Ulcers- After, Maintenance & Platinum Performance

[gopony]

We currently have one on a 30 day RX treatment for ulcers, this is my first time dealing with ulcers (guess Ive been super lucky), vet said no other meds/sups during the 30-day treatment, but I am VERY interested in preventative maintenance after we get this resolved. I almost feel like a bad horse-mom for it happening this time.

I have been doing lots of research on my own but would love to get some first hand feedback from some of you…here is what I will be dealing with…

~1/2 day turnout (summer in during day, winter in during evening), paddock is not giant but decent & this particular horse does go out alone
~Horse is already a somewhat picky eater
~Is a competitive show horse so travel is a given
~Have already added a “slow-feed” hay net to the stall to slow down & stretch out consumption
~Childs mount so we must be careful of excess energy added (alfalfa, etc)

We dont currently have any at our barn on Plat. Performance but in my research this seems to be surfacing often, I have already requested additional literature to review with our trainer, but I am an involved owner & want to also be educated on what my horses are fed & be in agreement.

Thanks in advance & I look forward to any experiences you all have had & what has worked well to help your horses thrive after ulcers.

[EmilyM]

Anything high in sugar can cause more acid to be generated in the stomach so you want to avoid high sugar feeds. I use Ultium for my horse that had ulcers (confirmed to have healed upon follow up scope).

also, alfalfa hay is better than grass because the high calcium content neutralizes stomach acid more than if they have grass hay with lower content. My vet even said if you feed them a flake every 5 hours it helps.

Also grazing has a similar buffering effect and is essential for maintenance. Mine is on same schedule-overnight during summer and daytime during colder months.

I use omeprazole powder (before scoping him, i felt it helped him eat better, but many will say it doesn’t work as well as ulcergard/gastroguard) as well as Assure Guard (an Arenus product) for maintenance. i always show and ship on ulcergard.

Hope that helps.

[Jersey_Fresh]

Platinum performance has no data on ulcer prevention as far as I am aware. Even smartpak’s product has mediocre evidence at best (I really wanted that product to work but after seeing the actual results of the study I’m not super impressed.

Products like Neighlox can theoretically work as a buffer but they need to be fed more than once or twice a day.

Small meals, access to pasture and forage as much as possible is the best preventative non-medical measure. Ulcer studies in horses use a 24-48 feed restriction model if that gives you an idea of how important regular feeding.

For my horse, we treated with gastro guard and will prob again this season. Some give a tube of ulcer guard prior to any stressful event. I’ll probably add this to my program this season.

Another simple thing that can help is feeding before exercise. A horses stomach contracts during exercise exposing the non glandular region to acid from the glandular region. PH of the stomach drops during exercise too.A small meal is thought to help prevent the stomach from contracting too much. I feed half a scoop of senior feed currently as soon as my horse gets off the trialer and immediately before we show. I need to pick up alfalfa cubes as I think this would be even better.

Make sure you are doing the correct GG regime- a lot of vets think a couple tubes will work but really it’s 14-28 days of a tube/day according to the research on it. Unfortunately ulcers are something you need to carefully manage all of the time to keep them from reoccurring.

[joiedevie99]

[QUOTE=Jersey Fresh;8451549]

Make sure you are doing the correct GG regime- a lot of vets think a couple tubes will work but really it’s 14-28 days of a tube/day according to the research on it. Unfortunately ulcers are something you need to carefully manage all of the time to keep them from reoccurring.[/QUOTE]

I just wanted to add a PSA. I have a horse who has been on full tubes of GG for 7 months and is not yet healed. Do not just stop treatment at 28 days. Get another scope to confirm it has done its job.

[Jersey_Fresh]

[QUOTE=joiedevie99;8451563]
I just wanted to add a PSA. I have a horse who has been on full tubes of GG for 7 months and is not yet healed. Do not just stop treatment at 28 days. Get another scope to confirm it has done its job.[/QUOTE]

The orginal studies showed that only like 80% (I need to check the number) healed completely after 28d. EGUS is a bugger to deal with.

At $30/tube/d that is one expensive horse!!!

[Doctracy]

Don’t worry about alfalfa causing silliness.Mine have always fed alfalfa.Had many top western pleasure horses (as in World Champion paints) and if alfalfa caused them to be hyper you could never tell.

[Daisyesq]

Following, because we have a similar story to yours.
Currently mid way through a 28 day course of GG. I think he is doing better, more comfortable, and he’s eating better too.

