@Simkie Sorry to hear about Dove! Doxy is VERY hard on their system, so it doesn’t surprise me. It can take awhile for them to be back to baseline after a round of it.
Hello, Just wanted to report in. My mare has been on Nexium 2 pills a day for two weeks and wow what a different horse. She is so much more relaxed and at peace and I’m having some great rides. No more spooking and planting feet, now she is focused and wants to work. I love this and so happy I read about this!!!
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ugh, anaplasmosis! it is the worst - jingles for Dove, I am sure that made her feel like crap. One of my TBs got it and honestly, his symptoms were so dramatic we thought he might be near the end. Lots of doxy pills and banamine later he was back to himself.
Poor Dove 
I learned the hard way too, about Doxy and stomachs - now anytime Doxy is involved I automatically include pre/probiotics and a ulcer supplement.
Just wanting to sympathize about the anaplasmosis. Last fall my wonderfuly gelding got it. He was so sick he almost died and all the skin on his legs (white) and nose (white) sloughed off. Then he grew in this really weird hair. IT was 6 months before his liver enzymes were normal, and he is just now beginning to be normal. Still underweight. He had lost almost a quarter of his body weight. Anaplasmosis is the worst!
Holy cow! Okay, I take it back–she wasn’t pretty damn sick. I had no idea it could be that bad, yikes! She just felt cruddy and was off her feed.
I’m glad to hear your horse is getting better! Dove is getting back to normal, too 
Blush is almost done with her taper–a week left of one pill/day, I think?–and has been fine throughout. Her symptoms were more minor, but I’m happy I treated her.
Interesting that you had elevated liver enzymes. My horse had anaplasmosis (treated with minocycline) in the fall and while his liver panel came back normal, his SDH was elevated. My gut got hit with anaplasmosis again (sigh) in March but I don’t think his SDH was affected this time around; I just recently had a CBC done which came back fine and his SDH came back normal.
It basically went straight to his liver. He was incredibly jaundiced, needed IV fluids and massive amounts of anti inflammatory es and antibiotics, he had photosensitiity in white skin which is why it sloughed off. He had to be fed literally by hand every mouthful for a couple of weeks. I am so grateful he lived.
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Bumping this up with my own Nexium anecdote
Background: I bought my mare last year (6 year old mustang with some gentling though not real halter broke, but used to people). She had to do 30 hours on the trailer and walked off of it looking like she needed a sandwich. I’m sure she had ulcers but no real way to test her or to treat her if she did. Instead I pulled her off all grain and she had a round bale of 1st cut all to herself.
I eased her on to Poulin Fibre Max (14% fat, 12% protein mostly just beet pulp) she gained weight I started working with her. She had beautiful dapples in the fall all was lovely.
Symptoms: Late winter/early spring she was a bit ribby and touchy, kind of a dull coat but she’s a grulla so hard to say if it really is more dull. I did a fecal and I stopped counting at 1000 strongyle ova and dewormed her with Equimaxx. She lives out 24/7 with five other horses all on free choice 1st cut. I upped her grain and added in hay cubes. After two weeks she is still ribby and now not standing to be groomed which is unusual for her. Touching her girth area behind the elbow and around her sternum were uncomfortable. Even with a soft brush she would swish her tail and flinch.
Treatment: I had some generic omeprazole leftover from when I had terrible food poisoning and subsequent ulceration. These are your typical 20g pills. I also bought some Nexium the 20g esomeprazole in the capsules. Mare is about 800lbs. I fed her one generic omeprazole and two esomeprazole every day.
I fed her the pills in soaked hay cubes that I let dry a bit, if that makes any sense. Now she is a busy eater and despite having her teeth done she drops feed when she looks up and wants to see whats going on. I eventually just fed her the pill/capsules in a handful of the soaked hay, by hand. I soaked the hay cubes to try and avoid her really grinding with the goal of the pills and capsules traveling intact to her gut.
I continued to decrease the dosage (I ran out of the generic omeprazole) just the two Nexium capsule for a week and then 1 capsule for the next week.
Results: By seven days she was no longer flinching and stood completely still to be cinched up, showed no signs of discomfort working with a saddle on. Her overall attitude was affected by her coming into a very loud heat cycle. I can’t say that esomprazole made her more calm but I would think her gut health has improved.
Disclaimer: I never had this mare scoped for ulcers! The flinchiness and discomfort around her girth area came about after changing around the herd she lived with. In my opinion (not a medical doctor or doctor of veterinary medicine) the esomeprazole helped decrease “girthiness.” And she is now certainly gaining weight back.
