I have read some of the threads on ulcer treatments, and my eyes are crossing.:dead:
Can anyone spell out the best online (i.e. inexpensive) source for ulcer treatment if I wanted to see if that is what is making my horse so touchy?
And what are pop rocks? Forgive my ignorance. I just don’t seem to be able to sort through the threads for the original info.
“Blue pop rocks” are enteric coated omeprazole granules,
You can order a 20 packet sample (so for a 1000 lb horse just shy of 7 days) to try for free. I’m currently trying this with my horse.
Check out the recent thread started by user JohnDeere re: Pop Rocks here in the Horse Care forum. It ended up being a debate about the costs of ranitidine versus pop rocks. For most folks, ranitidine will win the price comparison by a landslide–but it’s also less convenient because to get good results with ranitidine, you really should deliver it as evenly as possible 3x a day (every 8 hours). With Pop Rocks, you can dose once daily. Convenience comes at a cost.
At my local Sam’s Club prices, ranitidine treatment would be approx. $19.50 per week. If you buy the Pop Rocks in maximum bulk at 200 sachets for $299 and you feed them at a rate of 3 per day, that’s $31.40 per week. To be fair, Pop Rocks also offers a 20-sachet free trial, but that’s going to get you through just short of 7 days of treatment. So you are gambling on whether your horse will show improvement in such a very short period. Some horses do. Some don’t. But it’s also free, so there ya go. The shipping on Pop Rocks is slow because it’s coming to you from overseas, so you’d have to not be in a huge hurry to get your stuff, and you’ll wait again for more Pop Rocks after your potentially successful 7-day trial. But slow shipping is not a terrible tradeoff for reasonably cheap, convenient ulcer treatment.
Some people also like to diagnose ulcers with Tums, which is an antacid not a treatment. Amounts and applications seem to vary–some people give 10, 15, 20 Tums during the horse’s meals or shortly before a ride. So in THEORY you could diagnose much cheaper with Tums than with ranitidine. But ranitidine is an actual ulcer treatment (in fact it was the veterinary standard of care before GastroGard came along), and Tums are just an antacid. So personally, unless I were in an area where it was really tough to get ranitidine at good prices or the ranitidine was not practical for my horse care situation, I’d go with ranitidine over Tums.
where is a link to the free sample?
http://equine.omeprazoledirect.com/Buy . Click on huge button that says “We’ll Put Our Money Where Our Mouth Is.”
I have not used this service since I have a healthy horse, but I looked into this for another horse in the barn who has suspected ulcers. My million-dollar question for people who have used the Pop Rocks free trial: do they force you to buy the remaining 80 sachets at the 100-sachet price or can you say “I liked the 20 sachets, so please send me 180 more at the 200-sachet price?” Because the sachets are about $1.75 per at the 100-sachet price and $1.49 per at the 200-sachet price. I guess you could get around it either way by shipping to another name/address on your followup order, but it would be nice if those who wanted 200 sachets could follow up the free trial with 180 sachets at the 200-sachet price without extra rigamarole.
jn4, can you walk me through the pricing where you got to $10/week? The way I did the math with the ranitidine products I could find it was closer to $3-4 per day. 
How much ranitidine do you feed and when/why would you use it over GG or UG (price notwithstanding)?
We just started our new horse on UG (double-dose) 4 days ago and the improvement is amazing. When he got here he wouldn’t touch his food, was very fidgety in the crossties, yet lethargic in the pasture (not even really eating grass), would flinch if you touched his sides or belly, etc. Sweet, sweet, sweet as can be horse who just seems to worry and internalize everything. We’re going to go through a 28-day regimen of UG but wonder if ranitidine would be better after the fact for maintenance? Horse is kept at home and fed 4xday so it wouldn’t be difficult to dose with ranitidine at each meal.
Oh, and what is ranitidine? Tagamet? What brand name do you buy? Is there a cheap online source?
I have had good luck with an herb, slippery elm bark. It costs me less than $5/month. I get it as a loose powder in the herb section at Vitamin Cottage. I tried it on my current horse, who had lots of things that needed fixed when I got her and the scoping/meds route was out of my budget. She showed all the signs of ulcers, the herb has no side effects so I tried it. (I did try Ranitidine first but could not feed it often enough to tell if it was doing anything.) The ulcers symptoms went away gradually over a few weeks. She still gets a teaspoon everyday in her beet pulp, if I run out of the herb she starts showing discomfort again.
I’m not seeing where to click for the free sample. Maybe I’m just overly tired, but I clicked on the link and don’t see anything about it.
