Esomeprazole (Nexium) for equine ulcers

My vet has said the same about Gastrogard. Although the article I posted mentioned something about it working for 27 hours (?)

I just started one on Nexium today. When I stopped at CVS last night to pick it up, they had their house brand on the shelf next to the Nexium - so it looks like the generics are out. It was only a few dollars cheaper.

Interesting! I was in CVS just a few days ago and didnā€™t see that. Are you sure itā€™s esomeprazole and not omeprazole? :slight_smile:

@Simkie Yes! You can see it here: http://www.cvs.com/shop/health-medicine/digestive-health/heartburn-relief/cvs-esomeprazole-magnesium-capsules-prodid-1590027?skuId=272739

Wow, check that out! Thanks for the linkā€“I couldnā€™t find it when I looked :slight_smile:

Price looks about on par with Amazon (actually a little more) but several bucks less than the Nexium in the store. Good to know!

@Simkie Yeah. I had a coupon that made the name brand cheaper, so I didnā€™t get the generic this time.

My anecdote of trying Nexium- So my mare has a what should be a low ulcer risk life. She is pastured 24/7 with a small, stable herd and has around the clock forage. She is fed a very small amount of concentrate (1/2 total per day) and gets a couple pounds of alfalfa hay per day in addition to the grass and/or grass hay. But she does get trailered fairly often and was starting to just be not quite herself- kinda mopey, super quiet. I had given her a couple weeks of ulcergard before our last competition and she had perked up but with it being $$$, I decided to try the Nexium after reading about it on here and then researching.
I did the full month of 3 pills/day and then tapered off to make sure it was done by our next competition (neither Nexium nor Ulcergard are legal to compete on for our CTRā€™s). Iā€™m very, very happy to say that seems to feel fantastic- back to her very sassy, speedy, bossmare self. I could tell the difference in the competition too- she was spunky but not bouncing around at the start, went right to work and we did 15 straight miles of rolling hill work all between 7 and 9 minutes per mile and her pulse was right back to normal within 5 minutes of stopping even on a crazy hot day for this time of year.
This thread might seriously be the best thing Iā€™ve learned from all my years on COTH!!

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Rockstar, tab! So excited to hear that :smiley: :yes:

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Where did you end up dose wise with nexium? Or did you switch to gg?

3 pills/d was magic until I tried to taper and Iā€™ve been back at 3/d for a week without huge improvement. But Iā€™ve also introduced some new stressors over the last two weeks so that may be contributing if what he was actually getting was more of a ā€œmaintenanceā€ dose depending on which paper you go with.

I may try upping the dose before going the gg route.

Bumping for @Second Star To The Right

I wound up doing a couple days at 14. I think heā€™d lost a little weight, so that was probably close to 0.5mg/kg. I then switched to a full tube of ulcergard, which he is currently on. I am thinking of trying Nexium for the tapering part if not switching back sooner. I bought 12 tubes of ulcergard to start with. I figured as far as behavior testing goes, it would be good to use the same as Iā€™ve used in the past. He usually has behavior improvement after 7-10 days. We are just at a week now, and his in hand work is like heā€™s back to being my horse again. But he will stay on ulcergard a bit longer, with me not getting back into the saddle till Wednesday.

He was already back on his food after 2 days on Nexium, and itā€™s still cheaper to feed the big dose, so I am not ruling out going back to it.

Thanks!

I ordered ug this weekend but am going to up the nexium dose while I wait on it. Sigh.

Costco has it on sale again, thru October 22 I believeā€¦ just FYI.

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Just got a sales email from Walgreens that included an ad for their new house brand.

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PSA - Costco now has generic Nexium. At my store it was 13.99/3 pack.

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WOW!!

So that would take a month of treatment and two week taper down to ā€¦ about $35 bucks all in. So for about the cost of one tube of gastrogard, you can do this. Incredible!

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My horseā€™s symptoms disappeared by day 4 of treatment. I know full well he has ulcers. Heā€™s been scoped many, many times in the last 3 years. Nothing has cured them. (see my lengthy thread called drug-resistant ulcers) I doubt this will either, but Iā€™m quite pleased that heā€™s showing symptom improvement even earlier than he did on Gastroguard.

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Are you still doing a combination of things plus the PPIs? What dose of Nexium are you using?

No. I should probably update the thread. I wanted to try to get him off PPIs while he is on rest for an unrelated injury. Iā€™ve been trying him on SmartGI Ultra, SeaBuck 7, and Aloe juice since April. That combination is obviously not enough.

Now heā€™s just on the Nexium and SmartDigest Ultra (to keep his Colicare coverage since his insurance dropped his GI tract from his policy).

Iā€™ve heard good things about Assure Guard Gold recently, so thatā€™s on the list for the future.

ETA: Iā€™m doing 3 pills per day am. Horse eats anything, hasnā€™t even noticed them.

bump for @CupOJavaa