Has anyone used Aloe Vera juice for treating a “suspected” ulcery horse? I’ve heard through the grapevine that it’s worked wonders on some horses. Has anyone had any luck with this? How much do you give?
LOL! I just asked this same thing about an hour ago. I haven’t gotten any replies yet.
Yes, I’ve heard of it and tried it. I think it was 1/2 a cup or a cup a day. No noticeable change, but it was only one horse.
One upper level eventer (Burgley+) gives her horse papaya tablets to prevent ulcers. She’s had excellent success.
Good question! I just started my boy on it three weeks ago. I figure that I’ll give it until June 1 for a thumbs up or down. Someone mentioned papaya tabs, and I bet they’d like that since the ones I’ve tried for my own IBS were very sweet and tasty. However, that would be much more expensive than the aloe juice. Good luck and I hope you get lots of replies since I’d like to know the answer too!
Newt, did the tabs work for you (as a human)?
GP rider Cynthia Collins has a detailed explanation of natural ways to treat & manage ulcer-prone horses on her website. http://www.lunatunesfreestyles.com/horse_ulcers.htm
Have had better luck with cabbage and bananas.
I treated my horse with Gastrogard/ulcergard and give him a 1/2 cup of aloe morning and night along with alfalfa–more as a preventative than a treatment. I believe I heard you have to give at least a cup morning and night for “treatment”.
I suspected ulcers and didn’t want to pay for a scope, so I did a quarter tube of ulcergard for 4 days and it made a dramatice difference. Then I treated with Ulcergard because it (as Gastrogard) is proven to cure ulcers and decided to play around with holistic “cures” for maitenance/prevention.
I have heard good thinks about papaya also.
I have read on a couple different forums about Aloe Vera juice for horses with mild stomach upset.
I cannot afford $120/mo for banana flavored prescription Omperazole that my Arab loves, so I have been giving him generic ranitidine at the rate of eight 150 mg tablets twice daily.
The ranitidine did not help as much as I thought it should, so I bought a gallon of Aloe Vera juice at the health food store and started him out with 1/4 cup per feeding.
He is now up to 1/2 cup per feeding and:
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Goes straight to his hay instead of waiting 15 minutes when he’s in his stall.
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Goes straight to the hay instead of nosing around for grass (and not really eating) when he gets turned out in the morning.
The Aloe Vera juice worked immediately on him, but he does not have major ulcer issues:)
He is around 13.3H and weighs ~875#; the one cup daily is working fine for him. I am much happier keeping him on anything natural that will get the “medicating job” done as efficiently as chemicals.
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I’ve had better luck with papaya
Here the best remedy to treat ulcers (also for humans) is believed to be oil or juice of sea-buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides). Oil is the best but it is quite expensive (berries themselves are very cheap as sea-buckthorn grows everywhere, but the picking up berries is a lslow going job thus expenses.
So from my own experience (I had stomach ulcers bleeding) the treatment was oil of sea-buckthorn and a lot of fresh white winter cabbage (they have mild, nearly sweet taste) as my only meal for about a month. Here I’m eating stones now 
So I planted in my garden few sea-buckthorn plants, and now, when we do have horses, the whole hedge will be made to let horses eat as much leaves/berries as they want.
By the way, sea-buckthorn is very good for horses more than in one way. You can google it easy - it is worth it.
[QUOTE=Chall;4573470]
Newt, did the tabs work for you (as a human)?[/QUOTE]
I think so! But, I also changed my diet to very high fiber and stopped eating processed foods that have preservatives in them.
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I like slippery elm bark the best.
you can buy it through vitaminwearhouse.com
comes to 25 bucks a month (because of the shipping rate). and the stuff smells SUPER!
[QUOTE=caballus;4573544]
Have had better luck with cabbage and bananas.[/QUOTE]
Caballus, How much do you give each day? I’ve found that carrots irritate my boys hind gut ulcer so wouldn’t bananas do the same?
