When I first started giving my senior mare her arthritis medicine, I joked that a 1000-lb horse was much easier to give a pill to than a little 10-15 pound cat. Of course, heart mare lacks sharp canine teeth and claws, and also has been wormed and is used to being messed with. So I didn’t mind giving her a pill, but I wanted to try a soft horse treat as a “pill pocket” to see if I could make it easier. Boy did it!
The brand of horse pill pockets I had my spouse buy from the feed store in town ended up being an old, close to date, hard treat that I knew my mare wouldn’t like. She’s gotten pickier in her old age about what she eats. Luckily I can feed them to the other horses like treats, so I’m not out. But I knew I needed a bonafide soft treat.
I got some treats that I knew she liked from Chewy, but then I ran across Nicker Doodles at Amazon. The bucket says that it’s perfect for hiding pills, and I’m not going to lie, the name drew me in too. I decided why not try them. Worst case scenario I had a bucket of fancy horse treats that the herd would enjoy. Best case scenario they’d work for pill pockets.
They work! I break one in half and place the pill in half of a treat, forming it into a ball with the pill in the middle. The other half is the decoy. I give my mare the decoy treat first, and then when she’s done with that, offer her the half with the pill. She takes both eagerly and it makes the job of giving medicine even easier than it was before. The hardest part? She eats her meals with her daughter, and so I have to make sure that senior mare gets her specific treats while the other horse gets something different. Since I like feeding horses treats, it’s no big deal, and we have worked out a system quite nicely.
I really recommend these treats, not just as horse treats, but also as a good way to hide a pill in case you need to give medicine to your horse. My herd loves them, and I bet yours will too.
