Intersting ulcer information....

[Dona]

I recently received this e-mail from a very good friend of mine, who has been raising miniatures for years. I thought it was worth posting here.

"I find the need to pass this information on to make a serious point!!

As a horse owner for over 30 yrs. I have seen or experienced JUST ABOUT every horse health problem imaginable at one time or another and now a days calling a vet or purchasing medication is usually a shocking cost. This is a small example of my findings. I have a miniature mare in my barn who is a "worrier". She frets about everything thus she has ulcers. Once diagnosed my vet recommended a medication called Gastro Guard and/or Ulcer Guard. I purchased this medication and was absolutely blown away at the cost. Even for a miniature horse 1/4 the size of a small horse the cost to me was $36 every 4 days. If she would have been a large horse it would have been around $36 PER DAY. That sure scales down the horses that will get treated, now doesn't it? This just does not fit into MOST peoples budgets yet most horse persons, if it is within their ability, will see that their horse gets it's medication before they do. For 3 months this continued until I happened to be talking to another horse person and complaining that this cost was putting me in the poor house. Now this gal is very knowledgeable in the medical prescription field and she said I could try Prilosec for humans, over the counter. I checked sure enough, it is the same ingredients so I calculated that she would need 1 per day for her size. I checked with my vet and sure enough it is AND the cost is about $21 for 2 weeks treatment. Just pop the pill into the grain and she eats it every time. I feel that this is such a reasonable price compared to what I was paying I just don't understand why I wasn't told about this medication by my vet earlier. Maybe they didn't know! My point is that we have to pass these little hints on and help each other. I worry that there are financial circumstances that prevent some animals from getting the necessary treatment that they need because of the exorbitant cost of it's medication. The veterinary pharmaceutical industry is the culprit claiming that the cost to create these medications is terribly expensive, as some my well be, yet in this situation, all they did was take an already existing medication and alter the dosage and change it from pill form to a paste. OUTRAGEOUS! They are fully aware that desperate animal owners will do their best to pay the price. If you have found hints such as this that will help others, through your own experiences, I would appreciate hearing from you. It is a financial war out there and we have to try to help each other! That is my opinion, I could be wrong BUT I don't think so!!!

Now I am not a vet nor do I claim to be I am merely passing this information on to you and you may use it or not!"

 

[Miniequine]

Hi Dona,

I came across this same problem last year.

My friend happens to work at a place where

tons of samples of Prilosec are dropped off.

She brought me some. I asked my vet about it AND

called the gastroguard people.

They told me that the difference is in "the delivery"

of the medication, that the paste formula is

made to deliver it to a specific place. NOt sure I believe them.

I use Prilosec....

~Sandy

 

[Dream]

Although Gastrogard and Prilosec are both the same drug (omeprazole) the difference IS in the delivery. Prilosec has an enteric coating. This coating keeps the contents in the capsule while it passes through the stomach. The drug is only released when it gets to the small intestine where it has its effect. If it were exposed to the acid in the stomach the drug would be inactivated. Gastrogard is a formula that remains effective until it gets to the appropriate location.

The bottom line is that Prilosec will work given in your horse's grain providing they don't bite the capsule. If they do it's useless. You'll never know if they bite it or not.

Not all verterinarians and drug companies are out to rip off horse owners. If I can find a cheaper way to insure all my patients get the medication they need, I will. Cheaper isn't better if it doesn't work.

 

[ChrystalPaths]

This is true (I wish I didn't know alot about ulcers) But there is a drug called Carafate/sucralfate that can and does heal ulcers. Just my own experience here. MUCH less expensive.

 

[Sandee]

I got this same info. in an email. I'd like to hear more!

Dream, the Prilosec OTC is a pill not a capsule so does that make a difference?

Dimimore, does your vet have to prescribe Carafate/sucralfate, or is it available without a prescription?

 

[RobinRTrueJoy]

Dona,

I had a colt that had an ulcer. Initially treated with Carafate( which actually puts a coating on the ulce which allows it to heal) Then used over the Prilosec. It absolutley WORKED!!!!

Robin

 

[minimule]

My vet actually told me to buy Prilosec OTC to give to my mare with ulcers. It was a small round pill, I soaked it in water and poured it on her grain. The ulcers seemed to heal......

 

[Robin1]

My vet is the one who told me to use Prilosec. Now I used more than your friend, my vet had me give 1 tablet 2 x a day for a month on a weanling. I dilute it in hot water and add karo syrup.

