Suggestions please, my horse has ulcers again, im on another 30 day round of gastroguard. she went from winning a race to the bottom dropping out.  I went too long without getting her hocks injected and she probably got sore which made her ulcers flare.  My vet suggested I take her off her grain for now to reset her tummy (nutrena proforce) her blood work is good.  Im trying to get to the root of the problem with her being a high strung anxious mare so Im looking into changing her diet.   Is renew gold a ration balancer?  If i were only feeding alfalfa would it be good to just ad that? 

I have read that some ration balancers should not be fed with alfalfa.  Im alittle confused about it all.  This mare is so talented when she feels good and her ulcers are at bay but we keep circling around to this.  

I do run her on lasix and guanabenz and always give her electrolytes but there has to be a feed program that will keep her looking good but not bouncing off the walls.  

She is a complicated mare as they usually are but this is ridiculous and I have to trying something different so im doing a deep dive into nutrition.

If all she gets is alfalfa hay, that's some of your problem. It puts the calcium out of whack, causing orthopedic issues, while not filling their tummies, which in turn causes ulcers. If she's not turned out, turn her out. Keep her on pasture and/or grass hay. 

RG is a way better option. Its molasses free and fed at a very small feed rate. 1 pound a day. Ration balancers still have all the bagged feed junk like molasses, wheat mids, soy etc. Despite pretty bags and good advertising, nutrena feeds are NOT low sugar and starch. I stopped feeding commercial bagged feeds and all ios well. 

I love the results I've had with rg. I switched to rg 4 or 5 years ago and I haven't had any stomach or weight issues since. I feed mine with an equal volumn of beet pulp shreds, and alfalfa hay. I have very little quality grass so that's it for my crew. I'm especially happy with having switched before starting with my ADHD mare since I'm sure a sugar food would make her unbearable.

I, too, have a super nice, athletic horse who was chronically plagued by ulcers. Along with the meds prescribed to him by the vet, he gets fed free choice grass hay (timothy, brome, bermuda mix) in a hay chix slow feed bag. Usually has to be replaced every other day. Twice a day he also gets 2 lbs alfalfa pellets and 3/4 lbs of Renew Gold. My vet also recommended the supplement MagRestore to help with the ulcers, and I've seen great results with it. I do have to treat him almost daily with omeprazole powder (basically anytime he's stressed he needs it). With ulcers, a varied forage based diet seems to be the best (based on the research papers I've found), and the Renew Gold helps with the fats they would be lacking from strictly forage alone. 

Hope this helps! Good luck with your horse OP!

My mare had ulcers and very nervous when I bought her

Treated ulcers 

And tried a few things but what made a huge difference is Purina Outlast 

She has no issues and no pain and it's mellowed her out. Literally went from being a really nervous horse to mellow .

She gets  enrich plus ( ration balancer )And coolstance mixed in .

Shes easy keeper 

it's easy on stomach .

Also alfalfa and peanut hay and out at night. 

This works for her.

Once Win Willows (owner: Renew Gold) see's this he will give you some great insight on this issue. It might take him a few days but he will see this post.

Thanks for the reference. I was aware of the question that the OP asked, and thought that other members had it was mostly covered, so I just stayed out so it did not look like I was giving a sales pitch for Renew Gold.

I have talked about this before. Renew Gold is not a ration balancer. It is formulated to lower overall NSC compared to conventional feeds while being more energy dense. It typically feeds at a much lower amount per day that other feeds. The whole digestive system benefits from this, while greater use of the biggest part of the diet, the roughage, improves. You get benefits both ways. This is also easier on the system by reducing inflammation and  normalizing the stomach PH level allowing the horse to be less ulcer prone 

Now, a ration balancer is formulated to address poor quality roughage by supplying around 30% protein. There is a place for this when hay quality is very low. These formulations do not "balance" the diet as such, they just mostly boost overall protein and usually contain some sort of Vit/Min package that varies in quality by product. The name can be misleading if you think that every need will be met with a ration balancer. If you have very low protein roughage, say around 6% to 9%, a ration balancer may be appropriate and beneficial. The down side for some horses is that ration balancers usually use soy as the protein source. Some horses do great on soy, and some have serious issues with it. I do not use soy in formulations for this reason. 

For ulcers, if your horse has them, you have no choice but to treat. At the same time, thought needs to go into why the horse got ulcers in the first place. It can be much more than just diet related. Stress, bad teeth that limit the horses willingness to chew properly and general temperment can all have an role in producing ulcers. I don't think that a ration balancer will hurt or help where being ulcer prone is concerned. Limit or eliminate grain based feed, be sure that the teeth are up to date, and usually some alfalfa in the diet will help. 

hope this helps.