Yet another question about ulcer treatment

[Jack Black]

I have a horse that has ulcers. I treated with ulcergard for 28 days, full tube, as instructed to 'heal'. Started on 1/4 dose as prescribed and after a few days my horse is showing symptoms of pain again. Did anyone find that their horse needed to stay on full dosage for longer than the initial 28 doses?
Any one have success doing something cheaper after the 28 full doses?

[MistyBlue]

Was the horse scoped for ulcers? Is it possible that the horse may also have colitis? (ulcers not in the stomach but in the intestines...ulcer treatments don't reach those usually)
I feel for you though, ulcer treatments are costly as heck.

[Jack Black]

He was greatly improved while on full dose, it is just since the dose was cut back to 1/4 dose that the symptoms seem to be starting again. Just wondering if anyone else had to do longer than 28 days on full dosage to see continual and sustained improvement? Thanks for the colitis thought though, I will research that.

[RealityCheck]

I only did UG for 2 weeks, then hit mine with ranitidine which seemed to work just fine for him. Of course, this also included fairly drastic diet changes including cutting grain and adding alfalfa cubes, as well as upping his hay and adding an antacid supplement. I've also heard that they need to be slowly weaned off the UG, maybe try doing 3/4 dose for a few days, then 1/2, then 1/4 would help? It's so difficult because horses seem to respond to ulcer treatment so differently sometimes!

[hollyhorse2000]

I messed around with different dosages for quite a while 1/4 tube a day and then 1/2 tube a day, etc., After about two months of that, I switched to daily SmartGut by Smartpak and it's been great! I did treat again (1/4 tube a day) when I recently had her on Banamine and she stopped finishing her grain. Four days of Ulcergard and off Banamine and she's find.

Not directly related, but I highly endorse SmartGut. It's inexpensive and you might try adding it before fully weaned off Ulcergard . . .

[Auventera Two]

I did 35 days of full tubes. I still do 1/4 to 1/2 tubes for trailering, and I do a 1/4 tube about 2x a week just because. My horse had pretty severe, bleeding ulcers so I don't want to chance letting it get like that again.

[Foxtrot's]

I don't think there is a short cut or way of cutting the expense. If it does not work when cutting down the dose, all that money is wasted. Hurts like heck, I know. I used Gastroguard and THINK we are over it.

Then there is the diet. My horse gets Equicare which is pelleted feed with no grain in it but full of bio moss and probiotics, etc, plus some alfalfa, plus oil, aloe vera and ground flax for the omega 6's and 3's etc. He is doing very well on it. Also, he needs to have some hay in front of him at all times and he likes to dunk his hay. When he is hungry he pins his ears a bit so I do wonder if his stomach juices are bothering him a bit. Time will tell. No tooth grinding which was the first sign that alerted me.