NO on the Omelene…
The best feed for an ulcer prone horse is one with as little grain as possible - like Triple Crown Sr. Another great one would be Seminole Wellness Sr, or Compete Safe. You can add Beet Pulp, Flax, Alfalfa (especially great for tummies) and Cool Calories or Cocosoya Oil as needed for weight.
How much Ultium is he eating right now?
My horses thrive on Compete Safe (Seminole).
If you are unhappy with the Ultium and looking for something different, Nutrena makes a product that is low NSC/high fat that people absolutely love around here; it comes in a black bag and is a high fat performance extruded pellet. I believe it is 13% fat. Ask the rep about it.
I really like buckeye eq8. It has pro biotics already in the feed which is good for strengthening the stomach. My horse is doing really well on it. But you might not get it in your area.
I had the ultimate colicker and it took years and many, many vets and trials to figure out what makes him healthy. He is on a forage only diet with a handful of a&m, vitamin supp, and his pop rocks. He lives on 4 flakes of alfalfa a day along with a flake of grass hay am/pm. Without the alfalfa he had a colic episode within the hour. Very pulp made him gassy and any type of grain or complete feed upset his tummy. He also gets gastro guard 1/4 tube for any major weather changes, environment changes, or travel. He is a special one, but one of the best hunters and most fun animals I have ever ridden 
worth every sleepless night !
My OTTB eventer is ulcery. I have him on soaked alfalfa pellets and TC Complete. I make the pellets soupy then stir in the TC so the whole thing is the consistency of pea soup, not mashed potatoes I don’t know if this is a good prevent-ulcer-diet but he is thriving on it. He’s blindingly shiny, keeps his weight well and gobbles up his meals. I feed him 3xday. He has a full hay net over night and grass during the day. I supplement with a cup of oil in every meal along with U-7 by FinishLine. When we drive to Aiken I set him up with 2 weeks of UlcerGuard. Knock wood, so far this seems to be working well for us. He has been on this diet for 6 years.
For an ulcer horse I’d be doing free choice forage. Saliva works as a buffer for stomach acid, so the more the horse is chewing the more buffer gets into the stomach. You might have to fiddle with the best way to deliver this. My mare wastes her hay if it’s in a pile, if it’s in a small hole hay net she cleans up every piece.
I’d do a ration balancer and fat supplement instead of a grain, because there’s more of what he does need and less of what he doesn’t. I really like Nutrena Empower Balance for a ration balancer. Empower Boost, the fat supplement, has been formulated to go with the Balance.
[QUOTE=SuckerForHorses;7205179]
Is more turnout possible? Being in a stall for 14-16 hours a day would have my ulcer prone mare climbing the walls.[/QUOTE]
I would let him stay out longer but when he has been out for a while and he knows its time to come in, he will start to pace and then run if he is not brought in. Once inside, he quietly goes to munching on hay, etc.
He knows his schedule so - to add no more stress - I stick to it.
He always has access to grass or hay.
My horse is doing great on Seminole Perform Safe. He has a nibble net slow-feeder as well. I have just ordered SmartGut ulcer supplement after completing treatment with GG and hopefully this keeps it all in check.
Feed store employee here! Im sorry your store keeps running out, but we stores are at the mercy of our suppliers, but they should know when to order more. Also, as a feed store employee, im gonna give you the scoop. I just went to a purina training and they are coming out with 3 new products specifically for gastric care!
My ulcer prone horse currently gets Purina Ultium as his concentrate, but he also gets alfalfa pellets + beet pulp pellets (the latter soaked of course). Lately in the way of straight forage I’ve been feeding him the alfalfa/grass compressed bales from TSC…but if I can ever again find some good O&A at a good price, I may switch back to that. The last bales of loose O&A I bought ended up making him very gassy & causing him to colic (& this horse, although he does have digestive issues w/ the ulcers, had NEVER colicked before in his whole life), so I stepped off feeding that for a while & have been sticking to the compressed bales.
I’m currently unable to afford omeprazole treatment, but he gets Aloe Vera juice in his beet pulp, and what I’ve found works wonders for him is Probios – he gets about 10g of that each day as well.
He had a bad ulcer flare-up this past fall/winter, but he seems to be doing really well now.
Old thread! Hope the OP has figured out what works for her horse, since it’s been about four years :lol:
Goodness gracious! o.o
thanks for pointing this out!
I replied today – I was in a bit of a rush to get going out of the house this morning, and only saw that there was a new reply or two. Hah! Normally I’m pretty good about checking the date on the OP…guess I done screwed up today. Oopsy. xP
This is always a ‘timely topic’ though!
My Southern States dealer here does not carry the TC Complete but would order if I asked them to. I decided that I preferred to use an item they normally stock The Legends Carbcare Performance pelleted form is low NSC, < 14% and high fat to the tune of 10%.
Are these going to be feeds? Some sort of supplement? I don’t know if I would actually feed a Purina product since I’m so happy with Triple Crown but this is very interesting news!
A Purina ad for these came up on my Facebook feed. One is a supplement - called Outlast. Designed to be top dressed over feed or fed as a treat. The other is called Ultium something-or-other, maybe Ultium Gastric Care. Looks like the Outlast was added to the Ultium. I’m interested too, since one of my horses is currently being treated for ulcers.
I’m usually not a big Purina fan, but I have had enormous success with their Bright Minds dog food for my senior dog. All of my dog breeder and competitor friends (and I have lots) are feeding this to their oldsters. It is amazing stuff. So, obviously Purina has some great resources for specialty feeds. It’s a real game changer.
I saw the add too! I was thinking about starting a thread to see if anyone has tried the new line yet. It took some looking for me to find the ingredients list and I still couldn’t find the NSC. The Outlast supplement seems to just be alfalfa pellets with calcium added. I could be wrong though. However, I’m glad to see a very mainstream company is identifying that this is a section of the market that they should be producing feed for.
OP has probably sold the horse, changed disciplines and moved since she/he started this but I enjoy reading it. It also takes me down memory lane of feeds that I have tried…why did I switch from Carb Guard to Triple Crown?? No memory. I have decided to keep a record of what food I switched to and why. I so appreciate everyone’s contributions to these threads.
Another here who bought a tb that the person could not put weight on and admitted after I bought him that he had ulcers in the past. She sold him because she could not ride him unless he was ridden at least 3 times a week.
I brought him out here, took him off all feeds and supplements and he is eating grass and hay. He is fat. It doesn’t matter if he has time off with my workload. He is perfect to ride.
Feed on ground only. Give half a biscuit of lurcerne. (Half a flake of afalfa ) before work or travelling if not out on grass.
It is not normal for a horse to not want to eat a biscuit of lucerne. You will know you have fixed the problem when he wants to eat it.
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