Gastrogard every other day...?

[IvyHall]

My trainer currently has many horses in the barn on a treatment dose of gastrogard every other day. These are all horses in consistent work and who horse show.

None of these horses have been scoped (not that that bothers me).

From what I know about this drug (from studies that I have read), it is a 24 hour drug. So on an every other day schedule the horse would get a full dose of a ppi and the next day none. This makes no sense to me. As far as I can tell this certainly wouldn’t heal ulcers (which would be a treatment dose daily) or prevent ulcers (1/4 dose daily). In my non professional opinion this is a waste of money and doing nothing to help the horse. I would guess that a one half a dose every day would be better for the horse than 1 full dose every other day…?

What do you all think?
Thank you!

(I haven’t brought this up with my trainer, bc its not my horse(s) and I try to mind my own business…but this situation really has me perplexed).

[CindyCRNA]

My non-professional opinion is I would think you are correct. I would think you would do more harm with this off/on cycle as I would think you would have rebound acid production on the off days. Maybe 20 tabs of rantidine on off days. This is why we need a cheaper alternative to Gastroguard as I would assume the dosing schedule is due to cost.

[yourcolorfuladdictio]

why are these horses on GG to begin with? are they showing signs of ulcers? If not they shouldn’t be on GG at all. If they are, the should be on the daily treatment.

She can cause more harm than good throwing GG down horses’ throats all willy-nilly like.

[Simkie]

I think that’s an excellent way to flush a lot of money straight down the toilet.

[DownYonder]

It doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t like to put my horse on “long term meds” just based on a trainer’s suspicion. I want a vet’s opinion - even if it costs me more money. Also, dumping meds into your horse without a vet’s blessing could jeopardize your ability to collect from the insurance company, should something happen with your horse.

It rather reminds me of the hunter trainers who put horses on a round of Marquis before they hit the show circuit. Yes, even without testing, and without any EPM symptoms of any sort. (Although this was discovered to be a scam on the part of at least one such trainer - he was billing absentee owners for Marquis 4-6x per year, and got caught by an owner who got suspicious and did some investigating.)

Adding - GastroGuard requires a vet’s prescription. So has a vet prescribed that course of treatment for every horse?

[pezk]

Gastro guard requires a vets prescription but Ulcerguard does not. Made by same co, same exact drug, only difference is the directions printed on the box.

[rnrdvm]

Gastrogard every other day makes less sense than 1/4 tube Gastrogard (or Ulcergard; previous poster is correct, they’re the exact same meds except for the measured numbers on the syringe) daily. Work has been done to show the 1/4 dose effective in prevention and maintenance but not in treatment of active ulcers. So as a preventive measure in high stress environments, there is SOME evidence for that; but not at the very other day dose. And, regardless, you will definitely be treating some horses that do not need it at all.

[CrowneDragon]

This is an example of why non-veterinarians should not be making up treatment decisions for an animal, especially ones that they don’t own! This is prevalent in many show barns, especially in H/J land. “If Gastrogard/bute/robaxin/whatever is good for some horses, I’ll give it to all of them! On my own treatment regimen that I’m making up by doing what makes sense to my not-appropriately-educated self.” :rolleyes:

There is no substantiation that the protocol she is following is helpful in any way, and may be harmful, not to mention expensive. The protocol for preventing ulcers in at-risk horses is 1/4 dose every day. What is going on with a dose every-other day is anyone’s guess. Long term use of omeprazole just for fun is not a good idea; the stomach is acidic for a reason. Acidity should be reduced to help heal existing lesions or when medical/environmental stresses exist that make ulcer formation more likely. There are a lot of people who use it for no good reason (Merial’s marketing is very, very good) that may be doing more harm than good. There are a small handful of horses that need to live on it because they tend to ulcerate despite best efforts. I highly doubt that every horse in your trainer’s barn falls under that category.

[PNWjumper]

Yikes - doesn’t sound like a great plan, IMO. Though like others have claimed, I’m certainly not a vet or specialist in chemical usage. Seems like a usage schedule like that could ultimately boost acid production in the stomach. And even if it doesn’t, it seems like one of those things that could ultimately wreak havoc with a horse’s GI system by stressing it unnecessarily. And I’d bet that most horses wouldn’t have much of an issue (because they didn’t need it in the first place), leading the trainer to think, “see? It works great on everyone!”

