Thanks Simkie. The only reason I even joined this forum is because of this thread. So my join date has been around the time of when his problems started. Now that his saddles are sorted I’ll get him some body work and try the ranitidine.
He would need 27 pills for the 4.5mg/lb. He is fed his supplements at 4pm. Do I do 27 pills twice a day or do half of the 27 pills twice a day for a total of 27 pills? I could give him a little something in the morning and then feed his supplements later in the evening. He lives at home with me.
Every dose is 4.5mg/lb
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Is there any harm in splitting the dose so they get 1/2 in the am and 1/2 in their pm grain? For example my horse has supplements that he gets am and pm so theoretically could I do 2 pills am and 2 pills pm?
If I did the math correctly, 60 days of ranitidine with 54 pills per day would only cost $134. That’s awesome!
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Yep, it’s pretty cheap! Walmart or Costco usually has the best price. Keep us posted on how your horse does on it!
One product similar to Platinum Balance (the pre and probiotics one) is HorseTech’s Gutwerks.
For those who are having trouble getting the horse off the PPIs, I’ve been there too. What finally worked for me was using Succeed. I tried just about everything else and had balked at the price of it. I did the challenge and then kept the horse on the granules for a long time. I’d buy a big bucket off of Heartland Vet Supply when they’d have a coupon. I’d double the scoops anytime I reintroduced a PPI even for preventative purposes (e.g, vet work, trailering, stressful events). Finally able to get the horse off that now too (for now…lol).
A friend of mine who has a constant rehab case kind of a horse also has struggled with ulcers and periodic flare ups given how much time the horse has had to be on stall rest or had vet treatments. She was recently introduced to the Dynamite products. They are mostly known for free choice minerals products. They also have a clay that can be used either topically as a poultice or internal for gastric support. Last rounds of bad behaviors, she has gone to this product and seen improvement without having to go to PPIs. So, it seems like it could also help if you are dealing with some discomfort not related to active ulcerations. She says the price point is pretty good. I might try that the next time I have a need.
Hi!
Going to try this myself. Gelding is girthy, flank sensitive, and cranky off and on. He’s been also getting bute off and on…
Just bought Nexium at target for $24 on the name brand. No off brands were available that weren’t Omeprazole.
I noticed the 14-day treatment plan for humans listed on the box. I am curious why you decided to do the 4 weeks + 2 tapering weeks instead of treating for 14-days @Simkie ? I swear I read all 25 pages of this forum and I didn’t see it. Of course, I could have missed it!
In trying to stick with the 14-day plan AND the human instructions, I thought:
5 days x 3 pills
5 days x 2 pills
4 days x 1 pill
Side note: the instructions do say you should see results in 1-4 days for anyone not seeing an immediate response. Not saying it’ll necessarily be the case but I did just read that on the box
Also: It says you can repeat this once every 4 months safely. Again, for humans – but to anyone wondering about retreating.
So glad to see this thread is alive years later!
@tipzythegreat 30 days + taper is modeled after the gastrogard treatment model. 14 days is generally considered insufficient to treat equine ulcers. Hell, 30 days even isn’t enough for some horses.
Horses aren’t humans. Look to the literature on treating equine gastric ulcers.
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My update - my TB is now fully off the omeprezole. He was still lean, and not shedding so despite a Powerpak in March I dewormed him with Equimax at the end of May. I also decided that for the past gazillion years if I had a lean TB, beet pulp fixed it. So his diet is now pasture grass, beet pulp, alfalfa cubes and oats. He’s not interested in hay if he’s on pasture and they are out nearly 24/7. He gets grass hay if he’s inside. And some Vita Flex Accel vitamins and a squirt of Ushield.
He still sometimes tells me he doesn’t like being groomed but he’s back to being a worker bee and generally happy boy. The weight came on within a week of the beet pulp, and he finished shedding too.
I will call this a successful endeavor and hope that the current diet (oh, and lack of serious injury and pain) will keep his tummy happy for the future.
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Hi everyone!
I have a WB with possible suspected ulcers (no scope).
My coach advised me to treat as a just in case measure- his behaviour was a little ulcer-y and she figures its likely as the woman who had in before kept him stalled 24/7. I found this thread (thankfully) when I was looking for an alternative to gastroguard ($$$$).
