After the BARRAGE of blood work, fecal exams, tests, taking written notes of daily habits, reporting to my vet...diagnosis? Ulcers...and I think I caused them. Several months ago, I stalled this Haflinger mare to get her to shed some of her 1250 lbs...fresh water always, salt block and a half of bale of hay twice a day...a method used by many folks I know to obtain healthy weight loss with their animals. She lost down slowly...all seemed fine...UNTIL a couple of months later when the intense sluggishness started. According to my vet (and the endless hours of research I've done, since Wed)...a horse produces stomach acid 24 hours a day and grazing offsets that acid...so eating at will, MUST be an option, or the risk of ulcers are increased. Well, she's now on GastroGard, for 8 days... Going to see how she does, then go from there!! Asking for your prayers, best wishes and/or thoughts to get me and her through this!!! Dr. Orr says it can be treated and fixed...30 years he's not been wrong, yet!!! Thanks!!!

I wish you good results! Keep us posted...

Sharon------I'm glad there's finally been a definitive diagnosis. Now the preoblem can be addressed and she can heal. I have confidence that she will get rid of those ulcers and will be fine in time.

Sharon, I'm glad it could be diagnosed what was wrong with your Haflinger and that she can be helped. Another example, that we can not work against nature without consequences. While of course, horses sometimes work longer hours , 8- 12, it was always good practice to feed them several times a day when they were not out on pasture or had continuous access to roughage.

Buy some stemmy, over-mature grass hay and provide that free-choice. As your vet told you, they need food in their stomachs.

I train racehorses and gastric ulcer are a daily battle for us. Gastro Gard is a great way to begin management. From experience, NEVER use a compounded Omeprazole. They ARE NOT EFFECTIVE. The only other tidbit I can offer is the simplest way to feed an equine that will help, heal and prevent ulceration is to feed alfalfa. Yes it's that simple. Use hay, pellets or cubes, but get it into them. Don't even worry about grain. An awsome ration is alfalfa pellets, your mineral/vits and mix it up with an oil such as cocosoya or soybean.

OUCH! I feel for you, treated an old gelding for ulcers a few years ago and it's expensive but worth it. And I agree with Nate, alfalfa is good for them but unfortunately has a bunch of calories you won't need for her. maybe until you get her healed up, then switch back to grass hay. GOOD LUCK!

Nate, would you explain why this is a problem for race horses and why or how alfalfa helps prevent it?
I have been feeding some alfalfa pellets with my oats (50/50) with a little corn oil, but only feeding this in cold weather and/or when working them. The rest of the time they get free choice low quality grass hay . Just wondering if what I am doing is good or bad, I haven't had any problems and they maintain weight and look great.
Shanen

If your horse has ulcers, giving him GastroGard (omeprazole) isn't the only thing you can do to help reduce the severity of the problem. At the 2007 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 1-5 in Orlando, Fla., Noah Cohen, VMD, PhD, MPH, Dipl. ACVIM, professor of equine medicine at Texas A&M UniversityY, discussed a study that found alfalfa hay reduced the severity of ulcers in young, exercising horses.

Ulcers can reduce a horse's appetite and feed intake and cause weight loss, poor hair coat, colic, and reduced performance. Many factors can contribute to ulcers, including stall confinement, intensive exercise, feeding infrequent large meals, and stomach outflow obstruction.

In this study, 24 Quarter Horse yearlings were kept in small dry lots and fed two different diets for 28 days each, with a 21-day pasture washout period between. The first diet included coastal Bermuda grass hay and a 15% pelleted concentrate, while the other diet included the same amount of alfalfa hay and the same concentrate. All horses were exercised three times per week using a horse exerciser.

Ulcer scores were significantly lower for the alfalfa diet than for the Bermuda hay diet, and the 11 horses in the alfalfa group with ulcers at the beginning of the study all improved their ulcer score by at least two grades. However, one horse went the other direction, developing ulcers while on the alfalfa diet. Only five of the 12 horses starting the Bermuda diet with ulcers had ulcer score improvement, and only two of those improved by the two grades or more. Ulcers tended to be worse at the end of the Bermuda diet period.

Another notable finding was that while ulcer scores didn't change significantly from the end of the Bermuda diet to the end of the pastured washout period, they increased significantly from the end of the alfalfa diet to the end of the washout period.

