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Feeding oil for ulcer protection; maintenance post-treatment

Horse Care
#1

Hey all, my coming 5 year old was scoped and diagnosed with gastric ulcers this morning, and is starting a course of Gastro Gard. The vet recommended working her up to 1 up of Canola oil on her hay each day to help protect the stomach lining from acid. I’m wondering if Canola is the best choice, or if I should use a different type of oil? She already gets about 1.5# of Renew Gold, so she does have fats in her diet, just not in liquid form.

I’m also looking at putting her on Smart GI after the GG is done, but other recommendations would be great. She already has pretty steady access to hay, part of which is alfalfa, gets no grain, and is not subjected to a lot of stress, so I’m kind of concerned about managing this since my plan was to increase her work and hopefully go to a few shows and clinics next year. I’ll definitely use Ulcer Gard before any major event like that.

#2

Be easier to just feed alfalfa. Never have heard of feeding oil for protecting stomach lining from ulcers. My gelding gets ulcers and I don’t cut back on his work load. Free feed hay alfalfa. Don’t know about mentioned supplements have never used them.

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#3

Never heard of oil for ulcers. I know people feed Aloe Vera for it though. You might want to search for the thread of Nexium for Ulcers and all the positive results people had with it.

I don’t feed any supplements for ulcers but do the 24/7 hay or grass so they always have something in their stomach, so can’t advise you there.

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#4

Thanks, I was wondering about aloe since it seemed to help a horse I used to have with hind gut issues. I don’t want to make the feeding routine too difficult, since I board, which make the SmartPacks an attractive option.

The barn provides grass and grass/alfalfa mix, but I have to buy my own alfalfa, so free-feeding it would be problematic, but we can probably get it to her 3x a day. I’ll just have to hope I can buy another ton in the off season.

#5

Well, I did find this, which seems like somewhat flimsy evidence. https://www.dengie.com/news-articles/feed-advice/what-type-of-oil-is-best-for-horses-with-ulcers/

Better article: http://davidmarlin.co.uk/portfolio/is-feeding-corn-oil-good-for-treating-or-preventing-equine-gastric-ulcers/

I will pass this one on to my vet.

Any other thoughts?

#6

My vet recommends safflower oil to help coat the stomach for ulcer prone horses. After my horse was diagnosed with ulcers she recommended safflower oil & aloe vera juice to help heal the stomach in addition to the Ulcerguard treatment.

Now that the ulcers have healed I have my horse on Purina Outlast which seems to be working well ($37 for a 40lb bag that lasts around 45 days). I also feed a hay mash consisting of hay cubes, safflower oil and salt prior to riding.

His current supplements are the Purina Outlast, aloe vera pellets from SmartPak and Magnesium 5000 for calming 2x a day. I also feed him a handful of Purina Outlast prior to riding. I board so the aloe vera pellets make it convenient for the feeders. I could actually probably do without the aloe vera pellets, not sure how effective those really are.

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#7

Oil for ulcers is an idea that has been around for decades; before the advent of omeprazole, it was an incredibly common preventative. Even as recently as 10 years ago, vets would recommend it regularly.

I think it has fallen out of fashion because we now have easily available pharmaceuticals that are actually proven to be effective. Not to mention the aforementioned studies that suggest it doesn’t do much.

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#8

Can you explain more - does your gelding routinely get ulcers that require a course of Gastrogard? Does free-feeding alfalfa actually prevent the ulcers given his current workload, or is he still getting them? Have you considered additional maintenance to prevent ulcers?

My mare coliced three times in about six weeks, which is what led me to getting her scoped. I won’t continue to make her work in a situation that causes chronic ulcers and risking further colic episodes. I anticipate increasing her workload in the spring, and want to proactively provide her more support to prevent recurrence.

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#9

When my guy was under the care of an internal specialist for severe ulcers, she did have me feed rice bran oil. He lost a lot of weight so it was mainly to help with fat content without making him hotter but she did also feel that it “might” help coat his stomach …he was also on gastrogard as well. Now he’s off the oil (picky dude that he is started refusing it) but will always live on maintenance generic omeprazole…vet never did recommend only feeding oil to prevent ulcers, It was a hand in hand supplement to go along with known treatments,

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#10

This is the paper that really highlighted oil as useful for ulcers:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15320596

Canola has a better O3:6 profile, which might be why your vet recommended that over the corn oil used in the study.