[QUOTE=NEWT;4574161]
Caballus, How much do you give each day? I’ve found that carrots irritate my boys hind gut ulcer so wouldn’t bananas do the same?[/QUOTE] Just 1/2 - 1 banana and and small handful of shredded cabbage. That’s all. Both have properties that have been shown to help soothe and heal ulcerated guts. I’ve also tried the Papaya – the fresh worked better than the VERY EXPENSIVE Papaya juice now being sold in feed and tack stores. But now that he gets the banana and cabbage everyday he’s no longer kicking the barn and biting at it and his sides. He’s also been able to gain weight. (He’s a VERY hard keeper - 28 year old OTTB). But he also gets other vegetables and fruits, too. That being said, when I eliminate the cabbage then he starts getting ‘antsy’ again with his gut.
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Here’s the long story of multiple ulcer treatments.
Horse was happy and “fat” (for a TB) w/o any ulcer stuff, but has always been a little slow to his grain and would sometimes take hay breaks in between eating his meal (which at most is 4 quarts Blue Seal Performance 2x daily). So I tried the Aloe Vera Juice, and he stopped taking the breaks and seemed to eat in more of a rush. No noticeable difference u/s or in attitude. I think he ate better because it was sweet, if I added the equivalent amount of molasses I’d get the same effect. But it was cheap so I stuck with it.
Then he was put on Doxy for Lymes and we pulled out the big guns (as a preventative) and ordered Gastro Guard and for the hell of it gave him a treatment dose (1 full tube) we did this for 8 days. It did nothing as far as I’m concerned. He went back and forth about his grain, and his front legs blew up like balloons while he was on it. Then did 1/2 tube for 4 days and 1/4 for 4. Decided the horse didn’t have ulcers, though maybe it did something preventative since he was on Doxy.
We came back from a show and had purchased some stuff at the tack store and got a free sample of U-7 from finishline. Since our other two fatties clearly have the less stressful lives I put the TB on it at the loading dose. He will forever get it (now on a normal dose). He eats wonderfully, gained a ton of weight practically overnight and it ten times quieter. :yes: He’s been on stall rest/light work for the past 2 almost 3 weeks and I’m still here ;), and we’ve hit record low temps. Why this made such a difference when the Gastro Guard didn’t I don’t know, but I like to go with what works and this has proven to be the answer.
So try the aloe vera, it’s cheap and I believe it’s in the Finishline, but I had much better luck with the finishline.
I do papaya puree and aloe juice
I purchase the papaya at health food market 1/2 gallon 13.50 aloe 7.50 walmart
I do 4 oz daily and when I show I do twice the amount – I syringe right before I go the warm up ring. Happy hottie !!
I use 1 container of papya purree to a gallon of aloe.
I was a finish line lover but had to cut down $$$$.
I also like Gut by uckleye.
Aloe Vera
I have used it successfully. The vet had me give 3/4 cup am. and pm. with grain. Every 10 days you stop for 2-3 days. The juice has the effect of cooling the stomach down and you don’t want it to get too cool. Good luck!
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I have never heard of aloe vera, but, FWIW, my ulcer story…
My mare never went off her food, was fat and shiny, but she was a complete monster u/s. She’d have little fits where she’d stop and refuse to move, then continue on with her ears forward like nothing happened.
I first tried a 2 week dose of Gastrogard, and then switched to the “generic” compounded Omeprazole. It gave her bad diarrhea so I had to stop. Problems improved but didn’t stop, then I moved to a new barn and she started having major issues again.
Finally had her scoped and she did indeed have Grade 2 ulcers. Spent a ton of $$ buying name brand GastroGard for a month of a full dose and another month of the 1/4 dose. I also added the SmartGut supplement, which has a combination of just about everything. Then I changed her to Peanut Hay, which I’m hoping will work similar to Alfalfa because it has a high calcium content.
May be worth trying a few days of GastroGuard to see if your horse improves. I would avoid any compounded or “generic” products, Merial has the patent on the equine Omeprazole formula, so these other products are not true generics and will not be absorbed in the same way.
