Another one: feed regime for suspected ulcers

[BayBondGirl]

I’m going cross-eyed reading about feeding regimes for ulcery horses so I’m hoping to get feedback (hah hah) on my own set up if y’all are willing! We are in Canada and boarded out. Narrowed her issues down with vet to very likely ulcers.

• currently very good condition for her age/breed, but has dropped some weight recently
• extremely light work load, but plans to increase this year. Only 4 years old
• currently almost 24/7 hay in a slow feed net, timothy or local grass generally. We have hay shortages yearly here now so it’s usually whatever hay we can get for a good price.
• medium-large paddock 24/7, never stalled. Grass field in the summer months. Fresh water always available.
• 1kg Matrix Ration Balancer daily, iodized salt and a small scoop of beet pulp (to manage her FWS). Ingredients attached for the RB. Screenshot_20240506_193625_Drive|690x214
• going to start MadBarn’s Visceral+ this week just because I have some on hand.

Matrix RB ingredients: Wheat Millrun, Canola Meal, Soybean Meal, Beet Pulp, Alfalfa Meal, Dicalcium Phosphate, Limestone, Salt, Molasses, Vitamin and Trace Mineral Premix, Soy Oil, Whey Powder, Alltech Yea-Sacc®, Alltech Actigen®, Lysine, Threonine, Methionine, Magnesium Oxide, Bio Plex Zinc®, Bio Plex Copper®, Bio Plex Selenium®

She’s been doing SO well on the RB for the last handful of months but I’m wondering if I should remove it in exchange for something buffering like alfalfa pellets + vit/min. She used to be on that last year, but it’s much cheaper for me to feed the RB; however if it may be contributing to ulcers, I will switch it out stat. Thoughts? My understanding was that RBs tend to be okay for ulcery horses, but also that forage-only is ideal.

My insurance doesn’t cover ulcers so after discussing with my vet, I’m planning to take the route of trying omeprazole or GastroGuard and see if it helps. I’ve weighed the pros and cons of scoping and may pursue that route eventually.

[alethiometre]

Hey there! I don’t know anything about Matrix RB, but can speak to how I adjusted my feed plan post-ulcer diagnosis.
More and more research has been coming out showing the benefits of alfalfa for ulcer prevention and gut health — I added alfalfa cubes when I couldn’t get nice alfalfa for my picky horse. Pellets of course may be better if you can’t soak in a boarding situation.
The Visceral seems to have made a difference for my mare after a round of compounded Omeprazole. She had a really hard winter in 2022 but no symptoms and kept weight this year on the Visceral.

Not sure what you could find in Canada, but my other favourite is Haystack Special Blend. It’s super simple; combo of alfalfa, Timothy, beet pulp and canola oil off the top of my head. I pair that with Mad Barn Omneity, salt, soaked beet pulp and extra canola oil.

You could also do the free nutritionist consultation that Mad Barn offers, which is especially useful if you can have your hay tested. I’ve done it a couple times and it’s SO useful.

Photo attached of her in winter 2022 and then 2023.

[islgrl]

I have to jump in and say it might be worth scoping. I went to a gastric ulcer seminar recently where they live-scoped three horses suspected to have ulcers. The first two had one very mild ulcer each, interestingly one was on long term ulcerguard and it clearly wasn’t working so they will change their treatment plan. The third was done because he had never been scoped but was a clear cut ulcer case. Scoped him. ZERO ulcers. So they spent less than half on the scope than they woudl have spent on a month of ulcerguard that would have solved nothing. It has totally changed my thinking on presumptive treatment with ulcerguard.

[BayBondGirl]

I probably will! Thanks

[RhythmNCruise]

My thinking with Ulcergard is that you will know pretty quickly whether or not it’s going to work. I knew with my horse after one full-tube treatment that he was already responding to it positively. I gave a full tube for a few more days and he just got better and better with each dose. If he hadn’t shown any response to the UG, I probably would have discontinued, but since he did respond well, I went ahead and gave him his full 30 days. He’s not shown any signs of ulcers since.

