complaint,
her organic iodide (salt-based or sugar-based)--her heaves medicine--and many
other odd stuff (like the powder she had to have for a systemic fungus
infection). I don't add molasses, syrup, or anything.
One the other hand, she HATES bran mashes--they look too medicinal, I guess.
And she is possibly one of the world's most difficult horses to paste I've
ever seen. Thank goodness she'll eat the bute powdered!
If this bute treatment isn't to go on for forever, you *could* reduce
her feed a bit, so she's somewhat hungry coming to the table--I find I'm
less finicky about what my husband cooks for dinner if I haven't just
eaten a whole bag of potato chips! ;)
Good luck. I'm sure I wasn't that much help, but indulging in net-chat is
fun sometimes...
--
********************
Jodie Gilmore
Freelance Technical Writer
Lamont, FL
********************
tr...@pit.legent.com
>
>My (leased) horse has been prescribed bute tablets ... I have been
I had the same problem until I switched to the orange flavored bute
that comes already powdered. Now I just mix it with the feed.
Tom
raian kaiser
in syringe, and fill the rest of the syringe with corn syrup (the sweet
stuff).
C. Flaming
or into a bran mash and mix it with molasses and have also used applesauce.
The syringe method works OK but I usually end up squirting it all over me
instead of into the horses mouth. Another method I've seen is to get a
piece of hose about 18 inches long, putting the dry powder into the hose,
put one end in the back of the horses mouth and blowing really hard-it
sprays it into the back of the horses mouth, word of caution though,
make sure not to inhale with the hose in your own mouth, it tastes
really bad. I find that they eat the powder equipalazone much more
readily than the tabs, but it costs more. My friend had a horse who
wouldn't tolerate bute in any way and if he got it in his mouth he would
just drool all day and wouldn't eat anything else for hours she finally
resorted to injecting it. I'm not sure if its IM or IV. I wouldn't
reccomend it for long term but maybe for short term bute. Good Luck.
Stephanie Lipka
The trick we've used in our barn is to core out the top part of an apple,
making a little hollow in the middle. Then, powder the bute with a little
bit of applesauce and molasses, fill the hole, put the top back on the apple,
and present as an oh so appealing treat! Seems to work everytime. We've
also mixed a little bit of pre-sweetened powdered orange drink (like koolaid)
with powdered medicines, and stuck that in with their grain - also seems to
work fairly well, especially with babies who can't get their teeth all the
way around an apple yet:).
Hope that helps:)
Steph
...in Peoria
/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/da...@camelot.bradley.edu\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\
Know thyself. If you need help, call the C.I.A.
\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=Stephanie Lipka\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/
C.M.Newell
>.... My friend had a horse who
>wouldn't tolerate bute in any way and if he got it in his mouth he would
>just drool all day and wouldn't eat anything else for hours she finally
>resorted to injecting it. I'm not sure if its IM or IV. I wouldn't
>reccomend it for long term but maybe for short term bute. Good Luck.
It is IV, aand unless you are *very good* at IV injections, stay the
hell away from it--if you get it outside the vein, your horse may
slough large portions of neck muscle. Better leave it to the vet.
(That's why we get the big bucks <G>)
--C.M.Newell, DVM
"A walker after midnight/In another kind of light
I do not trust to reason/And I cannot trust to sight
I do not trust to messengers/With bright and shining eyes
I do not trust the foolish/And I dare not trust the wise"
--R.Hunter
Eve Dexter
>>Status: N
>>
>>Hi-
>>
>>My (leased) horse has been prescribed bute tablets by the vet for
>>soreness in her legs.
>>
>>Do you have your own tricks for feeding bute successfully?
>>I'd love to hear suggestions...
>>
>>/Hilary
>>
>The plastic balling guns they make for cattle work very well. Use it just like
>you were going to administer paste wormer.....
>Frank
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I find the balling guns can be dangerous if you push them too far to
the back of the throat. Your vet can show you their proper use...you
don't want to cause choke from the pill going the wrong way.
It also helps if you put molasses on the end of the balling
gun...helps get it into the mouth. I use it to pacify even my
tough-to-worm horses.