[eclipse]

[QUOTE=joiedevie99;8451563]
I just wanted to add a PSA. I have a horse who has been on full tubes of GG for 7 months and is not yet healed. Do not just stop treatment at 28 days. Get another scope to confirm it has done its job.[/QUOTE]

same only mine has pyloric ulcers and I’ve started using generic as I can no longer afford the GG! like everyone else has said, get a followup scope and make sure you are feeding correctly. Alfalfa hay buffers the stomach so at least try to get some hay that’s a 50/50!

[gopony]

Has anyone ever used aloe vera juice after & felt it was beneficial for prevention, of course in addition to as much free range grazing/roughage as possible?

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

I am not a supplement person in general, but did a lot of looking into this when I put my mare into full training this fall (unfortunately they had very limited turnout and no pasture) and she went from laid back and easy to girthy, touchy, angry (like trying to bite at feed time), and developed liquid black tar poo that scared me. I used Smartpak GI Ultra https://www.smartpakequine.com/ps/smartgi-ultra-pellets--11920 and also enrolled her in colic care. I saw a big difference in her stool in two weeks. I had them give rantadine at the two feedings. Then a month later I brought her home and started her on rantadine 3x a day for a couple months. Rantadine worked well because she was then on full turnout and the training barn stress was gone. There are cons to being on ulcergard/gastro gard long term (many months) and it doesn’t help the hind gut. I think it is the best for immediate treatment, don’t get me wrong. If a horse needed continued stronger support I would talk to your vet about rantadine.

I chose the Smartpak one for the front and hind gut support. I will drop her down to a cheaper supplement next month to keep the colic care going (I dropped her insurance this year–this makes me sleep better).

The other one that I almost did was RiteTrac by KER. It includes Equishure.

Neighlox is an antacid and some people have great results, but I wanted something for hind gut support too.

I fed aloe and I want to say slippery elm (you can buy aloe by the jug at the Walmart pharmacy quite cheaply) to a different horse and never saw it do anything, so I bit the bullet and did gastrogard for a month, so IDK on that.

Alfalfa buffers as well.

[triplethreat]

Go to walmart and get Equate brand Ranitidine 220mg. It’s less than $10 for 150 count. My horse gets 28 pills mixed in with his meals. it’s the cheapest preventive I’ve found.

[findeight]

[QUOTE=Doctracy;8451656]
Don’t worry about alfalfa causing silliness.Mine have always fed alfalfa.Had many top western pleasure horses (as in World Champion paints) and if alfalfa caused them to be hyper you could never tell.[/QUOTE]

Ditto on that. The mistake people make is not realizing alfalfa replaces most of the grain/concentrates in the diet. If they don’t reduce them, the horse will get…ambitious. The alfalfa gets blamed. My Hunters got mostly alfalfa mix with a laughably small amount of anything else. Or nothing else at all if the alfalfa was top quality. My Western horses got nothing else, sometimes added a small amount crimped oats.

No sillies…unless they also were getting too little work, then they did get hot. We, as a society, overfeed and under exercise most of them trying to do good by them.

[PNWjumper]

I have had a horse who was an absolute lunatic on alfalfa. And that included any form of alfalfa included alfalfa meal used in supplements and treats. It was a very real and serious problem for that horse. But that’s the only horse out of dozens that I’ve owned over the years who reacted in any way to alfalfa. The rest were no different on/off.

Anyhow, on to the ulcer issue. I have a horse that was/is prone to being ulcery and helped greatly by being on omeprazole…until long term use of it one summer led to two bad gas colics and hind gut ulcers. So we pulled him off of the daily omeprazole and now his diet is this:

Free choice orchard grass all day, plus:

Morning: 1 flake of alfalfa
1/2 scoop complete feed + Platinum Performance CJ + SmartDigest Ultra
1 oz Apple Cider Vinegar
Evening: 1/2 scoop compete feed + PP CJ
1 oz Apple Cider Vinegar

At shows I add in omeprazole (paste from one of the online companies - can’t think of the name offhand) and a Chinese Herb called Stomach Happy. In experimenting at a few of the shows this year, the Stomach Happy seems to be the most influential component of his diet and is the thing that keeps him cleaning up his grain day in and day out. Oh, I also up the Apple Cider Vinegar a bit.

He’s a show horse who competes at the GP level and shows from April to September (usually 2 weeks of shows a month) and is a very stereotypical TB type prone to stress and ulcers. This plan has kept him in great shape at the shows and in between.

[drkarins]

Agree with a lot of what has been posted.