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#11

Yes, that is the rather poor study cited in the articles I linked above. It looked at gastric fluid acidity.

The larger, better-designed study published in 2005 actually looked at occurrence of ulcers. It was still a small study, but did not show any effect of feeding oil on actual ulcer formation.

https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/ajvr.2005.66.2006?journalCode=ajvr

#12

Apparently, recent local ulcer seminar (hosted by makers of GG) asserted only CORN oil is useful for soothing (note: NOT curing) gastric ulcers. I would feed corn oil along with alfalfa hay or soaked cubes during omeprazole treatment, and then continue with corn oil/alfalfa after treatment is complete, as a future preventative.
Good Luck, and hope your horse feels better soon!

#13

The best stuff I have ever seen has been Succeed. I have seen it work miracles on numerous horses. If money is not a concern, give it a try and you won’t be disappointed.

#14

Isn’t succeed for hind gut ulcers specifically? OP is talking about stomach ulcers.

1 Like
#15

Not sure. I think it is for genuine gastric health. The changes I saw in the four horses we used it for was amazing. I’m talking 180 degree turns for the better. However, none of them were scoped so I can’t say where the ulcers were specifically. Here’s the link for succeed if anyone cares to read.
http://www.succeed-equine.com/products/succeed-digestive-conditioning-program/

#16

I just read this description from Valley Vet for Succeed.
Unlike other products that mask symptoms or only address one part of the digestive tract, SUCCEED supports the health of the entire digestive tract - including the stomach and the hindgut. SUCCEED is a proven option in the treatment and prevention of digestive tract ailments, including gastric and colonic ulcers.

#17

I’m just finishing up Abler treatment on my boy, and am going with SmartGI Ultra. I had been feeding some of its ingredients individually and spending more! And I get ColicCare, so added bonus. He is much improved but I’m anxious to see how effective prevention is.

#18

Our ulcer-prone gelding is on Smart GI, a few handfuls of alfalfa (like a real skinny flake) at breakfast/dinner, plus a couple pounds of senior feed per day and, of course, hay. I started him with the Smart GI and the alfalfa in January 2016 and - knock on wood - we’ve had no colics or ulcery issues since then with him.

I don’t know if it’s the Smart GI that’s helping, the alfalfa or the combination of the two. I’d like to get off the Smart GI, simply because that’s $50 a month…if it’s not doing anything, I’d rather have that money in my pocket. I’m wary of taking him off of it, however, because if that is the beneficial factor in this equation, I don’t want to deprive him of it and have the colic/ulcers re-emerge.

#19

He’s been scoped twice first time he had several large ulcers. Treated with GG 28 days re scoped ulcers were healed but not completely. Did 2 weeks of ranitidine as GG is to $$ haven’t re checked or treated again. He’s coliced twice once required vet other time didn’t… Not currently feeding alfalfa he had cow pie poop. Which cleared up being on grass hay.

He has hay free feed, gets worked when warm enough out winter here. No don’t feed any supplements for ulcers. He won’t eat them consistently any way. Dont know if alfalfa prevents or if it heals ulcers. But its one thing he will eat consistently also helps keep weight on him.

spring summer and fall are his hardest working months. He’s tends to be very uptight during riding season. Its just who he is. He was on TCS quit eating it so gets nothing feed wise. Has no interest so I don’t offer it any more. Sometimes during riding season he eat TCS sometimes not.

#20

The supplement and pharmaceutical companies definitely don’t want us to think that corn oil helps with ulcers, and I am sure there haven’t been any funding thrown that way. So while the studies might seem flimsy, I wouldn’t put too much stock in the Succeed research either.

My vet prescribes Gastrogard for gastric ulcers, followed by corn oil once horse is titrated off the GG. It has worked for my horses, but I don’t have a control group so…

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