As for diet, mine seems to thrive on forage-based, soy-free, grain-free, high-fat diet. I feed a mash made up of the recommended amount of Triple Crown Gold Balancer, some alfalfa and beet pulp pellets, Omega Horseshine (a cup each feeding), some other supplements (joint, hoof, etc), and a glug of canola oil. He has a small pasture that he shares with another horse and there is enough grass to keep them busy (out 24/7 with access to stalls). I feed ample tim/orch hay as well to supplement the pasture.

[CowgirlCoffee]

When my friend’s horse was scoped for ulcers, her vet also wanted to test vitamin E and selenium levels ( we live in a very Se-deficient area). Turns out, the mare had ulcers AND was deficient in both things. Apparently, Vit E plays a role in the prevention of ulcers and selenium helps with wound healing. The mare was treated with gasroguard, put on Vermont Blend and vitamin E. She scoped clear after 2 months. 6 months later, she is still doing well, knock on wood!

[olim2005]

I just had my horse scoped and we talked about alfalfa. It’s awesome to feed it before your ride to help buffer the stomach. Ideally alfalfa in hay form. You want the hay stems to help “mat” the stomach.

For me, my horse is older with bad teeth. So we went with chopped alfalfa. Alfalfa cubes would be better the pellets if you have time to soak.

[olim2005]

Same here. We tested for selenium and vitamin E. He was fine in selenium (I supplement with Horseguard) but a little low in vitamin E. He did not have ulcers, but the remains of some that healed.

How much vitamin E will the mare be supplemented with?

[BayBondGirl]

Since I’m getting towards the end of the bag of RB anyway, I’m going to switch over to alfalfa pellets and a vit/min supplement, at least for a while, and see how she does. I also like that I can scoop her the pellets while she gets tacked up and I know she’s getting the buffer of it.

[frugalannie]

My new OTTB was not a happy camper when I got him. Bad behavior like kicking and biting. My vet/ nutritionist suggested a month of ulcergard, which helped a great deal. For ongoing feed, a bucket of alfalfa cubes (dry), lots of hay (we had trouble getting any hay last year, not to mention alfalfa hay), and Platinum GI. (I am not a paid spokesperson, BTW)

Fast forward to this year: my horse’s coat has a mirror-like sheen, he’s behaving like a solid citizen, is in good flesh and a scope earlier this week showed one small ulcer that was 90% healed. Platinum is expensive, but is worth it IMHO. It also comes with Colicare included, if that helps! But I don’t know if it’s available in Canada.

[CowgirlCoffee]

I’m not 100% sure, but I believe the vet recommended she be supplemented 2000IUs of natural (d-alpha) vitamin E. She uses Emcelle from Custom Equine Nutrition, same company that makes Vermont Blend. A bottle of it is expensive up front, but per servings cost is very reasonable. Plus, it’s the most bioavailable form of Vitamin E for horses.

I have used Horse Guard in the past. I believe they use synthetic vitamin E (dl-alpha), which is about half as bioavailable as natural vitamin E. So even though the label says it has 1000IUs per serving, the horse is actually getting about 500 IUs

[blue_heron]

Well, all of mine get long-stem alfalfa at meals and hay almost 24/7 and unfortunately I’m still dealing with ulcers with a horse of the same age as yours. She also gets a small amount of ration balancer and Purina outlast (1 c each).

Supplement-wise, I added Relyne at the advice of my vet. The gut supplement from Smartpak doesn’t really seem to be doing anything, so I’m going to feed the rest of it and not order any more. If we’re still having issues I may try to PlatinumGI next. A horsewoman I know (who isn’t a crank) swears by feeding whole chia seeds for ulcers. I haven’t tried it.

That’s interesting to hear about the Vitamin E. I haven’t been supplementing it further because there is some added to the ration balancer.