Giving Horses Paste Products

Over a given year there are many opportunities for a horse to receive paste products via the mouth, namely wormers (de-wormers), Bute (think horse aspirin) and paste pro-biotics. There are other less common paste products that some horses receive such such as products intended to calm the gut and reduce ulcers, and electrolytes. Usually wormers are pretty easy to get a syringe load into a horses mouth as the plunger is not hard to push and the same with the Pro-Bios brand of probiotics. Bute and Banamine paste on the other hand are usually hard and slow to push so this requires the handler to keep the nozzle end of the tube in the horses mouth for a longer period of time - basically this is where a handler needs 3 hands or a helper.

A Equine Supply Company gave me some big tubes of probiotics to evaluate that were supposed to have a much larger dose of probiotics per dose than the common Pro-Bios probiotic. Even after soaking these big tubes in hot water for 4-5 minutes I could not get a dose into a horses mouth as the plungers were just too hard to push in even using two hands. So I told the company that whoever formulated the paste and the syringe has likely never gave a horse a paste products, and that they may sell people a tube, but not likely a second one - so difficult the using end of the deal was.

Bute paste is much the same,....hard to use even with two hands on pushing a gram or two into a horse's mouth even with a helper holding the horse's head. Harder yet when the horse is uncooperative. Years ago when I ran a large public stables I woud have owners ask me to help them give their horse a dose of Bute. So I took to squeezing the dose, usually two grams, onto my index finger (the picture below is my finger with two grams of Bute), then use my middle finger into the corners of the horse's mouth in order to get the horse to open his mouth, then I would time it so when the horse opens his mouth I would slide my index finger with the Bute paste the corner of the mouth and wipe it off on the inside of the horses mouth. I have given Banamine paste this way as well.

Before I give paste products to a horse that is uncooperative, I'll put a rope halter on and hold the halter at the nose side knot to keep the horse from flinging his head my way. But before I try to give the horse the paste product, I'll rub on his forehead, get hm to soften his face, gently rub a circle around his eye getting him more relaxed.

Some medicine come in powders (antibiotics, muscle relaxers), Bute can come in a powder, and are often best given by mixing the dose with a little unsweetened applesauce then putting that mixture into a old wormer or probiotics tube that you have saved. I usually put a bit of straight applesause into the tube syringe first so that's the first thing the horse will taste as you trying to get a dose into his mouth.

Wormers such as Invermectin, Fendbendazole, etc., are like I said earier - pretty quick easy to. If you have a horse that is really difficult on taking wormer, it may be a good idea to give him a syringe of straight applesauce a few times and take your time as it pays off. My horses will cooperate with all paste products because I don't make it a battle.

I'm convinced that some owners don't worm their horses because they have made it difficult. I think wormers cn also have some positive side effects, as reserch the last couple of years articulate that Ivermectin also has anti-viral properties and Fendbendazole has anti-fungal properties. In the desert Southwest, Valley Fever which is a fungus found in the soil is present. Many of my dogs have been diangosed with fungus which the Vets tell me is hard to distinguish from cancer until a bioposy is done.

Anyway, the point of this article was to offer a tip on preparing horses for paste products - getting them soft in the face, and a technique that may work for you when giving hard to push paste products.