Nexium, Magnesium, Thiamine

[poniesforammies]

Thinking of starting my young mare on Nexium (esomeprazole) but wasn’t sure the dosage. She’s a medium pony - about 700 lbs. She’s stressed in her current environment (individual turnout and stalled at night), so planning to put her back in a herd full time. Given this prolonged period of anxiety, I’d like to start her on an ulcer treatment but am reluctant to pay for a course of GG without the definitive proof that they’re there. I’ve read the Nexium studies and a couple testimonials and it sounds promising, but would love to hear anyone’s experiences with it and thoughts about dosage (thinking 40 mg?).

Eventually would like to start a magnesium and a B1 (thiamine) supplement as well. She’s anxious and explosive, so hoping the magnesium will help with some of the nerves, and the thiamine might help her think before she spooks or explodes. Not looking for a “magic” cure since I know these are only effective in the case that she has a deficiency, but I’d also love to hear people’s experiences with them.

[JB]

A reasonable starting point is to toss 3 capsules on top of her feed, once a day. That’s covers the lowest studied amount with a buffer for any capsules and granules that get crunched, and is where a lot of people start.

Mg and B1 deficiencies aren’t common at all, but if you decide to try them (which is reasonable), I’d personally start with the B1 first because it’s cheap and IME if you’re doing to see results, it won’t take more than 1-2 weeks. If you don’t see results, then move on to Mg

[RhythmNCruise]

I can’t speak much about Nexium because I did Ulcergard with my guy, but I do think B1 helps him think first and react second. I had him on supplemental magnesium for years, and while it seemed to help, when he moved to his current barn, he was in total meltdown mode…completely unhinged. It took Ulcergard to straighten that out. He stayed on MagRestore and while he was definitely much improved, he’d still have little bouts of “OMG!!” over silly things now and then. I actually tried the B1 because of something else I’d read it could help (maybe with muscle recovery or something? I can’t even remember) and lo and behold, his reactivity went down pretty noticeably. He gets one scoop (I can’t remember how much that is) of the Horse Health brand Vitamin b1 crumbles (in the purple bucket). He’s no longer on supplemental magnesium because his ration balancer has a hefty amount and he is perfectly fine. The b1 is so cheap. I have a big pail of it and it’s going to last me a long time. Like…a year.

Best of luck to you. I would say to do one thing at a time so you know what “fixes” her. It’s frustrating when you’ve thrown everything at them and then you don’t know what actually did the trick and you’re afraid to stop any of it for fear they’ll return to bonkers. Been there. Done that.

[Xanthoria]

And if you can’t stand reading the extremely long thread on COTH, re Nexium, of course that small amount is the lowest functioning dose to help MANY horses with ulcers, but many OTHER horses need the standard dose (0.5–2.0mg/kg q24h) which is what I found for my mare.

In my case that dose meant a 1200# or 544kg horse getting 272-1,088mg/day. Or (rounded up) 14-55 capsules.

I went from 3 caps/day with no results to 14 caps/day and a huge turnaround.

I buy my caps for less than $0.10 each from https://lifesciencespharmacy.com/

[Simkie]

The risk with changing multiple things at once is that you won’t know which one made the difference if she improves. Best to start with one thing, complete treatment or give a supplement a good honest effort of 4-6 weeks, and then make another change if you’re not getting the results you’d hoped for.

Starting with ulcer treatment is reasonable. For a 700# pony, it’s a bit tough to apply the 60 mg dose discussed in the Nexium thread, but 40 mg is probably where I’d go in that scenario, too.

[floppyammy]

My favorite Magnesium and B1 supplement is Tractor Supply’s Relaxmor. It’s very affordable and I liked the results over more pricey supplements (tried Quiescence and others.)

[JB]

I would choose singles for this. Adding both Mg and B1 and seeing results doesn’t tell you which one was the source. And RelaxMor has 7,5gm, and somtimes a horse needs 10-15 or maybe even 20gm to find results.

Straight B1 supplements are cheap and you can get small buckets.

MVP Magnesium 5000 is pretty inexpensive for a small bucket to try as well

[ammys_havemorefun]

I use Nupafeed Magnesium, the daily liquid on a regular basis and the tubes at horse shows, really great experience with it! I have used other magnesiums and this is by far my favorite.