Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
         Location: North Dakota | Let me give a bit of backstory. I suspected ulcers in my horse last spring and my vet gave me gastrogard as I couldn't get to the vet to scope right away. He improved but not fully so gave him 2 more months on medication. After which I finally got him in for a scope at a different vet. They have an older scope that isn't as good but were able to see some partially healed squamous ulcers. We kept up the meds and he started doing really well, however any time I tried to start tapering off he would get a little grouchy. So after another 3 months I went to my normal vet. Her scope is much better and she was able to see that his squamous ulcers were healed (LOTS of scar tissue left behind) and he still had an active pyloric ulcer and active glandular ulcer. We believe that he probably had both all along, and while the omeprazole helped, it was not enough on its own to heal the glandular ulcer but did take care of the squamous. She prescribed sucralfate. So he was on both omeprazole and sucralfate for almost a month and then just sucralfate. About 2-3 weeks after the sucralfate ran out he started to be very backed off under saddle again and exhibiting the symptoms he had back at the beginning. So she sent over another tub of sucralfate. I placed a call to get some more omeprazole as well. It has been 9 months now of treatment and over a year since I suspect he first started to get ulcers. If he has to be on medication for the rest of his life, I am happy to pay. He is a phenominal horse. But he is only 4.5 years old and I do hate the idea of having to medicate him indefinitely at such a young age. So I am exploring to see if there are any supplements that can help keep glandular ulcers at bay after he (hopefully) goes off his meds. I have gone over his management extensively with my vet and she said I am doing everything right (lots of turnout, low stress environment, light work, 24/7 access to forage, grain free forage diet, etc.) She had recommended Relyne as a supplement but I picked up Alimend as it is basically the same thing but with added probiotics. I put him on that a full month before stopping his medication and it apparently did nothing to help. I am very intrigued with KER Rite-Trac and the similar KPP Neigh-Lox as they both say they offer gastric buffering as well as coating the stomach. Any advice or experiences managing apparently chronic glandular ulcers. |