So, I have a thoroughbred mare who has been in training for a few weeks (after being off for months). A little about what I feed her… she gets 6 lbs of triple crown senior, joint flex, gut x, previcox, probiotics, and regumate daily. She is only brought in twice a day to eat and then is turned out for the rest of the time. She is out in a 30 acre field with lots of grass and a mixed herd. She is ridden for about 30 minutes to an hour usually 5 times a week. She is a little fidgety in the cross ties but nothing too bad. She shifts when you tighten her girth but again, nothing too bad. She doesn’t ever bite no matter what you do to her. Her coat is nice and shiny and she’s gaining weight. However, she is a very anxious horse. She hates being in the stall (she was rearing and running into the door after she had been in the stall for 20 minutes but calmed right down when I took her out) and she’s very tense and defensive when she is ridden. Sometimes though, she is really bad. On bad days, she will have diarrhea around the ring and pins her ears and is generally pissy when leg is added. My trainer and I both think she has ulcers. Here’s the kicker. I don’t have Ulcergard money. Sucralfate is pretty expensive too. I’m already in lots of debt from other vet bills and am having trouble managing that. I don’t want to go into even more debt.
I was thinking of trying Nexium and my trainer wants to try Outlast. I know there are lots of threads about Nexium, but the threads are long and I don’t want to read them all. Would anyone happen to have any advice on dosage and length to do Nexium? She is around 1,100 pounds. She isn’t picky and will eat whatever I put in her grain. She’s not great at taking oral medications though.
Also to add, I have tried alfalfa with her but it makes her really hot. I’ve added a picture of her because she is beautiful and I love her!
Everything you’re asking about Nexium is covered in the very first post.
Yes, I’ve read that. But I did not see anything about dosage by weight. Does a 600 pound horse get the same dosage as a 1500 pound horse? What about an 1100 pound horse? That’s my question, which is why I included my mare’s weight. I also saw that someone gave their horse a whole bottle a day for 2 weeks? That’s more than 3 capsules a day…
What I’m asking for is an exact (or close to exact) dose for an 1100 pound mare. How many should I give and how long? How should I wean her off? Are there any supplements I should be giving her to help?
That thread has over 700 replies which is why I said I didn’t want to read through all of them to find (or maybe not) the information I need.
I am just finishing up a successful course of Nexium…at least if you go by symptoms. My 1150lb mare has been getting 60mg (3 capsules) daily. At the end of this week she finishes her 30 days of treatment dose and I will begin a taper. 40mg / day for a week the. 20mg / day for a week, She only gets fed 3x per day but now all of her meals are in slow feed hay bags. There is no grass available at my barn. I may have to get the ultra slow nets as it seems as if she has figured out how to empty a net in record time 
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Susan
My nearly-1300lb TB did best on 4 Nexium/day. I did 4 weeks at full dose, then 3 pills for a week, then 2 pills for a week, then 1 pill for a week before stopping. I did get the dosing and weaning from that thread.
A note though that while the symptoms resolved while actually on the Nexium, the problems returned soon after weaning off. I ended up having to scope and then put him on Gastrogard anyway. I had better luck with compounded omeprazole tubes than the Nexium for longer relief.
It’s certainly worth trying, but if you notice an improvement followed by a return of symptoms you might need to try another route.
Why is she on Previcox? If you suspect ulcers, I’d stop that and see if any difference.
If she’s only been back in training for a few weeks after being off for months, I think 5x a week riding is too much. Some of that needs to be lunging or some other form of work with her.
Also, check saddle fit.
Anxious can be anything. My late mare was an anxious mess all the time, and her necropsy showed zero ulcers. She was antsy in the stall, sensitive to leg under saddle. Best thing for her was to put the aids on and just let her figure out they weren’t going anywhere. Some days were better than others, we were finally turning a corner with consistency when I had to euth her.
The vet recommended previcox so I’m not stopping it. She has some arthritis and it makes her more comfortable. As for saddle fit, yes, it fits. When I say she’s in work 5x a week, I’m not saying she’s being galloped for an hour doing cross country. Most of the time it’s 30 minutes of flat work and back exercises. The vet was just out and cleared her for this work.
I suspect ulcers because, like I said, she has GI symptoms and bites/kicks at her stomach occasionally.
It won’t kill her to take her off the stuff for a couple weeks. You say you’re short on cash, it’s free to try it.
It doesn’t matter what the vet cleared her for, she is telling you it’s too much and she is unhappy. Have you tracked her bad rides? Are they the first ride after a day off, or are they the third ride day? Are they on certain weather days? Are they every 2-3 weeks?
She has arthritis, ie discomfort, which is almost certainly contributing to her anxiety.
Maybe your vet can suggest the esomeprazole dose, since you can’t be knackered to read one thread about it, where all the answers are in the first 30 posts.
Alfalfa does not make horses hot.
Alfalfa is beneficial to an ouchy stomach and since its available to you (*) and other options are too $ for your budget… That’s what I’d start with.
From an actual vet:
Protein does not make a horse have excess energy/hot
Protein is used for structural repair and maintenance, so if you’re building/repairing muscle its very helpful.
Alfalfa takes a very long route to be metabolized and create energy. Excess carbs creates excess energy much more quickly.
But active ulcers need meds to treat. There’s no way around that.
