Hey y’all, it’s Krista with SaddleBox and in today’s video I’m going to be showing you some tips for administering maybe antibiotics, wormer, or whatever it may be through a syringe like this.
Okay, so this is the type of syringe I’m referring to, and if you’ve ever had a horse get a runny nose, or maybe get antibiotics for whatever reason, they will usually give you AniPrin or SMZ tablets and both of them work great, but some people and vets prefer one or the other. So my mare currently has a runny nose, so she was prescribed SMZ tablets and this came with it. So I’m just going to show you how I make my horse take a pill basically, using this.
So, what I like to do is get a syringe with this open hole here. Make sure it has this, otherwise you’re really going to be struggling to get the pills in there. So basically I just put the pills in the top right here, and then you don’t have to crush them or anything. I used to struggle with this, before I shadowed with any vets I used to crush up the pills and put them in here and try to mix it with water.
I would also put them in the wrong end, so I would take this off, put them in here, and plug this up, and all that did was create pressure when I put the plunger back in here and so everything would fly out. So don’t do that.
But that’s why it’s important to get a syringe that has the opening right there, I just put the pills in here, put it to about there, and then fill it with water and let the pills dissolve, and then it’s ready to go and be administered.
So these type of syringes can also be really helpful if you have a horse that needs to maybe practice having things administered to them. If they are bad for worming or anything like that, or just having things in their mouth, I’ve seen people put apple sauce in here, or just something that’s tasty that your horse really enjoys, and just practice giving it to them as a treat so they don’t associate things like this with wormer or things they don’t like swallowing.
So it’s kind of like you’re tricking them, but in reality, they’re just really getting used to this and associating it with something positive, something that they like.
And the last thing I wanted to mention is if you have any questions about the antibiotics or whatever you’re administering in here, always ask your vet. They’re usually always happy to help you or show you how to administer whatever it is that you’re putting in here. I know for AniPrin, not all horses like to have the powder put in their food, so a lot of times I will get a funnel and just kind of funnel it in here, however much they need, and put a little bit of water with it because it’s already in powder form, and just administer it like this.
It’s very rare that I have a horse that likes the taste of AniPrin, even though it’s apple-flavored, it’s supposed to be really sweet, I don’t know what it is but my horses just don’t like it. So I will also put it in here as well. Again, if you have any questions or concerns about the way you’re administering something or how much, always just give your vet a call.
Okay, so as you can see, I have filled the syringe with the pills, and now all I have to do is add water. Some of them got a little crushed while they were in there already, but I put the correct amount in there and I kind of pushed the plunger a little bit too so there’s less space for air to come up or any of that. So I’m going to fill it up with water and then I’ll show you what it looks like.
So as you can see, the pills are starting to dissolve, and with this, you want more of a paste consistency. You don’t want it to be too watery or else your horse can spit it out. So I just filled it up with water through here, and it’s really starting to dissolve now. So a little goes a long way with water in this case.
Alright y’all, that’s it for this one. I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll see you in the next video. Bye guys!