I’ve read a number of threads on here about treating with the “blue pop rocks”, but I’m wondering if anyone who has treated using this method actually scoped and then re-scoped after the course of . I’m asking because I was told the delivery method for GastroGard is unique in that it is actually designed to target ulcers throughout the stomach, not just in the first section. My horse was scoped and has ulcers in the pyloric region, so i’m unsure that the cheaper alternatives would be effective. But i’m interested to hear from those people who have gone the generic route and have actual proven results (post treatment scoping).
Anyone who says this doesn’t understand the basics behind how omeprazole–ANY omeprazole–works. So I sincerely hope this didn’t come from your vet.
Omeprazole doesn’t ACT in the stomach. It has to get through the stomach and absorbed into the blood stream, where it’s able to act on those proton pumps. The tricky thing is that it’s a bit fragile and degraded in the acidic environment of the stomach. So if you’re going to give it orally, you have to protect it.
GastroGard (and UlcerGard, they’re the same) is omeprazole in a buffer. The buffer raises the pH of the stomach a bit and the omeprazole–enough of it, anyway–gets through the stomach and is absorbed.
The Abler granules (pop rocks!) aren’t buffered. Instead, they have an enteric coating. The omeprazole is coated with something that will get through the stomach and degrade, freeing the “payload” of omeprazole to be absorbed. Enteric coatings are better at getting the drug through the stomach, for higher bioavailability.
Once the omeprazole is through the stomach, it’s THE SAME. GastroGard omeprazole is no better or different than Abler omeprazole at turning off proton pumps.
A poster here verified that the enteric coating on the pop rocks is effective. The FDA very nicely verified that the pop rocks contain the amount of omeprazole they’re supposed to.
Delivery is worth discussing–with GastroGard, the horse should be getting the entire amount, as long as it’s tolerant about being pasted. With pop rocks, any granule that the horse crunches is toast. If the coating is disrupted, the omeprazole is degraded in the stomach. But horses sure don’t chew every bite.
@eclipse here has a horse with pyloric ulcers, so it may be worth pulling up her (his?) posts and reading about how treatment went.
And I’ll toss this in, too: Nexium for equine ulcers. This is something I’ve been playing around with, and it’s really very interesting. Nexium is available and CHEAP. On the last page of the thread, I’ve linked a paper that discusses how the different PPIs stack up (caveat: in PEOPLE) and esomeprazole is considerably more effective than omeprazole at shutting down the proton pumps, which may be very, very useful to you with a pyloric ulcer horse.
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Thank you for taking the time to explain, I am certain I misunderstood/confused her explanation of the drug and the delivery.
That said, I was shown before/after pics of GastroGard, and was impressed with the results. What I have not seen are before/after results of the alternative methods. I’m just looking for some pictorial evidence to support that the cheaper alternatives are just as good.
And actually, they found that Abprazole often had MORE omeprazole than labeled! Unlike the Horseprerace omeprazole paste which was often found to have less 
Not that less is inherently bad, depending on how much less, as there’s actually some debate about a minimally effective dose, I’m just pointing out what was found.
Wasn’t that the paste–AbGard? Yuppers 
ISR, fair enough that you’re looking for real actual proof in scoping studies that this stuff works. Could be a bit hard to turn up, as many people go the Abler route without scoping due to cost or availability.
I can tell you that I had a vet in Colorado who did her own scoping studies with the omeprazole/ranitidine paste from Precision Pharmacy and found it just as effective as GastroGard. She did not, however, publish her results, so that info isn’t “out there” anywhere. I used the Precision paste a few times and found that it worked…but again, I never scoped, so can’t confirm via actual images.
You may show your vet the Nexium info and see if she’d perhaps be interested in trying it. There’s very little out there about using esomeprazole in equines (I think…have poked around but wouldn’t call my research exhaustive by any means ;)) and perhaps she’d like to consider using it for a few horses and writing a paper.
You are correct! Abgard, not Abprazole.
"In addition, testing by FDA of samples of the drug AbGard revealed that the amount of active ingredient (omeprazole) in the drug did not correspond with the amount represented on the labeling. Specifically, the drug was found to be super-potent at 111.3% of the label claim for potency. "
(for those who didn’t want to wade through the page)
