When will appetite improve w/ulcer meds?

[tpup]

I know I am driving myself crazy with this, but when did you see an improvement after starting ulcer meds? We started Friday night. I'm seeing a slight improvement but my horse is still leaving at least 1/3 to 1/2 of his feed in his bucket....and I'm even feeding less to begin with. This is very uncharacteristic for him.

Vet said 48 hours and I know we're not quite at 48 hours yet....I just hoped it would be more immediate. To update, he had a high fever last Wed. - stopped eating - fever treated and vet feels ulcers caused from combo of the fever, not eating for 24 hours and the antibiotics. (he was not scoped - trying ulcer meds.)

I rode him today - short ride but he seemed "normal". His demeanor is fine. He is drinking fine. And he is eating most of his hay bag at night. I am soooo frustrated and worried. He's a hard keeper to begin with.

[Auventera Two]

My horse did not have typical "digestive" type issues with ulcers (colic, off feed). Her problems were purely behavioral. She was eating like a ravenous elephant pregnant with tripletts and not gaining a pound. But it took at LEAST 2 full weeks before I saw marked improvement in her behavior. I rode her after 10 days of treatment (vet told me to wait only 7 days) and she was still awful. The first time I noticed her really concentrating and not being spooky and stupid was at least 2 weeks. The BEST behavior came after the full treatment regime. Your horse has only received 3 days of treatment - I'd give it a lot longer before I started to worry. What are you using? Gastrogard?

[Highflyer]

When I've dealt with it with foals/ weanlings, it has been within 48 hrs, often much quicker. I've never treated an adult horse that was off its feed. Are you still monitoring his temp.? It's possible something else is still going on. I wouldn't ride him until he's totally back to normal for a week or so, either. My vet usually says to allow a week for every day the horse ran a temp.

[yellowbritches]

I agree with monitoring his temp and not riding him until he is totally back to his normal self. I'd also just give it some more time...if he was really feeling crappy, it might just take him a little longer to come around.

[tpup]

No temp - he had the hight temp Wednesday - got shot of Oxytet and Banamine - 12 hours later, fever gone. I check it daily. Since Thursday, it hovers between 97 and 98. His normal temp is always low.

The only reason I rode him today to see if there were any obvious ulcer behaviours. I was hoping for a clue or an "ouchy" that would be obvious, but none really. He flinched ever so slightly when I tightened the girth but he has always done that. He rode fine - we only did w/t for maybe 10 minutes max and practiced backing. Energy good - he still canters across his field when I call him to meet me at the gate.

The vet did pull blood Friday night (just in case the ulcer meds don't work, so we can review CBC, etc.) I'll have those results tomorrow.

We're treating with Sucralfate and Ranatidine. She said it's often quicker than Gastroguard. She did leave me with 3 tubes of Gastroguard if I decide to switch - only because the pills are a major PITA....the Sucrafalte has to be given on empty belly, then sit for 30 minutes in his stomach. Then I give the Ranitidine. It's 27 pills total 3x per day. Major pain. He takes them pretty well believe it or not, diluted in a big syringe in hot water. The GG would be MUCH easier and I may call the vet tomorrow and switch over.

He is a very stoic horse....does not show pain easily. I guess I'll feel better and know alot more tomorrow, both on his appetite and the bloodwork.

[Equsrider]

What ulcer meds are you using and dosage?oops didn't read clearly! Our mare recieved one tube per day of Ulcer Guard for 3 weeks.She would never eat treats and was a very finicky eater, but always loved her alfalfa hay...After a week on the ulcerguard she would finish up her grain very quickly( she use to just graze all day on it before) and became an in your pocket type horse looking for treats or food. She even stole my coke can out of my hand one night. It was a DRAMATIC change all around.She is now on Aloe vera juice and papaya puree with every graining for maintance, and I give her maintenance dose of Ulcerguard(1/4 tube)before hauling and daily at horse shows. We never scoped her, but clearly after the results she had ulcers!

[KristiKGC]

For my boy with ulcers when he gets them so badly he goes off grain it typically takes until the next day before he'll show interest in eating and 2 days before he eats normally.

[Lauren!]

Most people see improvement within a few days with Gastrogard. I'm not sure about the meds you're using. I'm not aware of any drawbacks to Gastrogard besides the price (and you need to use it for about a month, but that will probably be with any treatment). I can't imagine doing that pill regimine for a month :eek:

[toowoomba2]

We're treating with Sucralfate and Ranatidine. She said it's often quicker than Gastroguard. She did leave me with 3 tubes of Gastroguard if I decide to switch - only because the pills are a major PITA....the Sucrafalte has to be given on empty belly, then sit for 30 minutes in his stomach. Then I give the Ranitidine. It's 27 pills total 3x per day. Major pain. He takes them pretty well believe it or not, diluted in a big syringe in hot water. The GG would be MUCH easier and I may call the vet tomorrow and switch over.

I've never heard of that combo before, so I looked up Sucralfate on www.medicinenet.com and found this interesting - maybe its not working because of the interaction listed below:

DRUG INTERACTIONS: Sucralfate reduces the absorption of many drugs when taken at the same time as the other drugs. These drugs include: cimetidine (Tagamet), digoxin (Lanoxin), ketoconazole (Nizoral), levothyroxine (Synthroid), phenytoin (Dilantin), quinidine (Quinidex, Quinaglute), ranitidine (Zantac), tetracycline, theophylline (Theo-Dur, Uniphyl, others), and all of the fluoroquinolone antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin (Cipro), norfloxacin (Noroxin), ofloxacin (Floxin), and lomefloxacin (Maxaquin). All of these medications should be taken at least two hours prior to the sucralfate. It is possible, if not likely, that many other drugs will interact similarly with sucralfate. Therefore, it probably is prudent to take all medications at least 2 hours prior to sucralfate.

