How Do You Make Bute Edible?

[janepain]

OK - how do you get the darn horse to eat the bute? Applesauce did not work.

[Kit]

Pills or paste?

I always liked pills better, but then I had weird horses. I'd feed a cookie, then a cookie w/a bute pill, then another cookie.
Before I discovered they'd eat the pill with a cookie I'd disolve the pills in a syringe of warm water and add molasses. Quincy had such a sweet tooth she'd try to eat the syringe...even if the bute wasn't for her. I'd have to take a bute syringe and a plain molasses syringe out.

[Jenni]

I always just crush it and mix it with a little water (or dissolve it in water) and then squirt it in with a syringe. I have a couple of syringes from wormer that I keep for this purpose or I buy about a 30 cc syringe and make the hole bigger with a knife.

I have one horse that will eat it just crushed up in her regular grain. I have another that I can do the treat trick kit describes. Usually Chance gets smart after one though so squirting it in is better. I also have one that is a jerk to get a syringe anywhere near. For her I found that I could use molasses. I bought a regular generic bottle of dark molasses and watered it down a little then mixed it and the bute in with the grain.

[TiAmosJewell]

I used (unsweetened)applesauce with a little water mix in the bute and put it in a syringe and it went straight down no problem

[janepain]

thanks - I've been mixing it with water and using a syringe - will try the applesauce again so it tastes a little better.

[Sheryl]

Well, I have Bute powder. I know this isn't really horse healthy, but mixing it with brown sugar before mixing it with something else really does the trick. so 50-50 bute/brown sugar blend mixed then with applesauce that is then mixed with sweet feed. or, even skipping the applesauce, buster goes for it. The reason I like using the applesauce is that it sticks really well to the sweet feed so he can't really avoid it - no waste.

[pamz]

I usually do what Jenni said. My old man Rusty though, is a different story. The horse who NOTHING bothers is totally convinced that bute is poison. For him, I crush it, then put it in a couple handsful of sweet feed with LOTS of extra molasses added. If I use the syringe on him, he will hold it in his mouth until I finally let his head down and the promptly drop it all on the floor. Between the sweet feed and the strong smell of the molasses, I am able to get it down. I did try using the syringe, putting a little molasses in the water, but it didn't work for him. I think for most horses it would.

[yip nli]

This is bad for a foundered horse, but so is molasses and brown sugar.

I bought cherry drink mix in the big can, put some in a cup, then added the crushed bute. Added enough water to make a thick gravy, then poured it into a dewormer syringe. Rose took it like a champ.

I have used liquid supps. and a certain thiamine supp that were cherry flavored, so I assumed someone had done the research and found that horses love cherry flavor. Both of mine loved the cherry supps. so I didn't try any other flavor.

I think Muley from SM did the same thing using fruit punch powder and Sabain liked that.

[Marci]

It especially works if you dip the tip end in the molasses, just don't put it in your pocket.

[pamz]

Lol Marci. I actually did that once, in the pocket of my Carhart jacket.

Yip, you are correct, but the amount is so small it's not an issue. Sometimes you have to weigh the risk/benefit factors. I like your idea of the cherry drink mix. Horses usually love cherry flavoring of anything.

[snaffle]

I vote that we ask Mary Ann to move this thread to USEFUL TIPS