Advise needed on Ulcer treatment

[Beckyl00]

I am looking for advise/experiences on what is the best maintenance supplemtn to swap onto after using Gastroguard. Gastroguard has worked and cleared the ulcers but I am looking for a more economical route forward to prevent them developing again.

Ideas would be most appreciated.

Thanks

 

[strides-eventing]

I am looking for advise/experiences on what is the best maintenance supplemtn to swap onto after using Gastroguard. Gastroguard has worked and cleared the ulcers but I am looking for a more economical route forward to prevent them developing again.

Ideas would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Hey.

My vets recommended Settlex from Feedmark, and they have since brought out a more specific one called Ulcercalm. These are the ones recommended by my vets and I have used with success. Hope this helps.

 

[philamena]

I've recently moved from Ulcer Calm to TEN Gastric Health because I think from a "useful ingredients" point of view it has more bases covered, ie higher glutamine. I also use Ulcerex Plus from Ron Fields Nutrition and Protexin Gut Balancer for the hind gut which is often also compromised in gastric ulcer cases. Good luck!

 

[philamena]

Forgot to say she was fine for a year on Ulcer Calm and her ulcers recurred for other reasons, so I do think it is good stuff. I just also think there's new thinking all the time and supplements are therefore getting better and better so I'll always keep looking. Another cheap thing to add in is corn oil which is 1.69 a litre from Sainsburys

 

[Beckyl00]

Thank you,

I am currently feeding a alfalfa with corn oil, lots of forage & turnout. He is also currently on potassium bromide as a calmer, I think the ulcers are stress related as there is currenlty alot of movement at the yard.

The gastoguard is really good. there seems to be a lot of supplements around with similar ingredients. I was wondering if a powder or a paste would be better?

 

[philamena]

I think the ingredients are more important than the 'form', if you know what I mean. And powder's no bad thing from a consistency point of view as it helps to make the stomach acid gloopy and less likely to splash, if splash ulcers were an issue.

Sounds like you're doing good things

I think stress and pain are very important factors. With both it can be difficult to tell whether the stress / discomfort is causing or caused by the ulcers - sometimes you notice the stressy-ness and general discomfort before you see obvious ulcery signs, so you may assume it's the stress causing the ulcers when in fact the ulcer discomfort puts them on high stress alert in itself. I'd really study your horse's behaviour as the gastoguard does its job, and be really analytical about what behaviour remains and what changes, so you can try to tell what's causing what behaviour. It's often very cyclical.

You prob know to avoid NSAIDs like bute and danilon, if you can? It's worth having a plan for if the horse gets injured. My mare's came back after we had a fall and she hurt her back. Now we know pain's a big factor for her, so are exploring different options for pain relief when required as both pain and painkillers are a risk factor (always simple, innit?!)