Alfalfa may not make horses hot in the sense of having excess energy, however some horses react badly (possibly allergy) to alfalfa and the resulting behaviour mimics “hot” very well. I knew a TB like that.
It sounds like you would be better served with gastrogard, which has weight markings on the tube, and enough research behind it that there are few questions as to it’s use and effectiveness. I’m sure your vet can hook you up with a box, and tell you how to dose it.
I know you say the saddle fits her, and we can’t see anything that would indicate otherwise. I will say thought that the saddle doesn’t fit you. Having so much of your weight way back on the cantle, is creating inappropriate pressure on her back there. That could be contributing to some of her behaviors, and enough discomfort for long enough can cause ulcers.
What was she off work for months for? Injury? Just no time to ride (or too hot)?
Nexium at anywhere from 60mg to 280 mg, depending on which study you are using, is a good place to start as a trial. 60mg is the low amount of a 40mg dose, plus an extra 20mg for some insurance in case 1 capsule gets crunched too badly. But even if you threw a whole bottle at her (14 caps) for a week, at $14-ish a day, that’s not horrible, and may give you good feedback. Some horses do well on the 60mg, some require a higher dose, so I would hate to “waste” 1-2 weeks at the low dose, not see improvement and assume that means it’s not ulcers. But, you certainly could, and if you don’t see changes then go with 280mg for a week and see what happens.
Other things to try are switching to TC Sr Gold if it’s available, as it has the gastric buffering used in Outlast. Or, add Outlast, or Tribute’s new Constant Comfort. TC Sr Gold will support both the stomach and the hind gut. The other 2 will only affect the stomach by raising pH for a few hours, which could be very useful if fed right before you get her out to groom and tack up, and then maybe 1 more feeding at the other end of the day.
Sucralfate can be had fairly inexpensively from www.abler.com
You can’t tell someone that something isn’t happening when they say it is. Alfalfa absolutely makes SOME horses reactive and “hot”.
I’ve been wanting to try senior gold for so long but I can’t find it anywhere. And that’s not me in the picture, it’s my trainer. I’m a lot smaller so my saddle fits me (might even be a bit too big but I feel more comfortable with a bit of room). I was also thinking of getting the tribute from chewy as no where around here carries that brand at all. And she wasn’t like off off. I rode her like maybe once a week for a while because the barn was 2 hours from me. I just didn’t have time to make the four hour trip. I was thinking of maybe doing 4 pills a day for 2 weeks and then assessing. If she’s improving, then I’ll keep that dose for 2 more weeks then wean her off.
Not according to science and vets.
Further, My hot, your hot and the guy down the streets hot are three different things. We don’t know what “hot” means.
For some people a well fed, fit horse is too hot for them to handle.
That’s not a diet problem, it’s an education/experience problem of the rider/handler.
And when we assume a description of “hot” is the horse/diets fault, the horse suffers. Especially when we’re talking about a horse with an issue like ulcers. Sugar will make a horse reactive too. I’d want her on a low nasc, maybe an IR diet myself. For a spooky, reactive, ulcery horse in sporadic work… It can really help.
She was laid up for a month, from what, but also what was her fitness before that layup?
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Actually, the science of this is that some horses are sensitive to outright allergic to alfalfa, and that feeling of discomfort can make them behave in a way that is “hot”. Some get hives, some are spooky and flighty and “hot”. You cannot tell her that adding alfalfa to this horse’s diet didn’t cause a change in her behavior.
Nobody assumed. The OP said she added alfalfa, it didn’t agree with the horse, end of story. There are plenty of horses who simply cannot have alfalfa, period.
It’s only available to independent retailers, meaning not Tractor Supply. You can call TC directly and ask if there’s anyone close to you who carries it, or who currently carries the brand but just not the Gold line yet
Good to know that rider isn’t the normal rider, but if she is, that could still be part of the issue
That’s good to hear she wasn’t truly out of work for months, and especially not for an injury 
Correlation isn’t causation.
I’m simply saying a horse with ulcers and an owner who needs to be thrifty… Might consider using alfalfa that’s apparently available at the barn since it’s an excellent tool in ulcer management.
Until/unless it proves to be a problem for the horse while getting sufficient work and turnout.
I’m going to tractor supply today after work to pick up some of that Redmond Daily Gold stuff and some alfalfa pellets. If she gets all spooky and reactive again, I guess it’ll be my trainer’s problem since she’s riding her right now! But in all seriousness, if she gets bad again I can stop it again. I gave her cubes last time.
and I’m guessing you weren’t giving her pounds and pounds, and therefore a lot of calories, if you were using cubes.
I was giving her 6 quarts daily. How many should I give of the pellets?
I would get a bag of Purina Outlast and feed 1 cup /meal and also give a cup prior to riding …TC STRESS FREE FORAGE is a great addition to free choice hay …other supplements to try if you don’t have money to treat would be Succeed oral paste syringes -might also help the diarrhea , Uckeles GUT, Equine Elixir Ulceraser ,Alimend …she might also benefit from Positude and Kalmacazi from Equine elixirs …has the saddle been checked by a saddle fitter ? Has the vet ever checked her back ? …you might want to try a forage based diet such as soaked hay cubes and something like Hygain Zero which is soy free and low starch sugar -good for ulcery prone horses
