Gastric Ulcer Preventative Treatment

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kfrew

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My mare has recently been scoped and diagnosed with Gastric Ulcers. She is currently being treated with Gastrogard for the next 28 days. She is out at grass all day every day and comes in at night to a full hay net and i only feed her a fast fibre mix with know hard feed, so really there is not much more i can do in her daily routine but i was wondering if anyone with the same problem had found any supplements to use everyday(THAT WORKS) as a preventative to stop them coming back?
 
The only one which has been clinically trialled is Neighlox. However settlex by feedmark is the only other one which contains all the same ingredients as far as I can see - some don't list them.

My routine is now:

Double handfull of mollichaff high fibre alfalfa 30 mins before exercise - this provides long fibres to buffer from splash ulcers, along with scoop of protexin acid ease (pro soothe is the same).

Then am and pm he has a scoop of settlex in his feed.

This seems to be working for now...
 
The new batch is out now apparently. I spoke to the chap who imports it the other day. One lot was recalled, but it is fixed now. Regardless, it is still the only one which has been clinically trialled, so it is the only one you know works for a specific length of time. I am taking the risk that settlex, which is the same antacids but in powder not pellet form will work as well, because it is cheaper by a long way.

TBH, the buffering with chaff does enough to stop the splash ulcers IME, so if my horse had only had the splash ones I would not bother spending money on an antacid, I would just feed one prior to times when they may not eat such as travelling, staying away etc. As my horse had both types I now feed antacids.
 
I worked on a professional yard and we had all our horses gasro scoped on a regular basis. Intially we would used gastroguard to help clear the ulcers and then when they had improved we used either Neighlox or Biotal Gastrogold. We had good results with both, the usage was just dependant on how fussier a feeder we had. However both are relatively expensive products if used in the correct dosage but had excellent results with both products. Good luck with yours.
 
Coligone and a good diet and maintenance programme
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Calcium carbonate??? to research! (chalk)

Regular/trickle feeding- never let em go hungry!

Lots of forage, little concentrates.

Low stress lifestyle!

Good luck
 
Acid Ease by Protexin!!

My horse was diagnosed with Ulcers in August, he had 28 days worth of Gastrogard. However he will be on it for the rest of his life on a maintance dose, the syringe last 3 days so it isnt as bad as it could be & insurance are still covering it atm. Not looking forward to life when i have to pay for it.
Without the Gastrogard he gets very upset & colic's.

I maintain him with the Acid ease in his feed & he is fed a fibre only diet.
I make sure before he's ridden or travelled any where that he gets a handful of Hifi or he gets a good 30 min chomp on his Haylage. This helps prevent the splash back of acid when ridden. I can't give my horse a low stress lifestyle as he's a comp horse.

Alpha is a good product to feed also as the calcium acts like a buffer. My boy go a bit loony on Alpha so i can't feed it. Also Equijewel is another good product to feed horses with Ulcers as it to acts a bit like the Alpha. Can't remember all the info i was given now about it.
 
I use neighlox. (I had one of the batch that had to be returned, it apparently may have had some banned substances in it which would not have been accepted had horses been blood tested at competitions or under racing rules. Worked out well for me tho' as I had almost finished the tub and when it was recalled I get a whole new one to replace it!)
 
I think you have to be careful putting your faith in any supplement.

My boy suffered from ulcers and it has cost £6k of Gastrogard and herbal remedies to get to where we are now.

Neighlox did nothing for him and 3 days after a clear scope he was showing symptoms aagain, another scope and there were the ulcers again.

I have been on a journey of education with him and have had to find the true root cause of the problem - for him it was stable stress and separation anxiety. No amount of supplementation or correct feeding would have kept them away whilst he was still in the situation he was in.

So a yard move and several lifestyle changes and we are finally getting somewhere.

Of course, diet is important too, so that is all geared towards prevention - he'[s on a forage only diet with herbal supplements like Brewers yeast, mint, Milk Thistle, Fenugreek seeds and Liquorice, with regualr aromatherapy oils to deal with either stress or digestive upsets.
 
we have had very good results feeding simple systems. its a complete feed program and the people there are brilliant and will spend ages on the phone giving advise. out problem was getting enough fibre in an 18.2 in full hunt / comp work, they sorted the diet and the ulcers have gone, full marks in my book!
oh, and its not expensive either!
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I can add a bit more info to this thread now, my horse was scoped yet-a-bloody-gain on Friday.

My regime has been Settlex from Feedmark twice a day in feed, and Acid Ease/Pro Soothe by Protexin before exercise with some chaff. The people associated with neighlox are going to be hit hard by the batch contamination and my vet agrees that the settlex has done wonders for my horse - this is the first time in a year he has scoped text-book perfect.

So once you have cleared them up with gastrogard, the next step could be a supplement - and settlex seems to be as good as neighlox for a fraction of the cost (my vet scopes more horses than anyone in the country and he took the name away with him).

Gastrogard is roughly £30 a tube - at one point my horse was on a tube a day, but we were able to reduce that to 1/4 of a tube a day eventually.
 
God horses are soooooo stressful at times!! I had my mare on settlex for around 6 months then changed to Gastrocare for around 2 months, none of these made a difference, this was however well before she was scoped and diagnosed with ulcers and treated with gastrogard.
 
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God horses are soooooo stressful at times!! I had my mare on settlex for around 6 months then changed to Gastrocare for around 2 months, none of these made a difference, this was however well before she was scoped and diagnosed with ulcers and treated with gastrogard.

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That's because despite what people will tell you, none of the off the shelf antacids will cure ulcers, they may alleviate symptoms, but they do not cure ulcers. However they can be an extremely good preventative measure - hence I am now using one, but only after the gastrogard (and antibiotics) cured the ulcers in the first place!

ETA: Omaprazole, which is the drug in gastrogard, is a generic mass-produced ingredient produced for peanuts. It is just Merial have the only licence to produce it for animal use. However, the licence expires next year (IIRC), so expect to be able to get similar products with the same active ingredients much, much more cheaply as soon as their exclusivity expires.
 
That's because despite what people will tell you, none of the off the shelf antacids will cure ulcers, they may alleviate symptoms, but they do not cure ulcers. However they can be an extremely good preventative measure - hence I am now using one, but only after the gastrogard (and antibiotics) cured the ulcers in the first place!

ETA: Omaprazole, which is the drug in gastrogard, is a generic mass-produced ingredient produced for peanuts. It is just Merial have the only licence to produce it for animal use. However, the licence expires next year (IIRC), so expect to be able to get similar products with the same active ingredients much, much more cheaply as soon as their exclusivity expires.

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Thanks for your help, my mare was only diagnosed last week so gastric ulcers are very new to me and its great others have had the same experiences so that hopefully research can be done to find a cure. I think the Protexin supplements sound usefull and are not hideously expensive.
 
If you want any more help on management etc feel free to PM me - I have been dealing with this for over a year and have finally hit on a winning formula which keeps my horse healthy and happy.
 
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