"Fake spooking" spin off

[J-Lu]

Did your vet endoscope your horse and look for ulcers? The cost of that is far less than the Ulcerguard. It might be worth getting a baseline on your horse.

When do horses have an empty stomach as grazing animals at 4x per day? Horses are grazer and eat mostly all day. Can your vet provide clarification on this point?

ooooh, the bet practice for you horse may be contraindicated because of your laminitic horse. Do you know exactly why your horse developed laminitis? Any shoeing changes? Obvious diet changes?

Truth be told, I didn’t scope him after this. He in time responded to the training and the diet. I was throwing calories at him -grain, beet pulp, oil and he eventually adjusted although it took him years. Turnout (24/7 for my horse), training, and regular work ended up working for my horse. as a dressage rider, I was clueless about ground work but groundwork really was key for this horse to understand horse-human communication and “learning to learn how to learn”. I can’t emphasize that enough.

[RedHorses]

If you’re using actual, branded Gastroguard, at the end of the four weeks of full dosing (within a day or two - check timing if you want to do this) and a scope shows any squamous (I think) ulcers, your vet can take pictures and get you another four weeks Gastroguard free. You must full dose for the full 28 days.

I did this with mine and got the free Gastroguard. He was really spooky and anxious and incapable of focusing when he had ulcers. During recovery I found that feeding him half a pound or so of alfalfa cubes while I groomed let me have a better ride.

The empty stomach thing - Sucralfate sticks to the exposed proteins (??) of the ulcers, creating a coating to protect it for 6ish hours. Gastroguard administration directions say to give on an empty stomach.

In my case we brought him inside and gave him Gastroguard an hour later. 30min after that he got Misoprostal (did I spell that correctly?). 30min after that he got Sucralfate, and 30min after that he got breakfast before going outside. Sucralfate needs to be last as it interferes with drug uptake of other medications. I did a second Sucralfate later in the day after riding (making a one hour fast). It was a pain, and my BO was a star about doing it for two months.

[Mustang_Levi]

I would really be interested in what you are feeding post ulcer treatment program-to prevent any future ulcers. I had to do a restrictive diet with my horse after he developed laminitis. Vet said “no grass, no starch and soak your hay before feeding-no alfalfa, too rich.” Now I’m being told grass and grazing is great for an ulceric horse, and alfalfa has the calcium their stomachs need. Ai yi yi! I am thinking of getting alfalfa cubes so he has more things to “chew” because I guess that helps digestion, and getting hay nets to hang hay in smaller portions 3x a day instead of twice. Also trying to let him out to pasture for limited time, as I read it’s very relaxing for horses to graze and again, the saliva. I’m wondering if the careful diet I had him on for his laminitis gave him ulcers!! Also, he is not a good sport about getting a syringe of Gastroguard paste in his mouth, and fights that and the Sucralfate pills which he is getting 4x a day. I don’t see how I can those down his throat without disguising them in a treat. Have you tried any gastric supplements since going off Gastroguard? Platinum Performance makes one that sounds very good (and expensive, of course!).

[RedHorses]

Sucralfate pills dissolves easily in a syringe. At least the ones I had did. If I recall correctly I did six per dose twice a day. I think the Missoprostal was twice a day as well.

Sadly I can’t really advise on long term ulcer prevention. My horse was confirmed neurological at the same vet visit as the Gastroguard was prescribed. Six months after that he was diagnosed as a Wobbler and I stopped riding. He didn’t want to do anything else with me. I just let him be a horse in his paddock with minimal demands for the six months before he was euthanized. I had felt very strongly that there was something else going on with him that had caused the ulcers and slowed the healing process. We lost our vet in between the two rounds of ulcers which didn’t help.

The Gastroguard/Mosoprostal/Sucralfate treatment was done when his ulcers returned a couple of months after generic Omeprazole apparently got rid of them. I tried Mad Barn’s Visceral+ with the first round of ulcers and was still using it when the ulcers returned. I didn’t reorder when it ran out.

I used Herbs for Horses liquid UTP during the first round of ulcers before the Mad Barn - which was pelleted. After the Mad Barn ran out I switched to HfH Ulcer Mix which is basically a pelleted version of the UTP (and for my horse more palatable than the MB) for one bucket.

By this point the root cause of his ulcers had been identified and I kept his life as low key as I could. He didn’t show any signs of the ulcers returning and I didn’t bother getting more HfH Ulcer Mix.

I did continue to give him half a pound of alfalfa cubes with his 1/4 pound of hard feed/supplements.

I’m getting into Endurance, and many riders use HfH Ulcer Mix daily, and UTP during competition to protect against ulcers. Many also use 1/4 doses of Gastroguard before trailering as competitions often require long drives and camping for a few days.