Robin

 

[slv]

Hi Dona,

Almost any type of human anti acid medication will work. Cimetidine is great and much cheaper. Also at the dollar general store you can buy the acid reducer tablets. They come in 75 MG. Crush up 10 of them in a baggie and then add a little water and put them in a syringe and give them orally. If you do that, the cost is about $1.00 per day, as you can buy 30 tablets for $3.00. Have been using lots of it and it works great.

Minis do need about 750 to 800 MG per day of whatever you give.

I sure wish I would have known you were going through this earlier as I have been doing this for quite sometime now and it works great and saves you lots of money.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

My 2 cents worth on this:

I am prescribed Ranitidine, which I get free as-oh, that's irrelevant anyway due to other things happening I do not use it much and am prescribed it for twice daily use so....small mountain of Ranitidine!!

This is a VERY effective drug- for one thing, where are these ulcers in the horse??

All fine and good if they are in the small intestine but what if they are in the stomach??

Gastrogard will be prescribed "for ulcers" and not be doing any good, then??

IME "worriers" (like me) have stomach ulcers, so the Ranitidine works.

My show "worrier" was treated with Ranitidine (I had had the Vet the first time and had discussed it with him) and she settled- she also grew out of it.

I am not one to encourage total self prescribing- that way lies real problems but, as a line of first defense, we all keep some a/bs, some banamine etc in our cabinets.

I would suggest we also keep some baclofen and something like Ranitidine as a first line of defense or whilst waiting for the Vet- my Vet can get to me within twenty minutes, not everyone is that lucky.

You have to understand that Vets are also not allowed to prescribe drugs not passed for animals treatment except under certain circumstances- if there is a simialr drug, passed for animal treatment, this is the one they are bound to prescibe.

If we find out for ourselves, and if we suggest it to the Vet, they are OK to agree with the course of treatment, but, in a lot of cases, not OK to suggest it.

My Vets come from the Royal Veterinary College, so they are often prescribing experimental and "not cleared" drugs, but I sign a consent form at the beginning of treatment, and I trust them.

 

[R3]

I think people need to be aware of the fact that there are four general treatment types for ulcers, each works in a different way. Below I have copied and pasted a segment from this website Gastric Ulcers,

(start quote)

There are many medications that are available to help heal ulcers. They include:

Antacids: (aluminum and magnesium hydroxide) will reduce the acidity of the stomach for a short period but must be given every two hours to be effective.

Histamine-receptor antagonists: Cimetidine (Tagamet) and ranitidine (Xantac) are commonly used in the horse and are considered very effective in the prevention and treatment of ulcers. They reduce both basal gastric acid production and induced acid production (e.g., from food) by competitively inhibiting histamine at the H2 receptors of the parietal cells.

Omeprazole : (Gastroguard, Pepsid) is the most potent anti-ulcer medication currently available. As a proton pump inhibitor, it inhibits gastric acid secretion by interfering with hydrogen ions in the final stage of acid secretion. This medication is given by mouth once daily and, therefore, owner compliance is improved. The raw chemical of omeprazole is available from compounding pharmacies. This type of product is less expensive than the commercial preparations. However, studies have shown that generic, compounded medications may be less effective. There is no quality control for compounded products. Therefore, the amount of active ingredient available in the compounded product may be very variable.

Sucralfate : (Carafate) is another type of medication that is useful in treating stomach ulcers, especially in foals. After ingestion, sucralfate reacts with hydrochloric acid in the stomach to form a paste-like complex that will bind to the proteinaceous exudates that are generally found at ulcer sites. This insoluble complex forms a barrier at the site and prevents the ulcer from further damage caused by pepsin, acid and bile. Sucralfate will remain adherent to the ulcer crater for more than six hours. Because it requires an acidic environment to be effective, sucralfate should be administered at least ½ hour prior to cimetidine or antiacids. (end quote)

(***NOTE - there may need to be a correction in the information given in the quote. It shows Pepsid listed with Omeprazole, but if the drug they are referring to is PEPCID, it should be listed as a Histamine-receptor antagonists. See below for information:

BRAND NAME: Pepcid

GENERIC NAME: famotidine

DRUG CLASS AND MECHANISM: Histamine is a chemical made by the body that stimulates cells lining the stomach to produce acid. Famotidine belongs to a class of medications called H2-blockers that blocks the action of histamine on stomach cells, thus reducing production of acid by the stomach. Other H2 blockers include cimetidine (Tagamet), ranitidine (Zantac), and nizatidine (Axid). Famotidine was approved by the FDA in November, 1986.)

