Been a long time since I’ve posted here, but I had a question regarding digestive enzymes as I can’t seem to find a clear answer online!
Recently, my mare has been (re)diagnosed with ulcers… ugh. We’re going about a 8-week treatment plan, 4 week of Gastroguard followed by 4 weeks of sucralfate. We’ve recently moved barns so there are a plethora of reasons as to why she might have them again. My guess is on the lack of free choice hay (or quality of hay in general) from previous barn and having long periods of time where she went without consuming hay because, well, she’s picky.
Moving forward, we’re looking at options on how to prevent them after treatment ceases. We’re looking at keeping her on Gastroguard when travelling or at shows, adding a hay net to her stall to slow down her feeding (she really enjoys hay at new barn and another plus… we get it steamed!) as well as looking into another pre/probiotic and digestive supplement for her.
I’ve had her on the MadBarn Optimum Probiotic and after doing some research, have realized that we also need a "Pre"biotic as well. So now I have a couple of options. Looking into Assureguard Gold (only available in the states, I am in Canada, but we have a bit of a workaround) and another one of MadBarn’s products - Optimum Digestive Health Pellets. After using the comparison calculator, it looks like Assureguard only has one thing on the digestive health pellets and that is total enzyme activity, which looks something like 2647U/kg for Assureguard and 200U/kg for the MadBarn pellets. Unfortunately, I don’t know much of what this means or how important it is in the realm of ulcer prevention. Otherwise, MadBarn has a lot more active bacteria/yeast in their formula.
In addition to this, I was also looking at putting her on the Equine Choice Pre/Probiotic, which would add additional bacteria/yeast and another 250U/kg of enzymes. Even with the MadBarn/Equine Choice paired, they are significantly more cost effective than the Assureguard.
Does anyone have any experience with the digestive supplements listed? Even better, know how much of an impact the enzymes have on ulcer prevention, if any? Thanks in advance for anyone who has knowledge on the matter! I will also be asking my vet to clarify.
