Ulcers in Horses

In humans, when taking proton pump inhibitors, it leads to hypochlorhydria which leads to gastric reflex, not to mention impaired protein breakdown (malabsorption) and decreased immune function (you need the stomach acidic environment to kill bacteria and viruses you eat.) I really question the use of sodium bicarbonate in horses to try and neutralize the acid in the gut. The acid is there for a reason. If you neutralize it, dysbiosis for all the gut flora will result. That sounds really similar to the old school (ineffective) way of treating ulcers in humans.

Remember with human ulcers, how everyone thought it was an acid-over production and it really turned out to be a bacterial infection? H. