Has anyone tried these yet? Could be an interesting option for those with ulcer issues.
https://www.purinamills.com/horse-feed/products/detail/purina-ultium-gastric-care-horse-feed
https://www.purinamills.com/horse-feed/products/detail/purina-outlast-gastric-support-supplement
Seems interesting. I wonder what the calorie count of this ultium compares to the normal ultium.
A horse at my barn just started on this feed. I work at Mary’s Tack (I see you’re in San Diego) and we provided a bag to the trainer to see what he thinks. The trainer personally mixes the feed & supplements and feeds each horse every day (even when the barn is closed!) He is very observant, if anyone can see a difference, it’s him. I’m fairly certain it’s the Outlast one.
I did too, so I emailed Purina to ask. They replied that the Ultium Gastric Care Formula is 1700 kcal/lb, and the Outlast Gastric Care supplement is ~1200 kcal/lb. My local supplier has the new Ultium Gastric Care priced the same as the “normal” Ultium.
They have pubished a few abstracts on the research for this supplement:
http://www.j-evs.com/article/S0737-0806(17)30174-0/abstract
http://www.j-evs.com/article/S0737-0806(17)30233-2/abstract
I did too, so I emailed Purina to ask. They replied that the Ultium Gastric Care Formula is 1700 kcal/lb, and the Outlast Gastric Care supplement is ~1200 kcal/lb. My local supplier has the new Ultium Gastric Care priced the same as the “normal” Ultium.
Yes, Mary’s is only carrying the Outlast supplement currently, at ~$48/bag - which works out to about $1.25/day at the recommended (3 times daily) feeding rate. Worth it if it works I guess 
They have pubished a few abstracts on the research for this supplement:
http://www.j-evs.com/article/S0737-0…174-0/abstract
http://www.j-evs.com/article/S0737-0…233-2/abstract
Thanks for the info. You wouldn’t happen to know the pricing on the feed?
I will have to ask my local feed store if they plan on selling this product. If it works then that would be so awesome for many horses
The Outlast supplement is some proprietary honeycomb structure that’s supposed to make the magnesium and calcium more available due to a higher surface. I question whether that makes a significant difference on an as-fed basis.
But, they recommend you feed it 3-4 times a day, which not only is quite expensive, but it makes you question just how long the pH is raised. It’s value may be only in feeding it right before you ride, but from that perspective, it’s probably just the same to feed a pound of alfalfa pellets.
They also claim some specialized yeast for the hind gut, but who knows if that’s anything valid.
It’s probably worth trying on a horse with known issues and seeing if it does anything for him.
I tried to find this at my local Purina dealers and did not have ANY luck.
Does anyone know the NSC of this feed?
My gelding has a history of ulcers and is doing pretty well on TC Senior, but I’m always looking to improve. I do know that bumping up to an NSC of 19% has made his stomach sore again–so I guess well will stay around 12% as much as possible!
According to the info on the website, Starch=10% and Sugar=7%, so NSC ~ 17%
I’m willing to be it’s cheaper where you live, but here in Southern California where everything is expensive the Ultium is about $33/bag including tax.
Interesting point. Do you know of any research demonstrating the buffering properties of an alfalfa “meal” over time? I know it’s been shown that alfalfa may be superior to other hay types in reducing gastric ulcer scores, but there seems to be limited info on it’s actual buffering capabilities in response to intermittent feeding.
One study found that small meals of Alfa-Lox Forage did not have a treatment by day effect on gastric ulcer scores or gastric juice pH (Scroll way down to abstract E25)
I’m bumping this thread to see if anyone else has tried to seen results with outlast? I have a training gelding who I believe has ulcers and his people aren’t convinced. Trying to find something to help him out that isn’t going to cost me an arm or a leg.
@Credosporthorses something like Outlast isn’t going to heal existing ulcers. If you suspect ulcers, and scoping isn’t an option, then I’d suggest a week of ranitidine (generic zantac, at 3mg/lb every 8 hours) or Nexium (there’s a long thread here) and see if symptoms improve.
I have a friend who is using it, and she thinks it helps a lot. I feel confident she is feeding it two times a day though.
I’ve been using it on my two. It does seem to be helping the girthiness of one of them. In the other horse he seems to have more energy; he was going through a “dull” stage. I do wonder if alf pellets would give me a similar effect. I may try when I run out of the Outlast.
But I also need to figure out the cost vs. the gut supplement they are on. If there isn’t much difference I may try another bag as I wean them off the Gut, and see how that goes.
Unfortunately I realize this. I’m just after something to give him any sort of relief. Like I said, it’s not my horse so I’m unable to spend a bunch of my own money on him. No matter how badly I wish I could. like I said his owner doesn’t believe he has ulcers at all.
What’s cool about the nexium is how cheap it is–about $50 bucks for a month of treatment and a two week taper. And it’s dosed once a day.
Can’t say I’m overly impressed with it. My gelding started on it when he moved to a new barn about a month ago. I noticed he started cribbing, so I started a tube/day of UlcerGard. 30 days in now and he’s cribbing like crazy. Not sure what to do at this point… he seems less stressed at the new barn than at home but I can’t afford to keep giving him $30/day worth of ulcer meds.
I’ve been using it on Dex and he did go quite a while without any GI episodes. But as he has started having them again I’m not sure it’s worth continuing though admittedly his problem doesn’t seem to be stomach acid related and he did become much more comfortable (you could finally brush his flanks without getting kicked) after he started on it. Their research claims it buffers the gastric PH to upwards of 5 in 2 hours and over a ten hour period to upwards of 6. I’m not sure if that’s with repeated doses or just one dose. Interestingly, alfalfa out performed every other supplement in their gastric buffering analysis with the exception of the outlast.
My biggest concern of late is how much calcium is he getting with four times a day feeding, plus the calcium in his feed, plus the calcium from his alfalfa hay mix. Most gastric supplements are aimed at digestion. They contain probiotics and varying yeast products for fermentation. I’ve honestly never used them much. When I really start thinking about it, I wonder if probiotics are overused in horses. Most feed contains them, most gastric supplements are loaded with them and many give more probiotics in addition to the gastric supplements and yet we should all have stock in GastroGard. This was one reason the Outlast appealed to me. I wasn’t piling more probiotics on top of my already good Equiotic and it reputedly buffers gastric acid which is key to preventing and treating ulcers.
One thing I can say with certainty is that Dexter LOVES the stuff. I wonder if they kept data on any calcium related issues like lith formation.
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