Im in Canada as we just recently have Nexium available OTC.
14 capsules for $14. BUT Right now I have $5 off coupons SOO 4 weeks of treatment only costs $54 
Today is his 5th day of treatment on 3 capsules/day sitting on top of his AM feed and he eats them no problem (which is great).
Ppl at the barn thinks its a waste of $ because its not designed for horses and they figure that if it worked everyone here would be using it, but Ive read this whole threa. d and the articles attached and feel pretty confident.
I had a question though, a woman at the barn said that the Nexium will never work because it does not have the special coating it needs for the medicine to only become active when it reaches the stomach. (This particular woman works in the hospital with meds, maybe as pharmacist or something)
But I thought I read here that it does have an enteric coating which keeps the capsules intact until they reach the hind gut?
Im just looking for some clarification so I can explain myself a little better.
Thanks @Simkie for your research and everyone else for your contributions
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@Steel September Nexium is protected–it needs to be for people, too It’s either buffered inside the capsule, or the capsule itself is the enteric protection. The literature that comes with the Nexium here in the US says that you are not to open the capsule, so it’s probably the capsule itself that’s providing the protection.
But yes–there is definitely something protecting it. If there weren’t, it wouldn’t work for people, either.
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If that’s really how she worded it - special coating it needs for the medicine to only become active when it reaches the stomach - then I really hope she’s not a pharmacist.
The point of the buffering or enteric coating of these types of medications is so they DON’T become “active” in the stomach, that they exit the stomach intact where they can be absorbed into the system to do the work that way. They do not act ON the stomach. The stomach acid will destroy them.
There’s actually something that’s above my pay grade about these drugs needing activation by stomach acid:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3548122/
Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) is a prodrug which is activated by acid. Activated PPI binds covalently to the gastric H[SUP]+[/SUP], K[SUP]+[/SUP]-ATPase via disulfide bond.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855237/
PPIs are acid-activated prodrugs that convert to sulfenic acids or sulfenamides that react covalently with one or more cysteines accessible from the luminal surface of the ATPase.
The PPIs are prodrugs. These prodrugs require gastric acid secretion to be converted to the active sulfenamide or sulfenic acid that blocks gastric acid secretion.
So pharmacy boarding friend may not be wrong, but we definitely DO know that Nexium has the protection it needs to do whatever it’s supposed to because ta-da, it works for people. :yes:
I need way more dummy-down on this LOL
I find this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esomeprazole(I know, I know!)
“Oral esomeprazole preparations are enteric-coated, due to the rapid degradation of the drug in the acidic conditions of the stomach.”
I take all this to mean that yes, it needs acid, but not the very low pH of the stomach which works to destroy the chemicals
LOL I didn’t speak directly with this particular woman. She saw an empty bottle in the garbage and had this discussion with another woman at the barn … and it was relayed to me.
& Thank you both!!
My last post got lost in unapproved land, so trying again and summarizing
A medical page - will have to find it later - did talk about needing acid to activate, but my overall impression was that the very low pH of the stomach causes rapid degradation of the chemicals/drugs themselves, so they need to survive that and get back to the lower acid/higher pH environment of the hind gut, where the buffering/enteric coating will have been degraded enough, and the (es)omeprazole can then be activated by that acid.
But I do need more dumbing down of that to really understand it better.
I just can’t imagine why all the trouble to go through buffering or enteric coating these things would be needed, if the active ingredients needed the stomach acid to activate. Sucralfate OTOH does require that higher acid to do its thing.
After reading the original posts from 2017, I used esomeprazole on my gelding when he developed ulcer symptoms concurrently with a sinus infection. I only used 2 capsules per day and I put them in some leftover empty gelatin capsules I had from giving him Prascend tablets (size 2). I figured it was a nice “second layer of protection” to get meds into him intact. The size 2 capsules are slightly bigger than the esomeprazole capsules, and are overall no bigger than a small piece of hay pellet. Worked great.
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Love this thread. Started the Ol Man on this today. Three mini capsules in his feed. He has been spooky for a while. With all the stressors he’s gone through, ulcers were suggested. Will report back.
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