Hope this helps! I’m grateful for the idea to try Nexium!
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Here’s my Nexium experience so far. I’ve got two OTTB eventers, a 19 year old gelding and 6 year old mare. Both were exhibiting crankiness during girthing and grooming. Gelding was being a major grump about moving off the leg and mare would kick out frequently during jumping, and not in the playful/exuberant kind of way, more in the pissed off way. Started them on 3 capsules per day. It is quite easy to hand feed the capsules in a very small handful of their pelleted grain. They don’t notice the capsules at all. They are three weeks into treatment and the results thus far are positive. Both are much less reactive to grooming and girthing. Attitudes are more positive and relaxed under saddle. Their overall demeanors are content and cooperative. I have friends who are also trying Nexium and reporting similar results. I plan to do one more week of three pills and then wean them off it gradually over 3 weeks. I will report back after we are done, but I have to say so far so good!! Very pleased with results and you can’t beat the price.
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Interesting!
I just started ranitidine for my gelding, but he is is suspicious and doesn’t like the smell/taste. 20 150 mg pills 2x a day is a LOT to hide.
I might give this a shot.
Any insight on weaning from ranitidine to nexium?
I’m so glad to hear it’s working well for people!
@BeckyS, you could give both for three days to allow the esomeprazole to fully take effect. But if it’s a huge hassle to give the ranitidine, I would just cut over with no overlap. You may get a rebound, but ranitidine has less risk of that and the esomeprazole seems quick to work.
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Thanks!
Wish I’d seen this thread one day earlier–now I have a LOT of ranititdine around. lol
:lol: Any chance of returning it? I’m thinking that meds are a no go on that front, but wouldn’t hurt to find out?
Maybe? I’m not sure, that seems odd to me!
On the plus side, no heartburn in my house for a long time. :lol:
The world’s pickiest mare is finishing up her 28 days this weekend (speaking of which, drat, I forgot to pick up another bottle to taper while at the store earlier).
When she started, she was on stall rest, Ulcergard, and basically off her feed, just nibbling at a few handfuls. The beast was released from captivity early a few days into the Nexium treatment. Now she’s back to her “baseline” appetite and has slowly regained most of the tons of weight she lost (on just a few weeks of confinement… oh, to have the metabolism of a picky TB…)
I can’t say for sure, but the Nexium definitely gave me the impression it was helping as much as the Ulcergard was prior. And eating the capsules in a meal was a non-issue, even for “she who is easily offended by foreign objects in her feed.”
I would definitely use it again. :yes: Many thanks, Simkie, for putting this out there!
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I’m glad it’s worked for you, too, Tex! I’m pretty tickled with how well it’s worked for mine–absolutely awesome to know it’s working for others.
I guess I should add my update: Blush finished her course and is doing great. Dove is still on her second course (repeat due to illness and doxy use, no problems with the first go round) and I’m really, really pleased with how that’s going.
I just LOVE how easy this is and how CHEAP. I sent a note to a vet I know who might be curious enough to run a small scoping study. How cool would THAT be?
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I have a laminitic mare with an abscess who is on a lot of bute. She went off her feed (and, thus, off her Abler pop rocks) so I started her on Ulcergard for a few days. Appetite returned. I switched her over to Nexium two days ago. She is still doing great, at least as far as the GI system goes.
She eats the capsules in a bit of apple nutrigrain bar, with her Prascend, no problem.
Thanks for the tip!
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Genius! Suspicious of Ranitidine Gelding just crunched down his Nexium like candy.
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I used ulcergard for a week, then Abler pop rocks at full dose and now he’s on the “maintenance dose” of those for a week, next week would be every other day to do the taper off however, I’d like to keep him on something as preventive - was thinking the Nexium would be an easy to come by option at Costco or through Amazon - would that just be 1 pill a day? Or is it better to do the abler omeprazole for that?
These drugs carry some heady risks long term. I am not comfortable keeping a horse on PPIs just because, but if you want to go that route, pop rocks or ulcergard are probably a better bet. With only one pill of nexium, you’re really gambling on the dose. If the horse crunches it, you might be getting nothing. Or, if you want to use nexium, then dose him with it using a syringe or something, so you know the pill goes down intact, versus tossing it in feed. But it’s probably better to use a supplement like Ugard or GUT or Smart Digest, unless there’s a really solid reason to keep the horse on a PPI that outweighs the risks of doing so.
@BeckyS how fabulous! Glad to hear your guy eats the meds! 
