Gastric ulcers and expensive treatments!

B

bordermare

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 October 2008
Messages
140
Location
Borders
Visit site
My mare was diagnosed with gastric ulcers last year after she colicked with a gastric impaction. Once the vets had cleared the impaction they could see, on scoping, that she had a nasty necrotic ulcer along with a couple of superficial ones.

She has been treated more or less successfully with Gastrogard and will also have a month of Pronutrin both are enormously expensive (insured thankfully). However this problem is likely to be ongoing and a problem every winter when grass is in short supply.

I can't afford to have her even on maintenance dose gastrogard (£230 a month) on a regular basis, and the pronutrin is not much cheaper at £150 for a months supply.

My question is this. Do any of you have ulcer prone horses and if so do you manage to keep things under control with any of the more reasonably priced products on the market? If so can I have recommendations of anything that you feel works for your horses?

thanks for reading!

(I'm already doing all the recommended management, turnout, ad lib hay, high fibre feeds)
 
My horse had a similar experience to yours and had two courses of Gastrogard. That was two winters ago and he has stayed well. He is on a forage diet with unmolassed chaff but no other additives. He is not in work but if he was he would get a small helping of alfalfa beforehand. He got his ulcers after fretting and not eating while being box rested. The scope showed his stomach emptied abnormally slowly, and there was some very rank foodstuff in there! I am not sure about any other things you could try but there have been previous threads on here with opinions which you ight find useful.
 
A girls horse on my yard was diagnosed with ulcers last year.

He is now fed Simple Systems feed which specialise in ulcers. (I think) You will have to give them a ring and check :)
 
Would Coligone not help with this for maintenance. We have used it previously and it was brilliant. If the ulcers are caused by excessive acid but have now been treated then would this work as prevention for a fraction of the cost?
 
bordermare said:
Anyone used Coligone or Uguard?
Click to expand...

Do a search re coligone, I am sure there is someone on here that is involved with or very knowledgeable about the product but there have been many threads about it in the past, probably archived now. We bought it for an emaciated TB that was very stressy, not long after it first became well known, because it stops the acid damaging the stomach lining. Can Omeprazole not be used for horses too, although I would think they will be prescription only and not sure on price.
 
I used gastrogard to treat the ulcers, made sure after that she had a very high fibre diet and also use gastrocare to help and so far she has been ok. She has spent a lot more time out as well and moved her to my own place so she is not stressed out on a yard anymore as well. Last scope she had came back showing ulcers had gone and only few small scare areas showing.
 
bordermare said:
gastrogard is omeprazole - a month on full dose gastrogard sets you back £800-£900.

hch4971 how did your TB get on with the coligone?
Click to expand...

Ah right, didn't know it was what they used in it, my dad used to take it for his stomach (not gastroguard!)

The results with Coligone were pretty much instantaneous in his case regarding stressy behaviour but he also began to utilise his feed and gain weight rather than stressing it all off. I know at the time there were threads on here about how brilliant it was, that is why we tried it. We started with the smaller bottle and immediately went out and bought a big one it was so good.
 
Hi I am having my horse scoped on Friday and have really tried to research long term management for the horse who has had ulcers via the web. The advice from one source that a lady had successfully used following ulcer treatment was to give lecithicin, Aloe Vera juice, unmolassed beet pulp daily and to never ride the horse on an empty stomach; always feeding a couple of double handfuls of chaff (unmollassed before riding). A polpular prevention for their return also seems to be to use the omeprazole in a small quantity before a known stressful event (show, travelling etc). Sucralfate (ANtepsin) tablets offer relief in suppressing the acid - these are human medicines but can be given at the rate of 10 tablets a day for a 500kg horse. As I understand it these do not have the side effects of omeprazole, which inhibits the production of stomach acid, giving the ulcers a chance to heal; they just sooth the stomach, which is why they are good to use as an indication prior to scoping as to whether the horse may have ulcers or not. Another source of information suggested that ulcers can recur so a 25% maintenance dose of the omeprazole is effective.
It also depends on the type of ulcer splash of glandular and the cause. There is a lot to ulcers and good turnout sounds to be a good treatment. I have also read that Gastro Plus is very good, as is Coligone, Protexin and U-Guard Plus. These supplements all cost around the £50 pm which for maybe just the winter months would be affordable. The other recommended supplement was Settlex made by Feedmark (that's cheaper I believe).
 
Last edited:
My champion windsucker got ulcers really badly last year - collapsed in field, colic too. Never had her scoped but pretty sure that's what it was. I went down the coligone route as advised by this forum but then unsure if it was stealth marketing or not. Anyway snow cleared, grass through all OK in summer.

Was expecting to pts this winter on first attack but it never came. I put it down to me moving her into a field with 2 geldings. She is bottom of the pecking order (no longer competes just accepts) and the boys play 24/7 and just leave her alone. I am gobsmacked by the change just from taking away her stress of being with the mares and youngstock, competing for friends/forage/shelter etc. She is even fat and windsucks so much less. I only moved her as only have 4 stables so needed a 4 horse/3 horse field arrangement

So yes I do think the coligone may have helped but removing the stress appears (touching wood as I type) to have cured her. Just a thought
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top