Thoughts on comfort gut / supplements for digestion

SirBrastias

SirBrastias

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This is may be a long one...

Firstly a bit of background, horse is 8 year old ex-racer, last raced 2/3 years ago. Ridden 4/5 times a week, mostly schooling with some hacking. Turned out 2-3 days a week when not in work.

Same bit/bridle for approx. 2 years, a couple of weeks a go horse started yawning and chomping when bridled. Ah! I thought, he needs his teeth doing (needs doing every 6 months - otherwise very sharp edges appear). Vet visiting yard for several horses so asked him to have a look. Vet pokes and prods and turns around and says mouth is fine (his teeth were last done in July) and to stop worrying about his mouth. We talk about his ridden behavior (generally very good), occasionally when jumping, he has a few 'moments' when he will land and shorten up dramatically and tuck his head on, not broncing, but not his normally sweet self. General advice from instructors is to ride him through it. It is very rare, but I would say has happened maybe 3 times in last couple of months. Mostly horse is very good, but these occasional moments do knock my confidence and make me worry. Anyway, back to vet, on hearing this and some more poking about, vet wonders if horse may have some discomfort and the yawning and chomping is a pain anticipation (agreed), thinks maybe has some ulcer signs but doesn't want to scope as does not think server enough. Discuss feeding regime and says to monitor and if horses shows any additional signs or signs get worse then can investigate more but suspects will pass.

Back/saddle up to date.

Coincidentally horse is now having a few weeks off for swollen tendon sheath, so has been turned out for a couple of weeks to allow swelling to go down.

Horse may come back fine, but considering whether to offer supplement to help with any potential gut discomfort. Horse fed hay and pony nuts, not typical TB in that holds weight well and will eat for england given the chance (when on DIY I way over fed haylage and ended up with very fat, loopy horse - I've never had a TB look after himself quite so well!). Feed now managed by livery yard - very happy, horse is very happy, showing no signs of stress except for recent yawning spell when bridled.

I have always been a big supplement feeder in past (on DIY), but as horse for last 2 years have flourished on yard under their regime have not bothered adding anything to his diet.

Now for the questions...

What is comfort gut and is this likely to help? It seems very popular at yard for helping horses with behavioral issues and potential gut problems. Is it just activated charcoal?

Is there anything anyone would recommend that I could use as a preventative measure in relation to potential gut discomfort?

Obviously if horse gets worse or behavior persists will get checked more thoroughly, current vet advice is wait and it will probably pass or may get worse.

Tea and chocolate biscuits for reading through.
 
Comfort Gut is just charcoal. I use it when my mare is squitty, but when she's been a bit girthy it hasn't helped. I know of one horse which struggled to maintain weight and it worked well for him. You need to stop feeding it for a few days when worming as it prevents absorption.

I now use Equinox and that has worked really well for stopping the girthiness, making my mare more relaxed and getting her looking really well. I recently splashed out on Equinox GastroU but actually don't think it works as well on her as the original stuff.....but as it costs £85 a tub I am persevering with it! I'll probably go back to Original when this one's finished.
 
Not too much help for the questions you actually asked, but yawning and teeth grinding was one of my horses ulcer symptoms (his others were ear pinning and trying to halt when asked to trot or canter in the school), but otherwise shiny and fat and not at all girthy. Yawning could also be a sign of tension in the TMJ? Anyway, I treated the ulcers but then used equishure for his hind gut, and I did find that that makes a big difference to him. It does nothing for stomach pain but acts to buffer an acidic hind gut. That and ad lib hay or haylage seems to have kept mines tummy healthy since the ulcer treatment finished.
 
Ive been using protexin on my mare for a few weeks now, what a difference its made.

Her poo's have firmed up, she's no longer girthy, shes more forward and happy when ridden. Ive just put her brother on it, I'm also seeing a difference in him. He was just grumpy / miserable, didn't want to be touched. Last night he looked happy, pleased to see me, I went in his stable, he was happy to be brushed and faffed with. Hes back to normal.
 
KatPT said:
Not too much help for the questions you actually asked, but yawning and teeth grinding was one of my horses ulcer symptoms (his others were ear pinning and trying to halt when asked to trot or canter in the school), but otherwise shiny and fat and not at all girthy. Yawning could also be a sign of tension in the TMJ? Anyway, I treated the ulcers but then used equishure for his hind gut, and I did find that that makes a big difference to him. It does nothing for stomach pain but acts to buffer an acidic hind gut. That and ad lib hay or haylage seems to have kept mines tummy healthy since the ulcer treatment finished.
Click to expand...

I've had good results with Ritetrac, which contains equishure. She also responded well to Succeed but I had no luck with Protexin. I'm sorry OP but my guess it you will have to try a few to find out which one your boy gets the best results from.

Sadly what works for one doesn't do a thing for the one next door :-(. Good luck in your search, there's loads of good advice on here and so much experience.

I bet between everyone on here there's not much that hasn't been tried
 
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. To be honest I was surprised the vet didn't want to scope, but he didn't feel the signs were there enough of the time to justify it.

Diddleydoo said:
I've had good results with Ritetrac, which contains equishure. She also responded well to Succeed but I had no luck with Protexin. I'm sorry OP but my guess it you will have to try a few to find out which one your boy gets the best results from.

Sadly what works for one doesn't do a thing for the one next door :-(. Good luck in your search, there's loads of good advice on here and so much experience.

I bet between everyone on here there's not much that hasn't been tried
Click to expand...

I think you right, in that it's going to be a bit of trial and error, there have been some good suggestions but agree what works for one won't work for the other (oh to have a magic wand/8 ball). I used to swear by the progressive earth balancer as previous horse looked great on it but as this one has been fine on the livery yard have been reluctant to try a balancer incase anything had a negative effect!

Sounds like giving a gut balance a go might help him, I hate to think he's in any kind of discomfort, though he is normally the type to object quite strongly if something is not right (as I found out with saddles!).
 
I give my mare Aloe Vera juice because I though she was showing symptoms of ulcers - and I knew she had been on a high starch/high sugar diet before I got her. Her symptoms subsided but soon came back if I ran out of AV juice.
 
Follow up questions...

What is the difference between the Protexin Gut Balancer and Acid Ease? Looking at the ingredients the Acid Ease has the additional buffering components but still has the probiotic and prebiotic present.

Based on symptoms I'm learning more towards the Acid Ease but not sure if this is overkill...
 
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