Had to buy ulcetguard the other day and was shocked that my local shop was charging 50.00 a tube! Online looks like it’s about 41.00? What is going on? Any good deals out there? Looks like no rebates either. It’s like the equivalent of Ozempic for horses, price wise.
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I make vets angry by recommending Abler as an alternative. Their paste is much less expensive. Same stuff.
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This is why the only UlcerGard I’ve ever owned was given to me by a wealthy friend who was going to replace an aging batch of 20-something tubes. (They weren’t that aged, still well-within expiration dates.)
Generally, I use Costco omeprazole tablets. My TB thinks they are rice bran and gobbles up the 9-14 pills I add to his snack. Never more than five dollars per dose.
I learned to do this on this forum a decade ago. You can find the drug per kilogram of horse’s weight calculation in several places here w/ a search for omeprazole.
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A syringe of gastrogard or ulcergard contains 2.28 grams of omeprazole, or 114 of the Costco omeprazole pills you’ve linked.
One quarter of that, to hit the ulcergard “prevent” dose, is 28.5 of the Costco omeprazole pills you’ve linked.
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My horse is currently on a maintenance dose of abler but I’m not too sure if it’s working or not.
The dosage I used when treating a horse in obvious distress turns out to be the same one as is on the UlcerGard website: 1 mg per kg of horse.
A 1000 lb horse is about 450 kg means 450 mg, so stress-time dose is 22-ish pills. That comes to $7 per dose instead of $12.50, assuming a $50 syringe, a savings of 56 percent. The Costco package would have to be over $30 to make it not worth a try.
I use a lower dose occasionally for a few days when my horse, who has no sign of chronic distress, is traveling or under a temporary strain. It seems to have a good effect.
Maybe the placebo effect is strong. 
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That dosage is the “prevention” dose. 1/4 tube. The UlcerGard site can ONLY give you that number because it’s not labeled for treatment.
Treatment dose of GastroGard is 1.8mg/POUND of body weight, nearly quadruple the amount of UlcerGard.
ETA just pointing out math. Not arguing with what is or isn’t working for a particular horse.
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I buy Ulcergard/Gastrgard from Valley Vet. It may be pricey but it heals and prevents.
Ahh. Interesting. Thanks.
A decade ago, I dosed a distressed 17.3 hh aged Irish Draught at about 1.5 mg per kg of OTC omeprazole. In those days, the gap between anything for horses and humans was even larger than today. It worked like magic. I also added alfalfa to his routine and turned him out.
I’ve rarely been in a position to try the expensive thing first. For sure, if it hadn’t worked, I would have switched to the equine medications. Maybe I’ve just been lucky.
As my statistician friend would say about my purely anecdotal experience: N=1.
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1 mg per kg is a prevent dose for a horse with no gastric ulcers, to prevent gastric ulcers.
If you look at the Gastrogard package insert, which is the medication labeled to treat gastric ulcers, the dose is 4 mg per kg.
Treating a 1000 lb horse with the Costco omeprazole at 4 mg/kg to match the Gastrogard treatment dose requires 91 20 mg capsules, for just short of $35/day.
If you were to purchase Ulcergard/Gastrogard at $41/tube and use only 1000# of that tube, it would cost $32.80 to treat 1000# of horse per day.
You could hit the dose you’re using for less dollars purchasing ulcergard–it’s less per mg than the Costco omeprazole.
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Nexium. It is OTC, a “cousin” of Omeprazole, and it works. There is a HUGE thread here on this forum - Esomeprazole (Nexium) for equine ulcers
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Which form are you using? I have heard that the Abler sachets or “blue pop rocks” are not as effective as the paste.
It’s big $$$. However, I’ll say this: it works. I’ve had some success with shortening the treatment time, Vets in my area seem to recommend 28 days, with tapering after that. I have done that and also went for a shorter 21 day treatment, with only a few taper days after that. Yup, big $$$. Yup, very grateful to have a medication that works.
unless you scope, you can’t know that < 28/30 days is effective.
Dr Ben Sykes’ research shows there’s no benefit to tapering, as a dose < 4mg/kg has variable effect (he said in his video “it’s not a dimmer switch” lol)
As well, the issue with the rebound is first that it doesn’t even start until you stop the drug, but then thankfully it’s very short-lived, like 2-3 days, so if you manage the horse in a very stress-less way (no riding/showing, normal turnout, etc) you can make the rebound pretty much a non-issue.
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I have found Omega Alpha’s Gastra FX to be a helpful preventative supplement for gastro troubles (colic and ulcers). But this is based purely on my own observations, no vet confirmation.
Abler paste works. I’ve used it twice on two different horses.
