Anyone else have a hard keeper that seems to drop weight at 2-3 day races? He is a bit more anxious/nervous than your average horse, but nothing over the top or concerning. I keep his feed the same - free choice local hay, alfalfa, grain & supplements and add Ulcergard when away. He eats and drinks great when away and always has hay in front of him, but still seems to drop weight. It takes about a week of being back home to get him back up to where he was. He doesn't have ulcers, is regularily vetted by a performance horse vet and chiro'd, gets regular PEMF treatments, so I know it's not a soundness related issue. Is there anything I can do or add to his feed to help maintain his weight when away? 

Haven't experienced this, but do make sure you give the Ulcerguard on an empty stomach. Othewrwise you're throwing your money away. Just pull hay for an hour, give it and wait another hour to put hay back in front of him. It needs to coat the stomach and it can't do that if there's a bunch of food in there. That may help some and will definitely get you more for your money out of that product. Might be producing enough acid to alter his digestive system while also not being enough to cause ulcers. Hind gut ulcers are always possible as well, if you just scoped his stomach to check that's not enough. Could also try a paste for the anxiety, maybe one with magnesium in it. I like Gastro-plex paste bc it covers ulcer prevention and anxiety, but there's plenty of others on the market to try. Every horse is going to respond differently. Good luck 

Can you explain where this information came from ? Ulcerguard and gastroguard all have a special carrier that gets the omeprazole THROUGH the stomach into the intestine where it's absorbed. It cannot be absorbed unless it gets there. Not sure why it would need to coat the stomach !?!  Thanks!

I meant to coat any existing ulcers in the stomach, not the entire stomach in general. Sorry, I get to typing and my brain usually winds up 2-3 sentences ahead of my fingers lol.The rest should pass through yes, but omeprazole is minimally effective in the hindgut anyway even if it makes it there.  But some new studies are showing omeprazole works better on fasted horses. There was just one vets findings referenced on the Horse website not that long ago from the AAEP convention. It's the same in people too. You should take Prilosec, for example, on an empty stomach and wait a short while before eating. 

Got ya. Because omeprazole is simply a drug, that when In the bloodstream turns off the acid pumps in the stomach. It has no affect on hind gut ulcers at all, but the intestine is where the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream. I was not aware that if a horse Had an ulcer in the stomach that omeprazole had any type of coating effect. Each dose is 2.27mg. A very tiny amount.