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.
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!"