Subi started Equioxx this weekend for his joint pain/arthritis and I was a having a horrible time figuring out how to get the damn pill down his throat.
For those of you who have seen Equioxx, the pill is TINY.
For those of you who have read my saga about Subi, you know he is PICKY and HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS.
Always suspicious. Always.
As a result, getting said pill into him was…difficult. In fact, I failed completely on Saturday.
You see, the lists of foods Subi does not approve of is probably longer than the foods of which he approves. I made the fatal mistake of sticking the Equioxx in a German Horse Muffin, but, as it turns out, Subi no longer eats German Horse Muffins. He finds that they are inedible. My husband tried to feed the pill muffin to him and it ended up in the mud. We thought about dumping it in his bucket, but figured that Batty or Jiminy would eat it instead. I’m pretty sure that German Horse Muffins were once poisoned by bute and now they are poisonous themselves… Subi only gets paste bute now… Thankfully I have volunteers in the form of Jiminy, Batty, (and Ranger if the first two let me sneak off the property with muffins) to finish off the poisonous muffins…
Full of himself. Idiot.
Defeated but not dead, I headed back out the next morning with peppermints and sticky hands. I decided to sandwich the Equioxx between two peppermints. When I couldn’t get that to work (they wouldn’t stick together, no Subi was involved), I added some Agave Nectar and made the entire thing a sticky mess. This pill would be sacrificed if this didn’t work. Then walked outside, fed him a plain peppermint (I should note, peppermints are our favorite), then stuffed the agave peppermint contraption in his mouth. SUCCESS! He looked at me like I was insane. We accept peppermints. We do not force peppermints into one’s mouth… But, I learned that Agave is acceptable to Subi… Go figure?
But, this mess wasn’t exactly conducive to daily pill giving practice so I set off to the grocery store (after a lesson on Ranger while still unable to breathe) and purchased ingredients for the pumpkin muffins I made last April. Except, I made multiple modifications from that version because it’s all about improvements. The version back in April was loosely based off of DIY Horse Ownership‘s pill hider treat recipe and based on whatever ingredients I had on hand… And this modification was based on those modifications and whatever other modifications I felt like making. So basically, when all was said and done, I more or less made up what I was doing? Because, why not?
And I finally purchased silicone mini muffin pans which made the process SO MUCH EASIER!
In the end, I made just under 7 dozen carrot molasses pumpkin muffins. Some had peppermints, some didn’t.
So. Many. Pumpkin. Muffins. Subi will sell his soul.
Subi will MURDER for these muffins. MURDER.
For a picky horse, he LOVES pumpkin. Who knew? Jiminy likes the muffins as well though would have preferred micro mini muffins that would better fit in his mouth. Batty, Mr. I WILL EAT EVERYTHING NO QUESTIONS ASKED (except for bananas and fig newtons) ate his, but without enthusiasm. He, evidently, isn’t the biggest fan of pumpkin. Lol.
Since then, the past 3 mornings he has eaten his pill inside his pumpkin muffin. This morning, Subi nearly took off my hand trying to grab his muffin. Evidently I was moving my hand too slowly…
What tricks do you use to pill a horse?
Cookies!!!!
Three Chestnuts 