"So only one of 23 horses fed alfalfa worsened vs. 16 of 24 on coastal Bermuda," Cohen summarized. "Eleven of 12 horses on alfalfa remained ulcer-free compared to only three of 12 on Bermuda."

He cautioned that not all alfalfa is created equal, and it's not yet known whether older horses or those exercising more intensely would see the same benefits.

"For some owners, the cost of (the FDA-approved omeprazole product) precludes its use, particularly for purposes of preventing ulceration," Cohen concluded. "Feeding alfalfa hay may represent a useful adjunct to antiulcer treatment for the control and prevention of equine gastric ulcer syndrome."

FEED FOR THOUGHT: WHY DOES ALFALFA HELP PREVENT GASTRIC ULCERS?
Published: 2014-03-19
Whenever one is looking to address or prevent equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS), often times the daily ration is examined carefully along with changes in Udaily management. In recent years, alfalfa has become touted as something to include in a horse’s daily diet to help prevent ulcers. This theory began with a study performed by the University of Tennessee that examined which diet would cause ulcers: alfalfa hay with textured grain or brome hay with no grain (Nadeau et al., 2000). While the researchers believed that the incidence of ulcers would be higher in the grain-consuming group, they were quite surprised when the opposite was true and the alfalfa-containing ration combined with grain prevailed.

Later on, a similar study was conducted by Texas A&M in 2007 with both groups being fed an appropriate grain ration along with either alfalfa hay or bermuda grass hay (Lybbert et al., 2007). This second study also concluded that alfalfa hay did seem to decrease the severity of gastric ulcers in horses with confirmed EGUS while not increasing the overall incidence of ulcers when compared to bermuda grass hay. Even more recently, a very new and exciting study from the University of Melbourne strongly suggests that a diet heavily supplemented with chopped alfalfa chaff may cure gastric ulcers in as little as 28 days as confirmed by gastroscopy.

The prevailing belief on why alfalfa helps prevent and reduce gastric ulcer incidence in horses is because of its buffering capacity (Fadel, 1992). Buffering capacity is the ability of a substance to neutralize the pH of a system. In our case, that would mean that the ability of alfalfa to neutralize the acidic pH of the stomach is greater than most commonly fed horse feeds. The buffering capacity of alfalfa may be credited to its high magnesium and calcium content, which will often come with acid-neutralizing bicarbonates, along with the high protein of the alfalfa itself. While the proteins are made up of amino acids, these acids are considered "weak acids," and would actually help further neutralize the "strong acid" solution found in the stomach. Given that protein content seems to be the best predictor of buffering capacity across several different feedstuffs, it is possible that these amino acids are more effective in neutralizing stomach acid than bicarbonates.

In most barns, the best way to incorporate the ulcer-fighting properties of alfalfa into your feed regime is to include a flake or two of high quality alfalfa at lunch, depending on your horse's needs. This can be boosted further by using either Cavalor® Strucomix Original or Cavalor® Strucomix Senior. Both of these feeds contain "Struconcept," which is a high quality fiber mix consisting primarily of alfalfa chaff. Alfalfa chaff refers to only the stems of the alfalfa plant, as to avoid the excess sugars sometimes found in the leaves. While many horses are only fed either Cavalor® Strucomix Original or Senior, many people incorporate about .75-2.25 lbs of one of these feeds into their horse's daily ration to help prevent ulcers from taking hold in the first place in addition to their base grain.

Thanks for the info, lc

The problem with feeding alfalfa is that her horse isn't going to loose the necessary weight while eating alfalfa.

Yes, thank you all for your responses, concern and valuable info!! At this point, she hasn't stopped eating and Dr. Orr has recommended not changing her diet in any way...he did say, if her appetite waned, to go with alfalfa. So far, she's doing so much better!! Thanks again!

Sharon, The Horse.com had an article stating that half the dose of Gastriguard is as effective as the full dose. That would help with the cost.

Susan

Just curious about the red cell. Are you still using with ulcer treatment?

Susan...thanks so much for that info!!! The cost is definitely substantial!! She is much better and she is to be on GastroGard for another week...2 using that tip!! Dan, I have not given the RedCell during this treatment, but will start it back, when the GastroGard ends...as a supplement till spring!!! Hopefully, she'll be back to her spry self very soon!!!

Thanks, was just curious. I use redcell as a supplement but wouldn't if linked to the ulcers.