Yep! No judgement here or explanation needed–we’ve all been there! I hope surgery is successful :yes:
Brought her home from surgery and started treatment today - ate the pills in her grain with no issues. This is good as she never eats her grain as well as I’d like when I put Abler granules in it (even only 1 packet!). Bought the generic version from Costco (42 capsules for $14!) and will do 30 days at 3/day followed by 1 week on 2/day, then 1 week at 1/day. Total cost $45.
Yay! Glad she approves!
It’s crazy just how inexpensive it is with the generic, isn’t it?!
Looking for ideas.
June 29 - Started on Nexium, 3 pills. Moved to new barn on July 1st.
July 8 - Started the weaning period
August 1 - Started back on 3 pills because horse wasn’t settling into the new barn well. Since the 1st, horse is super happy and doesn’t pace.
We are currently on the 3rd week of the 3 pills/day.
But, he is going to a new barn on the 10th as the current barn just isn’t working out well.
I can’t decide what to do with the transition.
Has anyone had their horse on the 3 pills/day for more than 1 month?
I’m thinking since he will be on this for more than 1 month, I’m going to extend the weaning period to more than 1 week each.
He is also getting outlast right now to make sure ulcers don’t come back.
I’d not worry about leaving on the 3 pill/day dose for more than a month. Horses are kept on omeprazole for extended periods of time. Sometimes it’s even necessary to heal stubborn cases. Extending the weaning period is a good idea.
Using a buffer (Outlast) plus the Nexium is overkill. You’re already raising the pH of the stomach with the PPI–you don’t need to raise it more. Would be better to drop the Outlast until you’ve weaned from the nexium, or perhaps add it in when you go to one pill.
Sorry the new barn didn’t work out! That sounds stressful for everyone
I’m moving my horse Sept 1 and hes an ulcer prone OTTB (insert eyeroll emoji…good thing hes cute!)
Usually when I haul I buy a tube of ulcerguard and give him 1/4 of the tube before during and after as a preventative.
I was planning on doing something similiar with the move (starting a few days before and for 10 days after). After reading this I was thinking of using nexium instead. However, I realize this nexium discussion is less of a preventative and more of a treatment? Now I’m wondering if I could give him generic omperazol tablets as a preventative? Would likely be cheaper and easier to give as I could add to his daily supplement container vs. going out every day to administer ulcer guard.
Thoughts?
Dosing generic omeprazole tablets is more expensive than a tube of gastrogard so I don’t think you save money, even at a “prevent” dose.
I will use 2 or 3 Nexium short term for preventative. Did this the last time I knew horse was going to have steroid injections and a few days of bute. I think for that event, I did 3 for several days then tapered to 2 given how bad a flare he had had to that type of event the previous couple of times. Seemed to do fine.
This thread comes at a great moment for me.
So, just to confirm:
4 weeks at 3 20mg capsules per day
1 week at 2 20 mg capsules per day
1 week at 1 20 mg capsule per day
Is this correct?
Thank you!
It’s not omeprazole. It’s Nexium - cant remember the actual name. The full treatment is under $50 using WalMart Generic Capsules.
YOu can’t use omeprazole because it does not survive the acidic stomach to get to the area of the gut where it is absorbed.
Started my 8 y/o OTTB on the Nexium today. He’s been rehabbing for the last 15 months for a bowed tendon. He’s been cleared to start under saddle but that hasn’t happened yet because of time constraints.
He seemed fine when he started going out back in January, then after I boarded a couple of mares for a friend for a couple of weeks he started being very aggressive towards my other gelding and giving the morning person a hard time at breakfast. I suspected maybe the stress of having the mares there flared up some ulcers so I started him on GUT. He seemed to get a little better but still beating up on the other gelding a bit. Up until about 3 weeks ago it was just missing hair, then it came to a point where I was worried he was going to seriously hurt him when he started taking chunks of flesh. I had stopped the GUT because I was changing some things around nutritionally. I also thought maybe it could be some excess testosterone going on but this aggression only seemed to be directed toward my other gelding and the morning person. Not me, my husband, the dog, my 4 year old son or the pony gelding.
I called the chiropractor who who also does acupuncture and practices eastern medicine. Q was sore everywhere and he suspected his liver Qui was out so we put him on Liver Happy. He said the liver and stomach go hand in hand so we’ll start there first. He just finished the liver happy a couple of days ago. His aggression towards Boy seems to have subsided but he will still swish his tail and get very agitated if I run my hand along his belly toward his sheath.
I dropped 3 Nexium on top of his feed and he gobbled then right up. I’m crossing my fingers this works for him because I can not afford gastrogard.
Would it help to keep him on the GUT during treatment or should I stop that?
You realize I started this thread, right?
I was responding to reithme who was asking about the possibility of treating with generic omeprazole.
Do you think that people don’t have the same acidic environment? People omeprazole is coated or buffered to survive the stomach. The problem is the equine dose is huge compared to the human dose of omeprazole. The cost to treat a horse using the people med is very high.
Yes :yes:
Sometimes I will extend the 1 pill/day taper to two weeks depending on how I feel the horse is doing.
well sorry.
Day 3 on 3 Nexium a day and Q’s chewing and sucking on his tongue less. He also has not put a mark on Boy in over a week. He also seems overall more comfortable.
So I saw this post two weeks ago and immediately started my 4yo NSH on three pills each evening. He has always been a hard keeper, leaves his food, super picky, nervous nelly. I saw improvement on the second day. It’s been two weeks now and he is eating better, grazing more, have been able to reduce his feed, and he isn’t as bad about pacing the fence when the mares are out of sight. I suspected tummy issues previously, and he had been on ultium gastric care for a while to help with his tummy. Apparently it wasn’t helping as much as I thought.
How long do people normally give this? Let’s assume he had some ulcers since scoping is difficult in my rural area. Two months? What then aside from weaning off?
I switched him off the gastric care because I found out that my feed store was selling feed from July 2017. He is now on safe choice perform, alfalfa pellets, and rice bran. Would skip the safe choice but he dislikes alfalfa pellets and rice bran alone. He is getting about 5qt SC, 3qt pelllets, 1.5qt rice bran plus magnesium, salt, copper, and zinc. He is fed that amount twice a day. I am hoping to increase the alfalfa pellets and decrease the safe choice, but that is a slow process with him.
Using gastrogard as a guide, “standard” treatment length would be a month.
So try to wean off at a month and then see how he does? Add a gastro supplement to be safe? If so, any recommendations?
That’s how most of us proceed, yep. My own goal is no gastro support, but I’ve used Uckele’s GUT and like it.
Looking at what you feed, that Safe Choice Perform is quite high on NSC. Some horses do very poorly and get ulcery on that much sugar. Swapping out for a low NSC grain might be useful.