Blue Pop Rocks for ulcers: I won't buy them again.

[Winding_Down]

I was introduced to Blue Pop Rocks for ulcer treatment here and was overwhelmed with the positive reviews.

AbPrazole™

Well, I won’t be buying them again. Last winter, I had my UL horse on three packets per day (2 am and 1 pm) for six weeks and he subsequently began showing signs of ulcers (nervous, anxious under saddle). I had him scoped and he had moderate to almost severe ulcers very evident in the scope.

Vet put him on gastrogard and he scoped clean 3 weeks later.

So the pop rocks did not prevent or cure the ulcers and the gastrogard did…

Anyone else have evidence for the effectiveness or lack thereof via scoping? Needless to say, I won’t be ordering from abler again.

[JB]

You used them incorrectly. The dose is just like UG/GG - feed it all at once.

That said, there are some situations where the horse does better with UG/GG

I’m confused by the timeline - you put him on the Alber, and THEN he started showing signs? 3 packets is a treatment dose for a good range of larger horses so the assumption for me is you were trying to treat already known or suspected ulcers.

[SuckerForHorses]

You didn’t scope prior to starting the pop rocks so you really have no idea if they helped or not.

Its possible the ulcers were very bad, you started pop rocks, fed for 6 weeks, then scoped, and the ulcers were still there but better than before.

[monstrpony]

Also, how exactly were you feeding them? You do have to be a bit careful to keep the enteric coating intact …

[Winding_Down]

I started him on them prior to his showing any sort of behavioral signs and I put him on 3x the prevention dose. I did this because we were beginning to travel and compete and he had shown behavioral signs of ulcers in the summer of 2013. His behaviors emerged after the pop rocks as ntoed above (he began getting nervous under saddle) so I took him in and had him scoped. He scoped moderate to severe. We put him on gastrogard and he then scoped clean after 3 weeks.

It is possible he had ulcers prior to being put back into work and he just did not show the behavioral signs. That seems unlikely but one cannot really evaluate the effectiveness of ulcer treatment/prevention without a definitive diagnostic, i.e., scoping.

I did not soak his feed as I am fully aware that the enteric coating can be compromised.

[JB]

But you didn’t have him on 3x the prevention dose. You fed him once a day with 2x the prevention dose, and then once a day with 1x the prevention dose.

Prevention doesn’t mean “100% prevention” Prevention doses decrease the stomach acid by a little bit, so the odds of developing ulcers are lessened. Lessened, not eliminated. Even your 2x prevention dose feeding didn’t reduce the acid in the way the full treatment dose does.

You can’t say the Abler didn’t cure the ulcers, because you didn’t use them to cure anything, only to help prevent.

I’m assuming you used a full treatment dose of the GG to cure the issue, and not the 1/4 tube prevention dose.

[Winding_Down]

right. he was on 2x the prevention dose but maybe he had them before then. He was put on 1 full tube of ggard for one month and then tapered down to 1/4 tube per day and has shown no signs since then. His ulcers for the first scoping were “moderate to severe.”

[Marshfield]

[QUOTE=Winding Down;7641682]
right. he was on 2x the prevention dose but maybe he had them before then. He was put on 1 full tube of ggard for one month and then tapered down to 1/4 tube per day and has shown no signs since then. His ulcers for the first scoping were “moderate to severe.”[/QUOTE]

I’d think you were correct in concluding that the “Pop rocks” were useless. He was asymptomatic, you put him on prevention as a precaution only to have him develop pretty significant ulcers.

[JB]

One could have done the same thing with the 1/4 or even a 1/2 dose of UG/GG and had the same thing happen.

The prevention does is not a guarantee. For the horse to have come up with severe ulcers after 6 weeks of a prevention dose does not mean the product itself is a failure. It simply means that horse had issues greater than a prevention dose could correct.

I bet you could have put him on the correct treatment dose of Abler and gotten the same results as the full dose of the GG.

[stryder]

I agree with JB. The Abler product has worked for many of us. The OP’s under medication is an insufficient reason to claim that they didn’t work.

[Ambitious_Kate]

I agree. Under medicating then claiming they don’t work is a head scratcher. I have used the Abler pop rocks on a horse with severe symptoms and had him in great shape at the end of the ‘treatment’ phase of 3 packs at once in the morning.

[Winding_Down]

LOL

[Winding_Down]

[QUOTE=Marshfield;7641706]
I’d think you were correct in concluding that the “Pop rocks” were useless. He was asymptomatic, you put him on prevention as a precaution only to have him develop pretty significant ulcers.[/QUOTE]

I put him on 3x the prevention dose… I am not negating others positive results. I’m just reporting my less than positive results. Thank you.

[CatchMeIfUCan]

…except you didn’t follow instructions.

[JB]

[QUOTE=Winding Down;7641857]
I put him on 3x the prevention dose… I am not negating others positive results. I’m just reporting my less than positive results. Thank you.[/QUOTE]

But you DIDN’T having him a 3x prevention dose.

Abler is meant to be fed once a day, all of the dose. You split it 2/3 and 1/3. So at best you only ever fed a 2x prevention dose, then a 1x prevention dose.

Prevention doses are not guarantees.

Now, if you had fed him at a full treatment dose of 3 packets once a day, and you still ended up with moderate to severe ulcers, then you could say the product failed, but only for that horse. There are indeed some horses for whom the Abler just doesn’t work as well, for whatever reason. So yes, it did not do anything for your horse, but don’t keep saying “but I had him on a 3x prevention dose” because you didn’t.

[rcloisonne]

After a couple of days, it really shouldn’t have mattered when she fed the Abler product though. 2100 mg of Omeprazole per 24 hours should have done the trick (although why the OP split the dose has not been explained).

I don’t think she should be jumped on for reporting her experience. How much evidence do we have the Abler product works other than anecdotal?

[JB]

I don’t see anything wrong with stating it didn’t work. Others have had even full treatment doses not do the job, or not do it well enough, for their horse.

I do see a lot wrong with stating “but I used a 3x prevention dose” when clearly that is not the case.

I do see a lot wrong with assuming that a similar dose of UG/GG wouldn’t have allowed the situation to occur.

A given situation didn’t work. Don’t extrapolate that into another situation.

[Winding_Down]

I’m sorry. I thought that the prevention dose was 1 packet per day. I fed 3 packets per day. My bad…

[stryder]

And depending upon how much your horse weighs, the actual treatment dose may have been 4 packets. Fed all at once.

Still, I’m happy that your horse is doing better.

[JB]

[QUOTE=Winding Down;7641966]
I’m sorry. I thought that the prevention dose was 1 packet per day. I fed 3 packets per day. My bad… ;-)[/QUOTE]
The prevention dose is however many packets the site says, which is based on the weight of the horse. For most horses that’s 1 a day

however, you are still supposed to feed the whole dose - whether prevention or treatment - a single feeding. You were feeding a prevention dose twice day. All you did was use a prevention dose. That doesn’t work for all horses.

The way you fed it was not a treatment dose, so it wouldn’t have cured anything that might have been there.

I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. Just don’t make the implication it wouldn’t have still happened if you’d used GG/UG.