I’ve posted many times about my horse who colicked badly twice because of long-term omeprazole use. The omeprazole (on a daily use, not every-other-day) made a big positive difference…until it didn’t. It solidified my feeling that I don’t ever want my horses on a drug (long term) without considering the potential side effects and downstream implications. And a drug used somewhat haphazardly like this sounds like an even worse plan than just long-term use.

[Bent_Hickory]

[QUOTE=rnrdvm;7976122]
Work has been done to show the 1/4 dose effective in prevention and maintenance but not in treatment of active ulcers. [/QUOTE]

This report suggests that 1/4 dose is effective for treating active ulcers:

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/34581/study-low-dose-omeprazole-and-gastric-ulcers

[Simkie]

[QUOTE=Bent Hickory;7976438]
This report suggests that 1/4 dose is effective for treating active ulcers:

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/34581/study-low-dose-omeprazole-and-gastric-ulcers[/QUOTE]

Right. A quarter dose of the enterically coated granular paste product that is available in Australia.

Which is awesome news if you can get your hands on that particular product, which we don’t have available in the US.

This study is all but irrelevant to those of us who treat our horses with anything other than Gastrozol.

[doublesstable]

[QUOTE=PNWjumper;7976260]
Yikes - doesn’t sound like a great plan, IMO. Though like others have claimed, I’m certainly not a vet or specialist in chemical usage. Seems like a usage schedule like that could ultimately boost acid production in the stomach. And even if it doesn’t, it seems like one of those things that could ultimately wreak havoc with a horse’s GI system by stressing it unnecessarily. And I’d bet that most horses wouldn’t have much of an issue (because they didn’t need it in the first place), leading the trainer to think, “see? It works great on everyone!”

I’ve posted many times about my horse who colicked badly twice because of long-term omeprazole use. The omeprazole (on a daily use, not every-other-day) made a big positive difference…until it didn’t. It solidified my feeling that I don’t ever want my horses on a drug (long term) without considering the potential side effects and downstream implications. And a drug used somewhat haphazardly like this sounds like an even worse plan than just long-term use.[/QUOTE]

My gut feelings agree with this concept.

I have never used Ulcerguard, Gastroguard, or Ranididine other than short use when vet recommended in addition to other treatments such as bute for an injury etc.

I had one horse that we thought he had ulcers. I had him scoped and he did not.

I currently have a horse that was acting very stressed, pacing nervous and stressed to handling. Vet recommended a 28 day dose of Ulcerguard. We chose not to scope for he has had a very stressful year. Going on week two and horse has shown major improvement.

I will be discussing my options of maintenance or possibly treatment in stressful situations. Basically monitoring his attitude.

I had one horse that was on long term Previcox and had a strange loss of use of his colon and rectum. The tissue was sent to UC Davis for further research. I felt the use of Previcox could have been reason for shut down and vets thought that would be something to check out. So many medications we don’t have the knowledge of long term use implications.

[tinah]

How much are the clients getting charged for this and are the drugs actually being administered? Cause this sure sounds like pocket-padding to me.

[IvyHall]

Horses are absolutely getting the meds, owners “know”, and trainer’s intentions are 100% in the right place… execution, I believe, is just flawed.

If studies have shown 80-90% of racehorses in training and 60% of show horses suffer from ulcers its not unreasonable for trainer to assume that the show jumpers in the barn are at risk. They should just be on 1/4 dose daily. Or they should do the 30 day treatment followed by 1/4 dose maintenance. And yes, a vet should be consulted for each individual horse (and for all I know a vet has been consulted, I just can’t imagine a vet would ever suggest an every other day treatment plan).

I read a Merial study (if I recall correctly) where high doses of omeprazole (50x treatment dose) given for extended periods of time showed no negative side effects in horses. From what I understand, and what I’m sure Merial would like us to believe, this is a very safe drug when used as directed.

This is a tough situation for me. Not my horses, so really none of my business

Eta
Actually this is absolutely none of my business.