When talking about Gastroguard vs generic Omeprazole, you need to be aware of how the drug is absorbed into the body and its chemical vulnerability. Omeprazole is very sensitive to being destroyed by acid. The stomach in a horse is acidic. The drug has to be absorbed in the intestines. That means that for it to be effective, it has to safely get through the stomach acid with enough active chemical undestroyed to do the horse some good. That is one of the reasons that Gastroguard is effective is that the paste that carries it has been specially formulated to get the drug through the stomach acid. Compounded drugs don't have this unique paste that protects the drug.

The same problem occurs when giving your horse Prilosec (the human version of Omeprazole), unless you can get the pill into the horse without breaking, crushing, or liquifying it. If you read on the Prilosec box it specifically warns against breaking or crushing the pill. It is because the capsule has to be intact to get the chemical safely through the stomach acid to where it can be absorbed in the intestines.

The other thing that 'can' happen with generic Omeprazole is that you don't know the quality of the product and whether its active ingredient is as effective as what is in Gastroguard. Sometimes generic drugs can have the same amount of active ingredient, but it isn't manufactured by the same process and is not as potent as the 'name brand'.

The true test of whether the Gastroguard or the generics are more effective is by testing blood levels of the drug after treatment and by scoping treated horses to see the results. Tests have proven that the name brand produced higher blood levels and better physical healing. I'm not saying that there isn't a pharmacy out there somewhere that has managed to find a way to compound a high quality Omeprazole in a paste that will protect it from stomach acid. There may be some out there. But, you don't know what you are getting. It might be 100% the same, but there is a large chance that it may be quite a bit less effective.

Just a note, Cimetidine, Ranitidine, and Omeprazole all work through the bloodstream, not by direct action in the stomach so, yes, all of these drugs wil be effective for ulcers, regardless of where the ulcer is located in the horse.

 

[hhpminis]

Thanks R3 that is great information and I really appreciate it. I am going to save it as I always get confused with the different tummy meds and what each does.

 

[horsehug]

Thanks R3.

I have used Tagamet several times with VERY good results in foals that showed ulcer symptoms. I was glad to see if on your effective list!

Susan O.

 

[Dream]

Great summary R3. After that post I don't need to say a thing. The specific point I'd like to emphasize is that omeprazole is absorbed in the small intestine and stops the stomach from producing too much acid.

As for the difference between pilla and capsules, it's all about the coating on them.

This is a concept that is still being discussed on veterinary forums as well. This is why some of you may have been told to use Prilosec. I think it will fall from favour in time.

 

[Boinky]

I would like to make a correction to R3's post. She posted that "pepsid" was in the omeprasole category. I believe she meant prilosec, not pepsid, as Pepsid is Famotidine not omeprasole. Pepsid would be placed in the H2 blocker category.

 

[R3]

Thanks for the correction. I just quoted the website. I didn't do any follow up research on any of the drugs, other than Omeprazole. I'm not sure if I should 'correct' a quote or not... I'm not sure on how that should be handled.

I just went and looked up Pepsid. I couldn't find it, but found Pepcid, which is the information you wrote about. I guess I should put it up in my original post so that all the info is in one place.

 

[Jill]

There's another thread going now about using pill poppers for dogs, an instrument for giving sheep pills, and one that sounded safest to me from Robin1 was to use peanut butter and stick to the back of the roof of the mouth (I guess assuming horses aren't prone to peanut alergies?).

Link ---> http://www.miniaturehorsetalk.com/index.php?showtopic=87495

Any thoughts on these ideas? They sounded "good" to me but did wonder with the pill poppers (for dogs or sheep) if choke is likely?

 

[Dona]

I would think that the pill poppers used for small animals would work fine with the minis.

 

[Charlotte]

Thanks Julie for the info. I'm glad to see it backs up what several vets have told me.

Charlotte

 

[Witts Mini Horse Ranch]

I was very interested in this thread, (haven't been on my computer, have my 4yr old grandson

) I had to rush a 7 month old filly to the vet Sunday evening that was colicing. She keeps getting bouts of the runs, and I told mt vet I think she might have ulcers and he said I could put baking soda on her feed or in her water. Sure enough, I had never noticed b4, but it has Drug facts on the box -Purpose antacid. But I am not getting the results I would like to see, maybe I am just impatience. She is started to get the runs again. She has been on penicillin, yesterday was her last dose.

Also, have wormed her several times with different wormers to rule that out. Somerimes she looks very bloated, and you can easily feel her back bone. My pointed this out to my vet, and he said as much he hates to say it to me, but maybe I should up her feed. He is always telling me to cut back on the feed, I tend to keep them too fat, I tell him I am not good at tough love OH!

I hope this made sense, as I have a grandson tugging at me to go outside