Medicating horses can be tricky. Usually, crushing pills and mixing them with applesauce or yogurt then squirting them down the horse’s throat with a catheter-tip syringe works. [Click here to learn that technique.] But sometimes an owner has to get creative. 

Consider Amy Bradford of MIddlborough, Massachusetts, who has been stuffing jelly donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts with medication for her horse Zoe. 

According to an article in Boston.com, after many months of mysterious clinical signs, Zoe was diagnosed with an immune disease by Tufts’ Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Treatment involves dozens of pills daily, but Zoe resisted all the traditional medication methods. Knowing her mare’s affinity for donut holes, Bradford decided to try hiding a bit of medication in one. When that worked, she went big and put an entire dose into a large donut. 

Now Zoe will wait eagerly each morning for her jelly donut and take it without complaint, seemingly unaware it is stuffed with pills. Zoe does have a few demands, however; she prefers the donuts fresh, room temperature and they must be jelly-filled. 

Bradford told Boston.com that she knows a sugary donut might not be the healthiest choice for medication delivery, but says she’s checked with the experts at Tufts and they are okay with the treat as a trade-off for getting Zoe medicated. Eventually, she won’t need to be medicated and baked goods will become just an occasional treat once again.

Zoe’s Dunkin’ habit has been a popular topic of Bradford’s TikTok account, which has 115 thousand followers.  Here’s just one of her regular donut updates:

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