I've always wondered if Connor might have ulcers. He's a nervous dude. He's also a stoic dude - I've seen many horses complain over far less than he'll put up with when it comes to discomfort. He's always looked a a bit uncomfortable when I do up the girth, and then there's that constant quirky spooking.
 |
| "This horse is a worrier!" was the first thing JLC said when he saw Connor's face at that clinic. |
After seeing the difference in Hampton with my own eyes, I discovered a huge thread of people on COTH that had similar good results with it. The active ingredient in Nexium, Esomeprazole, is a Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI) just like Omeprazole (the active ingredient in Gastroguard), and a whole treatment would cost me $43. I decided to try it.
I put him on a course of three Nexium Clear Mini's every morning (so 60mg of esomaprazole) for one month in September/October. I chose Clear Mini's because they're the smallest Nexium pills available, and ideally you want these to survive whole into the stomach. I figured they had the best shot at making it without being chewed.
Within just a few days, I saw a big difference in him. He no longer flicked his ears back and raised his eyebrows when I did up his girth. And his whole demeanor just got more relaxed - he actually walked flat footed through the open field and stopped teleporting sideways after seeing invisible monsters when we went past the open doors of the indoor.
 |
| December 2016, still hilarious. This has been this horse's MO as long as I've known him. He was spooking at the tiny green light from the Pixio beacon that he'd gone past dozens of times at this point. You can even see his ears slowly move forward as he realizes it's there and starts planning to spook. |
After the month treatment was over, I started him on an ulcer preventative SmartPak (a story for another day), started giving him 5x1000mg tablets of peppermint Tums before each ride, and started weaning him off the Nexium, which they can't stay on forever. After a month at 3 pills a day, he got 1 week at 2 pills a day and 1 week at 1 pill per day.
 |
| How I made sure he was getting the right amount of pills |
Since then, he hasn't had any spooking incidents. The worst he's done is give the Suspicious Spooky Ear to my quarter sheet hanging on the gate. He got a bit girthy again after the Nexium course ended as I figured out which preventative was best for him, which has since gone away. Overall, I'm super happy with how this worked out, and for $40, I'd do it again if I had to.
This is super interesting to me, and after hearing you and Karen mention it I checked out that same CoTH thread. I wish I'd known about this when I was struggling with ulcers with Topaz a few years ago, but I'm glad I have the info tucked away in case I ever need it for the future!
ReplyDeleteIt really did seem to work, good thing to have in your back pocket!
DeleteThe transformation is so amazing and so quick! I did a similar test with Promise using Maalox in her feed when she was on stall rest and on multiple doses of bute a day after spraining a ligament in her stifle. She started acting wild, scared of literally everything -- wouldn't let anyone near her, not even me, and that mare would have done anything for me! Her demeanor changed within 24-36 hours, so I did a round of gastroguard and then put her on maintenance with SmartPak. Problem solved!
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool! That's basically the same thing I experienced. SO many of them have them!
DeleteThis is fascinating! I am going to keep it in mind to try if chiropractic doesn't make the impact I am hoping.
ReplyDeleteGlad it could help!
DeleteWow! That is super interesting. Both of my two have a tendency to be a little ulcery. I have them on a preventative + aloe juice now, but they could probably both use an actual round of something stronger. I just can't afford to spend $750 or whatever to do a month of Ulcerguard (per horse). For $40, this seems like a good option to try!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, doesn't get much cheaper than this.
DeleteSuspicious Spooky Ear, love it! I'm so glad it worked for you, because that's WAY cheaper than a round of gastroguard.
ReplyDeleteIt has it's own tag on this blog, lol.
DeleteThat's probably the most cost effective treatment for ulcers out there!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely! What is that, like slightly more than a dollar a day?
DeleteThat is super interesting!
ReplyDeleteFor sure!
DeleteVery interesting!
ReplyDeleteI definitely thought so.
DeleteA vet in our area did a scope session on a bunch of horses and somewhere around 80% had ulcers. We put our Morgan on Papaya to help. Very cool the difference you saw in Connor.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the same thing, it's so common.
DeleteIt's interesting that my human dose of Nexium is 40mg, yet it only takes 60mg for a horse to benefit.
ReplyDeleteHumans also are only supposed to do a...2 week? course and horses do 4. No idea if they metabolize it differently or if 60mg was just made up on the COTH forum, but hey, it worked!
DeleteSuper interesting. Might be interesting with ZB too.
ReplyDeleteIf the studies are right about a majority percentage of horses having ulcers, it might be interesting with a whole lot of horses. Would be curious to know what you find out if you try it!
DeleteHow did you get the pills into your horse?
ReplyDeleteI used the smallest Nexium pills they make (clear minis) and put them in with their grain in the morning. It's not ideal (you want them to make it into the stomach whole), but it worked.
DeleteI’d love to know which SmartPak you and others had good results with for maintenance.
ReplyDeleteHey! This post is super old and some things have changed since I wrote it. The only supplement I've had long term success with as both a treatment and a preventative is the Hyluranon-based liquids, such as Vitalize Alimend and Gut-X. You can read my experience with them here: https://www.cobjockey.com/2021/03/product-review-vitalize-alimend-for.html
Delete