Once home, he slowly and stiffly walked out to the turn out area of his stall. One of the symptoms of this infection is stiffness in the limbs. Flash is still carrying some of the bacteria and he is still a bit stiff. But, so happy to be home.
He had a happy reunion with Mufasa over the fence between their run-outs. They snaked their heads at each other in a "happy to see you" game.
Flash will continue on oral antibiotics for about two weeks. He gets a dose of 22 pills, twice a day. Fortunately, he eats them straight with his supplement and some sweet feed. He'll get repeat blood work in 7-10 days to determine if the bacteria are all gone.
He is also getting banamine (for pain) tonight, and twice tomorrow. Banamine is dosed via a paste and Flash hates having any kind of paste shot down his throat at all. When he saw me walk into his stall with Brett this evening, he turned and stiffly walked outside. He knows I'm the one who gives him nasty paste medications. Brett followed Flash outside, put on the halter and walked him back into the stall where it was light. We went through the usual head tossing evasions and then he let me insert the syringe into the corner of his mouth and press the dose onto the back of his tongue. Yuck.
I gave him quite a few cookies as a peace offering afterwards.
The injectable form of banamine can also be given orally and I have had very good luck getting horses and donkeys to eat it on a cookie or with a bit of grain. It's a lot less expensive as an added bonus. It might be worth trying if you have any, the dosing is the same.
ReplyDeleteSo glad Flash is home....and so happy to be there.
ReplyDeleteSo glad he's home and on the way to recovering his health.
ReplyDeleteI thought medication was given in one 'horse pill" that we humans wouldn't be able to choke down!!! Look at all those capsules .
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they used to give horses big huge pills. The reference to horse pills being huge had to come from somewhere.
DeleteI am so glad he is home again and isn't it funny how he know you're the one with bad tasting stuff. I hope he continues to get better.
ReplyDeleteHow nice that he eats them with his food. I've never been that lucky :-o. Glad he's doing better!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy Flash is back where he belongs but I can't believe he eats those pills! That would never happen with any of my guys - ever!
ReplyDeleteGlad he's home and doing well!
ReplyDeleteI have a friend that injects a squirt of molasses after she gives any kind of oral med, just so the last thing her horse gets is a squirt of something sweet. Maybe that would work for Flash? (Or applesauce)
ReplyDeleteVery glad he's home! :)
So glad to hear your boy is back home and is on the mend. Have you ever tried giving him a syringe full of applesauce or something yummy every once in awhile so he doesn't think you're only going to give him something that tastes bad?
ReplyDeleteI've never thought about giving him a yummy syringe for no reason. Excellent idea! Thanks --
DeleteWe can't believe he eats the pills straight either. None of the others would do that. With Jackson,especially, I've used applesauce and molasses and even then it's takes a lot of convincing.
ReplyDeletewelcome home Flash! d'Arcy says hi.
ReplyDelete