POWDERED BUTE

Powdered bute (phenylbutazone), used to counter inflammation, comes in apple-flavored, powdered form now as well as in pill and paste form and is designed to administer in the horse's food, but if the horse won't readily eat it, we syringe it into the horse's mouth.

Simply hold an oral syringe upside down with the tip covered by a syringe cap or your finger, add some tepid water first (about 30 ccs of water for one gram bute), then the powdered bute.

Insert the plunger just enough to block the bottom of the syringe but DON'T PUSH THE PLUNGER YET. If you do, the pressure will blow off the cap and the watered bute.

Turn the syringe upuright first, loosen syringe cap or your finger to release pressure, then push in the plunger about halfway up the syringe.

With the syringe cap or your finger firmly on the syringe tip, shake well.

Remove the syringe cap and slowly, gently squirt the watered down, powdered bute into the back of the horse's mouth.

Note: Powdered bute does not dissolve as easily as a crushed bute pill, but with enough shaking, it mixes well enough to administer with the syringe.

Some horses will eat powdered bute mixed with applesauce.

POWDERED ANTIBIOTICS

Powdered, flavored trimethoprim/sulfadiazine, an antibacterial used to treat infections, is also designed to administer in feed, but many horses turn up their noses. It's expensive medicine and we don't want to risk losing a dose in feed the horse won't eat, so we try just a little in grain first to see if the horse will eat it and, if not, we're quick to resort to syringing.

Because each dose is a lot more powder than a dose of powdered bute and more water is needed for syringing, it can be a bit difficult to get the watered-down medicine into the syringe.

Try this:

*Pour the powder into a short drinking glass or use a measuring cup with a pouring spout; add just enough tepid water to make it thin enough to squirt out of a 60 cc oral syringe; stir thoroughly.

*Hold the syringe upside down and tightly cover the tip with the syringe cap if you have one; if not, you'll have to use your finger.

*Pour the solution into the syringe, but only fill the syringe about halfway; otherwise it will be too hard to get the plunger inserted.

*Still holding the syringe upside down, insert the plunger just enough so that it will stay in.

*Carefully turn the syringe upright (holding the plunger in place with your other hand); loosen the cap (or your finger) and slowly push the plunger in further. Some of the dilute medication will squirt out the top and if you push hard and fast, you'll lose too much of the medicine.

If you add too much water, use two oral syringes.

*Squirt a small amount at a time into the horse's mouth, wait for the horse to swallow, and repeat until the medicine is gone.

Note: When administering liquid medication with a syringe, you may need to push the horse's head upward until he swallows.

Click here for a link to a website that sells oral syringes with a cap that covers the entire tip. Buy a few; horses sometimes bite down and crunch on the syringe, ruining it, and you don't want to be caught empty-handed when it's time to administer oral medicine. In case you want to comparison shop around, note that these syringes are sometimes called "feeding syringes."

Here's an oral syringe with a cap (sometimes called a feeding syringe).

Pouring meds into a syringe.

HARD PILLS

Hard pills, such as doxycycline that might be prescribed to treat Lyme disease and other types of infections, comes in the form of very hard little pills that are difficult to crush. A few horses will eat the pills in their food, but we've found that most won't.

This is where the coffee grinder comes in. Grind up the pills first. The powder tends to fly around quite a bit, so wait until it settles and tap the lid several times before removing the lid.

Next, pour the powder into a glass or measuring cup; add just enough water to dissolve the powder; shake and administer as described above.

SOFT PILLS AND SMALL PILLS

Here's an easy method for giving relatively soft pills. One example is the muscle relaxant methacarbamol; the pills are too big and require too many to put into a horse's feed.

Place the pills into a 60 cc oral syringe; with the cap on or blocking the syringe tip with your finger, add enough water to cover all the pills and let them soak and start to dissolve for about 20 to 30 minutes. Shake well, then administer.

Small numbers of small pills, such as the steroid dexamethasone, can be inserted into a soft treat that the horse likes. Stud Muffins are a brand of treat that works well for this purpose, but they're pricey.

We have one horse in the barn that will eat a pill inserted into a banana.

CLEAR HORSE'S MOUTH BEFORE GIVING ORAL MEDS Make sure the horse's mouth is free of food before administering oral medicine. The easiest way to do this is to offer the horse a treat, let him chew and swallow. If you don't have a treat handy, you can gently poke the side of the horse's tongue with the tip of the oral syringe (poke through the interdental space, that place without teeth that's between the cheek teeth and the incisors where the bit rests). This usually prompts a horse to spit out anything in the mouth or swallow, clearing the mouth.