[tpup]

Wow that is really interesting! We were told to do the Sucralfate first on an empty stomach. It coats and soothes the ulcers. Then wait 30 minutes so it can "sit" on the stomach....then give the Ranitidine. Hmm....it would make sense that perhaps the Sucralfate blocks the Ran. from being absorbed.

His appetite is improved today. It's slowly improving. We are switching to Gguard on Saturday when I leave for vacation, to make things easier for the barn mgr. He'll be on Ggard for 7 days (at least).

[ladipus]

I know I am driving myself crazy with this, but when did you see an improvement after starting ulcer meds? We started Friday night. I'm seeing a slight improvement but my horse is still leaving at least 1/3 to 1/2 of his feed in his bucket....and I'm even feeding less to begin with. This is very uncharacteristic for him.

Vet said 48 hours and I know we're not quite at 48 hours yet....I just hoped it would be more immediate. To update, he had a high fever last Wed. - stopped eating - fever treated and vet feels ulcers caused from combo of the fever, not eating for 24 hours and the antibiotics. (he was not scoped - trying ulcer meds.)

I rode him today - short ride but he seemed "normal". His demeanor is fine. He is drinking fine. And he is eating most of his hay bag at night. I am soooo frustrated and worried. He's a hard keeper to begin with.

What medication are you treating w/? Gastroguard works extremely well and is probably the only medication that you'd see results in 48 hrs-it works that good-if not gg then it might take longer to see any improvement if the ulcers are severe,and your horse will probably still not show much interest in feed until the ulcers are under control.

Fever makes me think something else is going on-could possibly be lyme or a tick borne disease of some sort...or could be an infection of some sort. One of my horses out of nowhere got a fever,stopped eating,and was dull,depressed,and lethargic and started to show sighs of colic-further testing revealed a major infection and he's been on heavy antibiotics going on 2 weeks now,but he responded very well to the antibiotics.

Antibiotics can definitely upset the stomach,along w/ fever,and inappetince. Have you had bloodwork done? In the mean time you can give probiotics which will help the digestive tract-such as probios,fastrack,or tractguard-all work great-and tractguard also has an antacid in it as well-added bonus. Other supp's that i like for ulcers that have worked well for me are Finish Line's U7 Gastric aid and Corta Flx Ugard Solution-both work great and have helped my boys alot,along w/ helping them add/maintain their weight.

[ladipus]

That is true about Sucralfate...i'm a vet tech and we always tell our Clients to wait at least 30 minutes in between sucralfate and any other medications due to it affecting the absorption of other medications

[hollyhorse2000]

I would switch to the Gastroguard/Ulcergard -- one full tube once a day. And then not expect to see much change for 7-10 days. That's about what it took for my mare. But continue the treatment if you can stand the $$$.

You can also try augmenting his feed with corn oil and alfalfa hay (per my vet), although I can't feed alfalfa as it turns out she's allergic . . .

[oldenmare]

My question is what type of feed is he getting?

When my gelding started showing symptoms of ulcers, we immediately put him on Uguard and cut ALL sweet feed out of his diet. We switched over to low starch feed with cocosoya oil. He ate that combo like there was no tomorrow.

And speaking from human experience - ulcers can very much change one's taste in food!!!

[tpup]

TC senior and soaked alf. cubes and hay. Just chatted with vet about that and we may try some chopped denghi or another forage so we can reduce his grain. He was on TC complete, and reduced NSC by going to senior. He's a hard keeper.

[hollyhorse2000]

Based on my research and long conversations with my vet, I don't believe ulcers will heal easily with just a change in diet, as you listed. (30 days or more of 24/7 turnout on good forage might do the trick, though.) I would really encourage you to use Ulcergard/Gastrogard at least for a week or so tos ee what happens. My mare was not technically a hard keeper, so I didn't really consider weight a symptom, but after two weeks on Ulcergard, she suddenly blossomed and put on weight with no other change in her diet or situation. It was quite amazing, really . ..

[tpup]

Thanks hollyhorse. We are doing the pills until Saturday, then Gastroguard for at least 2 weeks after that. He is improving! He is eating his a.m. and p.m. meals, 90% of them, and only leaving a bit of his noon meal. He was also on Novoxx daily for arthritis, and we think that contributed to the ulcers (Rymadil - like Aleve I guess). So he's off of that indefinitely.

I had posted about the hay bag because....this horse didn't eat hay from his bag at first when we started stall boarding him at night. But now he is emptying it. This is quite a change for him! So I was trying to get a feel for approx. how many lbs. of hay he is eating at night. If he's eating many pounds of hay more than before, that could also impact his appetite. I need to weigh the bag of hay.

[hollyhorse2000]

Good for you. Sounds like you're on the right track and your horse is responding!

[&WithStyle]

I know with my horse he had grade 3 ulcers, and within 2 or 3 days of the Gastro treatment he was finishing all of his feed again! But he is pretty "special". :/