How To: Medicate your cancerous, asshole horse

Since we first biopsied Fungus Leg, Bobby has been on a lot of pills. He started off on seventeen SMZs twice a day, and then once the results came back we immediately started him on an antibiotic which was an additional fourteen pills twice a day.

The SMZs dissolve easily in water so when he was only on those, it was easy enough to soak them quickly, dump them in his grain, and stir in some applesauce. He picked at it slowly, but he ate it all mostly without issue.

The antibiotics don't melt. In fact, if you leave them in water too long they literally turn to plastic. We tried to work around this the first day or two by mixing them with the SMZs and then immediately putting it in front of Bobby stirred in with two servings of applesauce. That didn't fly, and myself and the afternoon barn feeder had to forcibly shove the lumps of medication down his throat.

So instead of melting everything, I pounded (and then, duh, took Stacie's idea and used my coffee grinder) both medications into powder, mixed with applesauce, and tried again. Nope. Add some molasses as well? Crushed candy canes from a barn mate that works at Dunkin Donuts and brought a bag? He'd eat it, but it was taking him well over an hour to do it. The afternoon feeder was having to get there early just to make sure Bobby had enough time to slowly pick through it before he got turned out overnight (Usually he goes out during the day, but his pasture had just been mowed and sprayed so they were off it for a week.).

As a morning feeder, I know exactly how much of a pain in the ass a horse with tons of supplements and medications can be. I hated having to list out instructions and text back and forth while we all brain stormed what would make Bobby eat his meds in a timely fashion.

I finally found the right solution the other day.

First!

gather your drugs. this is $100 for two weeks. he will likely be on it till the end
of times unless we decide to switch to a steroid. or maybe just add a steroid as well?
who knows. drugs drugs drugs. 

Then!

count out dosage and add to coffee grinder. realize after you've taken the picture you
miscounted and add another pill.

Most importantly...

add proper dosage of peppermints

Least favorite step:

beat the shit out of your cheap ass grinder until it deigns
to turn on

Producing:

a fine pink powder that smells delicious.

Finally!

add to tri amino for the morning and its own baggie for the night.

Bobby happily inhales it. I still give him a single serving of applesauce with it because I have about forty of them at the barn and what the fuck else am I going to do with them. It also makes for quite a bit of powder so the applesauce helps dampen it down a bit.

What about you guys? Do you have a horse that's difficult to sneak meds to? Any tricks you want to share on the not-so-off chance Bobby decides he's being poisoned and won't eat this in a few days?