Feeding for suspected ulcers

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dark_prince

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Hello all,

Working with the vet to treat my horse.. he was supposed to go to the vets yesterday for a gastroscope but after being starved the night before he was wound up and quite frankly dangerous. Couldn't load, he pushed me over and stuffed his face.

Anyway, now hoping the person who has the gastroscope is going to be able to get out to me but it will be a week or two now at least, I think.

So in the mean time I want to know what is best to feed him to hopefully help if he has got ulcers. I don't want to buy any expensive top of the range supplements just yet as I want to wait til the results of the scope.

I've been reading up on a lot of supplements and ingredients that seem beneficial seem to be fenugreek, brewers yeast, and things like charcoal, magnesium, calcium carbonate etc.

Am I best to look at adding in a straight supplement to his diet for a bit of relief? Or perhaps trying a NAF supplement? They seem to have a lot of options and I like that I know exactly what is in them. (from my job I know a bit about antacids etc)

Sorry if this doesn't make sense!
 
Sorry I forgot to add he has a high fibre and very low sugar and starch diet and is fed two small feeds a day along with grazing. I am looking for a supplement... possibly antacid type but wondered what others thought or used.
 
If you are looking for a quick and cheap interim measure to make him more comfortable i would get gaviscon, or supermarket own brand liquid - 30-50ml syringed or put in 2x feeds. Coligone liquid is the more expensive horse version but same ingredients
 
I'd be careful with going down the ant-acid route. Apparently, supplements / drugs that lower the acid level in the stomach are only effective for a few hours and, to maintain efficacy, need to be given every few hours (even through the night). If this doesn't happen, the acid rebound effect (when the acid builds up again between doses) can actually be more dangerous than consistently high acid levels.

My vet advised something to line the stomach is most effective. I've tried various things. At the moment, I'm using a quite pricey supplement from the vets but I did find slippery elm bark powder to be quite effective and quite cheap if you're just looking for something to try for a couple of weeks.
 
Completely forgot I posted this thread. Horse has since been scoped and has confirmed ulcers. I was and am hesitant at feeding antacids because of that reason Fiona36. My vet had recommended apple pectin but for the life of me can't find a feed that contain apple pectin or lethicins without added antacids. Any help?
 
dark_prince said:
Completely forgot I posted this thread. Horse has since been scoped and has confirmed ulcers. I was and am hesitant at feeding antacids because of that reason Fiona36. My vet had recommended apple pectin but for the life of me can't find a feed that contain apple pectin or lethicins without added antacids. Any help?
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When my horse first finished Gastroguard, I put him onto Equitop Pronutrin which contains apple pectin and lecithin. It's a supplement made by Boehringer Ingelheim (Make Metacam etc). You can get it through vets but I found it cheaper online, although it's certainly not cheap!

As far as I know, there aren't any feeds out there containing fruit pectins; you have to add that in the form of a supplement. I think you can buy lecithin from health food shops but I'm not sure how much you'd need for a horse.

Has your horse been prescribed Gastroguard?
 
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