I think we’re just supposed to buy the hundred, and they ship a weeks’s worth, but don’t charge you until you tell them it didn’t work for you. But I would like for someone to confirm that before I give them my credit card info.
I think we’re just supposed to buy the hundred, and they ship a weeks’s worth, but don’t charge you until you tell them it didn’t work for you. But I would like for someone to confirm that before I give them my credit card info.
Yes, that’s how it works.
Ranitidine = Zantac, which is quite similar to Tagamet but without the potential drug interactions that have taken Tagamet pretty much out of common usage. It is about 2/3 as effective in acid suppression as omeprazole and therefore quite effective, not as fussy (needs no enteric coating) and if you can find a deal on it might be more cost effective but it dose need multiple doses/day. Normal horse dose is 3mg/pound, every 8 hours.
[QUOTE=TheHorseProblem;6175607]
I think we’re just supposed to buy the hundred, and they ship a weeks’s worth, but don’t charge you until you tell them it didn’t work for you. But I would like for someone to confirm that before I give them my credit card info.[/QUOTE]
But that is my point: is there some way you can order the 20 sachets and then call back and get the 200-sachet pricing instead of the 100-sachet pricing? The 100-sachet pricing is fine if that’s all you need or want, but what if you prefer the longer treatment protocol of 200 sachets. Or, more commonly, what if you plan a treatment protocol of 100 sachets and then want to use the remaining 100 sachets to wean the dosage down, either to what you consider a “preventative dose” or to (eventually) no treatment. If you’re force to pay the 100-sachet price after the 20-sachet sample set, and you really needed 200 sachets, you are implicitly getting screwed to the tune of paying $50 extra for 200 sachets (compared to buying at the 200-sachet price of $299).
To be fair to the company, that little caveat would explain why they can afford to give away 20 sachets to any ol’ person who asks. They will make it back in spades with a “force you to buy the remaining 80 at $1.75 per” system. And while I cannot fault a company for keeping itself in business, I’m asking if there’s a way for the customer AND the company to win by allowing you to order the 20 free sachets and then get the 200-sachet price on a “remaining” order of 180 sachets instead of 80.
jetandmegs4, I describe above what button to click to access the free sample. I can also link you right to the popup window that is yielded from clicking that button:
http://equine.omeprazoledirect.com/popup.php?p=granules
I agree that it’s a confusing site. The button SHOULD say something more obvious, like “Click here for info about the free trial.”
As for ranitidine dosing, I again refer folks to the recent thread started by JohnDeere with the words “Pop Rocks” in the title. That is where deltawave describes what I consider a very practical rationale for dosing at approx. 3000-3100 mg a day for most horses.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=343421
Deltawave, you’re right that my math was off. I was assuming 3000 mg per DAY and really it’s 9000 mg per day. Even so, my local price puts me at about $19.50 per week–or $2.78 per day. I’ll edit my post above to reflect this. That still brings in ranitidine cheaper than Pop Rocks (which is about $2.98 per day for 2 packets per day, or $4.49 per day for the web site’s recommendation of 3 packets a day), but YMMV depending on local ranitidine prices. And Pop Rocks are certainly much more convenient than ranitidine.
dw, I get my horse’s ranitidine thru the Costco pharmacy, a three month supply, 10 pills 2xday was $91. At that cost it’s a bargin.
[QUOTE=TheHorseProblem;6175607]
I think we’re just supposed to buy the hundred, and they ship a weeks’s worth, but don’t charge you until you tell them it didn’t work for you. But I would like for someone to confirm that before I give them my credit card info.[/QUOTE]
Not quite. They ship you 20. You decide if you want the rest. If you don’t, they don’t charge and you don’t ever get another free trial.
If you do want the rest, let them know and they’ll ship the other 80 and charge you for 100.
As for getting the 200 pricing … why don’t you check with them? I’ve talked/e-mailed with them a couple times now and been very pleased with the customer service.
10 pills twice a day (assuming 300mg/pill) is slightly underdosing, BUT comparing full-dose ranitidine to full dose omeprazole is not quite kosher either. I’d consider the 1-2 pack/day dose of omeprazole equivalent to full dose ranitidine; there is no reason to think that EVERY horse needs the maximum dose of the strongest medicine all the time. In fact there is one good reason to NOT use the full dose of omeprazole for prolonged periods, and that is the problem of acid rebound, as has been discussed here ad nauseam. 
Just feed Chia Seed. Cheaper :winkgrin:
I love the discussion here in forum. I learned so much. Thank you guys!
Okay, I ordered the free trial.
How soon sill I see a change?
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