Good Luck
Eve
eve...@hookup.net
Ontario, Canada
Eve Dexter
>Here is what we've done. I usually crush the pills and mix it with grain
>or into a bran mash and mix it with molasses and have also used applesauce.
>The syringe method works OK but I usually end up squirting it all over me
>instead of into the horses mouth. Another method I've seen is to get a
>piece of hose about 18 inches long, putting the dry powder into the hose,
>put one end in the back of the horses mouth and blowing really hard-it
>sprays it into the back of the horses mouth, word of caution though,
>make sure not to inhale with the hose in your own mouth, it tastes
>really bad. I find that they eat the powder equipalazone much more
>readily than the tabs, but it costs more. My friend had a horse who
>wouldn't tolerate bute in any way and if he got it in his mouth he would
>just drool all day and wouldn't eat anything else for hours she finally
>resorted to injecting it. I'm not sure if its IM or IV. I wouldn't
>reccomend it for long term but maybe for short term bute. Good Luck.
Two comments and a suggestion:
1. A horse can asperate (breath in) the powder this way and have all
sorts of serious problems.
2. Injectable bute (IM) is very destructive to the tissue surrounding
the injection site. It is a drug used more for very short term or for
some serious problem which cannot be treated otherwise.
Try paste bute. If you can worm your horses with a paste wormer, you
can paste bute too. Although more expensive by far than the powder
and/or tablets it is the best way to go with some horses (my appy
included) The paste container has a knurled knob you set to the
required dose (just like some wormers) and if you put a little
molasses on the end (I worte about this earlier) the syringe may get a
little sticky but you will probable get the bute in.
Eve
eve...@hookup.net
Ontario, Canada
Bruce Cameron
without complaint. Typical dose is 10 cc administed orally via a syringe toward the back
of the mouth. Perhaps you could mix the crushed tablets with molassis and administer
in a similar fashion.
--
--Bruce
-----------------------------------------------------
Bruce M. Cameron b...@mayo.edu
Mayo Foundation office: (507) 284-3288
200 1st St SW fax: (507) 284-1428
Rochester, MN 55905 ARS WD9CKW
Melanie
I used to crush them up and mix them
with Apple Sauce and squirt it in like
worming medicine with an old fat syringe...
Horsdogcat
as usual. This trick has never failed yet. If horse refuses to
eat mixture, a few do, leave in feed bucket untill eaten. Some
may skip the first meal, a very few the second, none will miss
the third. Mark
--
Hang around Horses long enough and more than just the smell rubs
off on you!
Martha Sellers
He has been on Isoxuprine for naviular syndrome. After
months of taking the time to crush it and mix it, they tried
simply putting the pills on top of his grain. He eats them.
He will also eat bute this way.
I think he just got used to the taste ;-)
Martha
--
Martha Sellers
Oakland, California
m_se...@riem.com
Violet K. Jen
<7375...@CompuServe.COM> writes:
|> Organization: Green Acres
|> Lines: 9
|> Message-ID: <40ovqn$ipm$1...@mhade.production.compuserve.com>
|> References: <DD1s4...@bldrdoc.gov>
|>
|> Crush tablets and mix with grain and a little molasses, then feed
I keep seeing that people crush the hard tablet, but it's actually
quite soluble. It disolves/disintegrates in water within a minute.
Then, you can just use the water solution/suspension to mix with bran
and sweet feed. It can be very evenly distributed in the feed, so usually
horses won't taste a big clump and stop eating. My horses always licked the
bucket clean with this method. I checked with my vets, and it is OK
to handle the tablets this way.
--
;`-;
___,~ /\| Violet K. Jen, Developer Magic Group QA/Release Manager
,;'( )___,)_ vio...@sgi.com Work: http://celle.mti.sgi.com/relqa
/; // \ ] Fun: http://reality.sgi.com/employees/violet/
/ \ \ Phone: (415) 390-4108 Fax: (415) 390-6175
Hoot Gibson
power on feed, in feed dish
--
Watta Hoot!