# advice needed



## ookpik (May 2, 2008)

Good morning everyone,

We had the vet out yesterday to vacc all the equines. I had posted further down about Simon puffing a little bit lately, his breathing seemed more laboured than usual. Turns out the vet thinks he has asthma due to allergies, I'm hoping seasonal. We had a lot of snow, then a heat wave, and now it's a little cooler but we've had a lot of rain. He mentioned he's seen this type of issues this year much more than usual. He recommened antihistamines, which we had in stock for one of the horses last year. It's powder so I would normally just mix it in with some grain. Simon get a bit of grain for breakfast and in the evening as it's more of a vitamin and protein supplement so is low calorie. He really likes it.....until I added the medication






I tried this morning to cut up some small pieces of apple, role them in the meds and feed him that....nope. He's on to me





I had tried to hide it in the grain with a bit of water to disolve the powder. Does anyone have any ideas on how to try and get 1tbsp of powder twice a day into a donkey? If not then I'll have to do injections which I was trying to avoid as I'm starting to train him more on lead etc, and wouldn't want the negative injection ordeal to put him off.

Any ideas would be fantastic!!

cheers,

sam


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## FlatCreekFarm (May 2, 2008)

I can't help but... I'm bumping this up for Simon!!



I'm sure someone here has been there, done that and can offer some good advice.

Poor fella



Hope he's feeling better soon. Please keep us posted on him.

p.s. mine aren't on meds, but they will do ALMOST anything for a little bit of sweet feed (yes, I do use very sparingly



). I just wonder if the sweet taste might help camoflauge the meds?


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## Bunnylady (May 2, 2008)

How about dissolving it in a little applesauce, or yogurt, and putting it in a large syringe (minus a needle) and feeding it to him that way? Apple juice might work, but the others would be thicker and less likely to drip out of the syringe.

If I have to get something into a rabbit, I mash it up with a bit of banana. It might work for a donkey, too.


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## Chico (May 2, 2008)

I know what worked for us. P.J. needed to take meds for a short while. I crushed his pill in a shallow pan, not too shallow, and mixed in a 1/4 cup of rolled oats and chopped, small, apple bits. I also a made a similar pan of "medicine" for Mac. Mac's didn't include medicine and I had to be careful not to mix them up. I told the boys it was treat time and would serve them both at the same time. I never had a problem and every bite was licked up. The med was hard to spot in the oat dust, both white, and both boys liked the shared treat time. Our vet suggested the applesauce idea if the other didn't work.

chico


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## ookpik (May 3, 2008)

Thanks everyone for the "tricks of the trade"



I lost internet at home for a day, so given I hadn't had a chance to read replies yet I decided to try mixing the powder with water, adding molasses, then drizzled this on his grain. I'm gathering by his reaction half an hour ago that Simon is also not into molasses. Tricky guy. I'm going to try sweet feed or the apple sauce and then if not I'll do the syring solution by mouth. If only Simon could figure out that these options are much more pleasant that a shot to the butt daily OH!

Again, thank you for all the ideas!

Have a great weekend,

sam


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