Ulcer Diet

[Otejumper]

My horse was treated for grade 4 ulcers last year successfully. He was on Purina Gastric Care during treatment and for a few months after but I ended up feeling like it made him too ‘wild’ so I switched to Purina Senior and now on barn grain plus outlast. He also gets SmartGut Ultra and alfalfa pellets once a day.

I am thinking of switching grain due to barn changing grain. I am considering Triple Crown Senior Gold. For those of you that feed this to your ulcery horses, does it support them enough to take them off Outlast? What about SmartGut Ultra? Would love to be able to just feed the TC Sr Gold plus alfalfa and keep ulcers away but scared to take him off anything he’s been on. Wallet will be tight having to buy grain again, so ditching both the outlast and smartgut would be ideal if possible!

If not the TC Sr Gold, What else do you recommend?

[Obsidian_Fire]

I don’t feed that particular grain but one thing I do know is if you choose a feed with a supplement added, you have to feed enough that you are actually feeding a full dose of said supplement. Otherwise, what’s the point?
So, how much (by weight) are you feeding him?

[JB]

@Otejumper

I am considering Triple Crown Senior Gold. For those of you that feed this to your ulcery horses, does it support them enough to take them off Outlast?

4lb of TC SG would be more or less equivalent to a serving of Outlast, similar to the Purina products with it in it. Whether it’s enough for a given horse is just what you’ll have to try

[Otejumper]

Right now he gets 4.5# a day of his current grain, and 1.5# of outlast a day, all of which is split between three meals. Considering doing TC SR Gold three times a day with chopped alfalfa.

[JB]

How much does he weigh? If he’s in the 1000lb range, you need to feed at least 6lb of TC SG, but need 4lb/meal to be an effective “Outlast” dose. So 4lb twice a day, and then if you needed a 3rd meal for support, a serving of Outlast (with or without something else to mix with if he doesn’t really like it on its own

[Otejumper]

He definitely doesn’t need 8lbs a day, 4lb per meal would be way too much for him. He’s only getting 1.5lb per meal right now and the stuff he gets now is much lower in fat

[JB]

how much does he weigh?

If you can’t feed 4lb/meal (or whatever is a titrated down serving for him if he’s significantly smaller than 1000lb), then no, it’s not going to replace Outlast

How many pounds of chopped alfalfa would you be giving?

[Otejumper]

I haven’t officially weight taped him but he’s roughly 1100-1200lbs. Haven’t planned out the chopped alfalfa yet, not sure what a reasonable amount to give in addition to grain and grass hay would be.

[JB]

@Otejumper

Haven’t planned out the chopped alfalfa yet, not sure what a reasonable amount to give in addition to grain and grass hay would be

what would be the reason to give it? If it’s more calories, then just increase the TC SG. If it’s just as something to mix in, then it’s nice for gastric support, it’s just not the same thing.

[Otejumper]

Additional calories without having to increase grain quantity plus added gastric support

[JB]

Only you can decide of those calories make it mean he really can have at least 6lb of the sr a day, at least 1 meal of 4lb, and then another of 2lb. But that’s still not the 3 servings of Outlast you’re using now

If you can’t feed 6lb of TC, then you’d need to add in a partial serving of the ration balancer

[Potato]

I always find it interesting when posts focusing on ulcers don’t include any information about long stem forage, i.e. hay, or management practices. No grain or supplement will override the need for constant access to long stem forage.

There are far better place to start learning about ulcers, and how to treat and prevent them than an online forum. Try listening to the podcast “Straight from the horse doctor’s mouth” episodes S1E13 about stomach ulcers, or more recently S6E15 also about stomach ulcers https://springhillequine.com/podcast/.

Another excellent resource from the same equine vet is https://springhillequine.com/stomach-ulcers-or-something-else/.

Read published, peer reviewed literature such as this excellent review article published in spring of 2023 titled Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome: An Update on Current Knowledge https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10093336/.

[JB]

I guess most of us assume the forage requirements are already being met.

You can do all the right things re: grass and/or hay, and a horse still struggles a bit.

There’s absolutely value in crowd-sourcing in places like this, where there are usually lots of people with real-world experiences beyond just textbook Best Practices.

Podcasts can be great. Most of them talk in general terms and don’t talk about specific products, unless it’s a company-specific podcast

[Otejumper]

He gets plenty of hay a day and goes out on grass. My concern was not forage.

[RhythmNCruise]

I don’t know if this helps, but I feed my guy TC Balancer Gold (1.5 lbs./day split in two feedings). My understanding is it has the good gut package, but I’m not sure how it compares to Outlast given it’s such a small amount (unlike the Gold Senior).

Anyway, I feed it in a mash with beet pulp, Omega Horseshine, and a smattering of other supplements. I mix the mash with a couple of handfuls of chopped alfalfa, and I usually toss a few Outlast cookies in his feed at each feeding too just for good measure. Plenty of hay given and a somewhat skimpy pasture to nibble. He really seems to do well on this diet. I’ve only been feeding this combo for a few weeks now, and I’m very impressed with how well he’s doing. He looks great too.