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ulcer meds; who uses them and what is the best?
Topic Started: Jun 6 2007, 03:47 AM (1,064 Views)
amandaw
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There are a few studies (aside from the Merial literature) that state that compounded omeprazole is not effective for treating stomach ulcers in horses.

Here are a few links (thanks to Meredith Barlow for posting them on COTH):
http://www.vetcontact.com/en/art.php?a=111&t=
http://www.horsesdaily.com/news/more/knockoff.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?c...3&dopt=Abstract
("CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results suggest that although administration of the commercially available paste omeprazole formulation was effective in promoting healing of gastric ulcers in these horses, administration of the compounded omeprazole suspension was ineffective.")

To the best of my knowledge, this information is still up to date.

As for personal experience, a 28 day regime of Gastroguard has proven quite effective.
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seal harbor
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EQbitch
Jun 14 2007, 12:31 PM
neighlox is the best. I use it on my horse.

My 3 year old was on Neigh-Lox since February. He colicked again in September and we scoped him. Scope was $250.00 at the track vet hospital. He is a hunter my vet has privileges at the track hospital. He had ulcers. Started GG one full tube a day. Took him off the Neigh-Lox. I have 45 days worth for two times a day. Do you want to buy it from me? It's in Smart Paks.

We are now getting close to the maintenance dose of UG - quarter tube a day and I found it for $29.99 a tube. So I just ordered 10 tubes that will get us through the next 40 days.

I also changed his hay - upped the alfalfa he was getting - he has hay in front of him all the time. Took what concentrate he was getting and split it into 4 meals a day - it's a 50/50 mix of Ultium and LMF Low Carb Stage 1. No treats except for alfalfa cubes.

He has nearly stopped cribbing. He only cribs when he wants something - if we ignore him he goes back to his hay.
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SnackPack
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We just started treating my horse with Gastroguard for 7 days and then switched to Ulcerguard, full tube for 7 days (same stuff as GGm but dosed and less expensive. 1 tube of GG = 4 doses or 1 tube of UG) and am down to 1/2 tube for 14 days. I will then go to 1/4 for 14 days and then as needed.

Horse is picking up weight, more willing to work and in general, seems happier while ridden. He also seems to be less spooky even after having 3 weeks off (from a fever) and only being in light work. We'll see what happens as we get into full work. The odd thing, though...while he isn't grinding his teeth, he is now clacking them together...something he never did before. :angry: :lol:
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kady05
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Clyde just started his ulcer treatment. 1 tube of GG a day for 30 days. He already seems happier, after 3 days of being on the GG. His ulcers were mild, 2 out of 10, but the vet is a little concerned that there's an underlying problem causing them to keep coming back. He had a ton of bile in his stomach when he got scoped; should've had little to none in there after almost 15hrs. with no food/water. Soo we're doing the GG for a month, and hopefully that'll solve the problem. If not, we'll be going back up for an ultrasound, or something, to see if there's another issue.

He's been on TractGuard since '04 when we first treated him for ulcers.. so I guess it didn't prevent them from coming back (though I don't think it's advertised to do so). I talked to the vet about the preventative supplements, and he didn't have much to say about them. Said that after awhile, most of them start having a rebound effect on the stomach and really don't work well anymore (at least that's what I understood it as). So I'm trying to decide if I should just take him off the TractGuard and just let him go without anything, or find a new supplement. :shoot: It's frustrating.
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Symranch
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I had one of our stallions on a full dose of gastro guard for 2 months, followed by four more months of 1/2 dose (which is same as fully dose of ulcerguard)

He started getting "colicy" symptoms (losing weight, grinding teeth, pinning ears, etc) so we finally sent him to be rescoped. His ulcers were better than the last time we scoped him, but they were still there.

I switched him to Ranitadine (generic Zantac) It's only good for 8 hours, so it's a 3x/day med.... but it costs about $2.50/day (I buy the pills at Costco They are tiny, and we just feed them topdressed/uncrushed)

It's been about 2 months, and he is gaining weight and acting happy. MUCH better than he was doing on the $$$$ gastroguard!

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SnackPack
Oct 18 2007, 01:51 PM
We just started treating my horse with Gastroguard for 7 days and then switched to Ulcerguard, full tube for 7 days (same stuff as GGm but dosed and less expensive. 1 tube of GG = 4 doses or 1 tube of UG) and am down to 1/2 tube for 14 days. I will then go to 1/4 for 14 days and then as needed.

Horse is picking up weight, more willing to work and in general, seems happier while ridden. He also seems to be less spooky even after having 3 weeks off (from a fever) and only being in light work. We'll see what happens as we get into full work. The odd thing, though...while he isn't grinding his teeth, he is now clacking them together...something he never did before. :angry: :lol:

The difference between GastroGard and UlcerGard, aside from the price differential, is what goes into making it.

UlcerGard is considered a non-prescription version of GastroGard, and as such does not have to meet the same stringent research and quality control procedures as prescription drugs (I know this because my SIL works for AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical, the maker of both drugs). That being said, I would do research into the efficacy of UlcerGard vs. GastroGard because the formulations of omeprazole may differ. This has been shown to be true in the powder suspension generic form of omeprazole vs. the paste version found in GastroGard.

As an example, over the counter Prilosec is NOT the same formulation as the original prescription version, and patients found that they needed to increase their dose to achieve the same effect.

The same may hold true for UlcerGard, and if you have to increase the dose to match the efficacy of a smaller dose of GastroGard, you may be paying the same for either medicine in the long run.

JMHO. :innocent:
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