In addition:
-Alfalfa fed 30-60 minutes before exercise (and at shows) is a wonderful acid buffer.
-We switched all of ours to alfalfa instead of grain and now use watered grass pellets as the “fill” for their supplements. Alfalfa is not ideal in hay nets but does slow them some.
-We not only feed orchard grass 24/7 in nets, we also soak (60 min) it. While this may not have a direct impact on ulcers, it lowers the “sugar” load and they sure do love it. This may not be feasible in a boarding barn, unfortunately.
-We recently switched to all Platinum products and are thrilled with the results. They are superb advisors so please do call them for advice. We have our ulcer prone, former GP jumper on their product called “Balance” and it is doing wonders (switched her from the Smartpak product).
-We use Ulcergard in all our competition horses before, during and after shows. The amount depends on the horse and ulcer history (if any). At the show, try to get them out for walks frequently and if the show has any grazing areas, take advantage.

There are other things we can do as we have the horses at home (all day turn out, irrigated grass turn outs etc) that was not possible as a boarder so kudos to you for doing the best you can - it is not always easy!

Good luck, and sure do agree with re-scoping before stopping treatment.

[Sing_Mia_Song]

I farted around with various treatments and wasted time and money before scoping and going to GG. He was on it for 5 months, and then we transitioned to ranitidine for maintenance during the show season. He has now been off it for about a month, knock on wood. We also changed his diet: 4 cups soaked beet pulp, about 3 handfuls of soaked alfalfa/oat Standlee cubes, a ration balancer and a cup of corn oil, plus 24/7 turnout and all the grass hay he wants.

I also found it was imperative to never ride on a completely empty stomach and he routinely gets some of his soaked cubes as a snack right before I take him up. It really seems to help.

[reefy]

@TrotTrotPumpkn;8452361

Neighlox is an antacid and some people have great results, but I wanted something for hind gut support too.

They also make Neighlox Advanced - that includes hind gut stuff. When my horse’s previous one seemed to stop working (Succeed), I tried this and it really perked him up/made his manure nice and normal again.

The only downside is that it is $$$ but mine does great on it (and this was after treating for ulcers, adding the Succeed, having that work for months and then suddenly not).

[Kottbulle]

My mare showed signs of ulcers during a massage this past October. Because she really didn’t have any other symptoms other than not wanting to be touched over the withered and on her sides, she was never one to miss a meal, and her coat and body condition were great. So I decided to try the ranatdine ( Pepcid) pills. To see if it made a difference. She seemed much happier and more pleasant under saddle. So I went ahead and did 14 days of an omperzole paste I found some thru stateline tack. It was about $18 a tube so much cheaper than the RX brand. She seemed to like the taste and took it fairly easily. I also started her on G.U.T. Supplement from Ukele. I also gave her 1 cup of alfalfa pellets with each meal.
She seems much better and now she is just on the G.U.T and a cup of alfalfa with her regular grain feedings.
Before I ride I give her 1 cup of alfalfa while I tack up and right before I get on I give her 10-15 tums. I buy the double pack at Costco. I maybe looking for a different brand though for shows as the Costco brand has several pastel colors as they as they are berry flavored. She loves them and eats them like they are mints but I worry that due to the coloring she might be called over for a stewards inspection as it can sometimes get quite pink when she gets a foamy mouth.
While she doesn’t seem to be stressed about trail erring and is pretty relaxed at horse shows I plan on giving her a tube of the omperzole paste each day while at the horse show. I may even add the ranatdine to her feed as well since one can’t be too sure.
Good luck. I feel lucky that I don’t think hers are all that bad and cleared up easily.

[cmth]

I went through 3 months of Gastro Gard and scoping checks before we were able to scale back on the dosage and transition to something else.

The first thing we did is remove grain from his diet, just hay and alfalfa cubes. But he is a skinny guy so we tried Platinum Performance and no luck. There was way too much sugar in it for him.

Final solution is daily radantidine liquid before meals, tums before riding, alfalfa for meals and Smartpak GI ultra. He also goes on ulcer guard for all travel and shows and gets no bute, only previcox.

You will probably have to play around to see what works and how susceptible your horse is to recurrences.

Good luck!

[wronglead]

UShield by Choice of Champions… I’m not kidding this stuff is a miracle worker. Great for maintenance on ulcers for all of the troubled ones in my barn. They have never looked or felt (attitude-wise) better. Allyn, the owner, is also wonderful to work with. 110% must try- so worth every penny.

[bjd2013]

At our barn, basically every horse does a full treatment of UG. Afterwards we follow up with either Succeed or Omeprazole powder (which is way cheaper than any other supplement at 105$ for 90 days). We also give them Alfalfa forage with every meal. They eat 3 times a day. When stalled we try to make it where they are never not eating something. We’ve only ever had one horse have their ulcers come back. These horses also travel about 2 times a month to shows.