Cool, WNT! Tell us about the generic you were able to find–I haven’t turned anything up but the Nexium! :yes:
Well, maybe I didn’t grab the right thing though it appears to be working, but Walmart has their store brand right with the Nexium and Prevacid. Of course I left the box and bottles in my trunk at the barn, but I can grab it next time I go out.
So…has anyone tried this on their donkey? My BLM burro has basically been untouchable/uninterested/a little cranky since he arrived. I suspect he’s just being a donkey, but he’s also the stressed type.
Horses aren’t donks, so I don’t want to jump into this headlong without at least a thought from the COTH mind.
If there isn’t a reason to try it out on him, I’ll probably start throwing a single pill into his once daily handful of Gro’n’Win and see how that goes for a couple weeks.
So it turns out I had grabbed the regular omeprazole, not esomeprazole. However, I saw such a dramatic improvement in his attitude and weight, that I stuck it out with the generic omeprazole tablets and he’s now on the draw down period.
I’ve been using Nexium on the ulcer queen once again for our move from Tennessee to Maryland. I started her on it a few days prior to shipping and she has handled the move much better than I could have ever anticipated. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. She eats the caps like candy… she’s been slurping them up out of my hand the past couple days. This mare won’t even take most treats out of your hand.
I’m not sure you’ll be able to get me to buy pop rocks or UG/GG again now!
I don’t really know much about donkeys, but if you use GastroGard on them like horses, I would think everything we’ve talked about here would be transferable in the same way. Good luck, and let us know how it goes! 
:yes:
Glad to hear you’ve seen improvement! I don’t know if there’s any data that suggests such a low dose of omeprazole is effective, like there is with the Nexium, but hey–if it works for you, it works for you 
Wahoo!
And yeah, I feel the same way about the other options now. Effective, cheap, and readily available? Sign me up!
I’ve been following this thread for a while and decided to try Nexium Clear Minis on our 1900+lb draft gelding. We give him 5 a day.
Without ranitidine or omeprazole,he usually refuses to eat grain at horse shows then returns home refusing grain (but always eats his hay) and refusing to canter on the right lead. Dosing with ranitidine 3 times a day is a pain in the butt. Ulcergaurd/Gastrogaurd for a 1900lb horse is cost prohibitive. (though my vet has had results from using half a tube on regular size horses and is pretty sure we’d get results from 1 tube of Gastrogaurd a day with the big boy)
Nexium hits the sweet spot of ease of use plus cost effectiveness. Our big boy ate his Nexium all weekend at the show and ate his grain all weekend and came home with a happy tummy and a right lead canter.
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Is everyone dosing 3 per day, with exception of Goforward and her 1900# biggun (that’s big! what kind of draft is he?) receiving 5 per day?
Goforward, that’s so great about coming home with a happy tummy AND a right lead canter!
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My horse has been getting 3 per day up until a few days ago when we moved him to a new barn and a little misunderstanding caused him to get 6 per day. He’s totally fine from getting 6. 3 is probably sufficient though lol!
Color of Light, my big, oh so sensitive, boy is a registered Clydesdale. All 18.2 hands of him.
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Yes I used three clear minis per day. Mare is between 800-900 pounds
My STB gelding is finally done with his treatment! He was a pretty calm and relaxed guy when I got him, but you could tell something just wasn’t quite right, moreso than the “I’m confused” of starting under saddle.
Basically left him alone and treated for ulcers–he’s even better than before, and we managed our first real ride this week with zero drama. So happy to have learned about this!
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I was so excited after I read the study, I went right out the next day and bought a few bottles of nexium. I gave it to my gelding who wolfed 3 pills with a treat no problem. Within a few days he started to tolerate brushing way better, I was thrilled. Unfortunately he also started to develop hives within a few days. Sometimes he gets hives in the Spring so I wasn’t that concerned but the hives got progressively worse and worse. I stopped the nexium for one day and gave him dex and the hives were gone by the next morning. I’m really hoping that the hives were just a coincidence and not an allergic reaction. I really want to continue the nexium because I really do think it was helping. Has anyone had any similar experiences?
Weird, ERG!
Has he ever had omeprazole? Any hives with that, if so?
This is a great thread! I wish I tried this before the ulcerguard! Our vet told us to also give our horse one sweet potato a day from now on as it helps and we also put a cup of aloe vera water in his feed. We have seen a huge improvement! So for those horses who stress over the little things at the barn this too could possibly help! We have friends who give their horse sweet potatoes now too and said it seems to have helped as well. Just thought I would share
Question, each time I taper my mare off of the Nexium after a month of treatment she goes back to spooky crazy behavior, can I keep her on the Nexium for the whole summer?
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Like DPS, I am not able to to get off my 3 capsules/day of Nexium. Every time I try, symptoms come roaring back. (In all fairness, this happened with Ulcergard too.) Now he seems like he needs more than 3 capsules a day. He’s been on some version of PPI since the winter, when he dropped crazy amounts of weight. I’ve finally gotten his condition back to where it should be, but it’s clear his tummy is bothering him again. Starting to tear my hair out.
Keeping a horse on a PPI (Nexium or Gastrogard or whatever) is really probably a question for your vet. There are certainly risks associated with long-term use of these meds.
There are also other issues in the stomach that could be contributing to recurring or very slow to heal ulcers–like delayed gastric emptying syndrome. DGE would require different treatment instead of or in addition to a PPI.
Yeah. I’m going to keep with it until the end of September and then do some serious investigating. In the meantime, the Nexium is keeping him very comfortable at a fairly low cost. I just don’t really like the idea of him being on it forever and am itching to get him off it.
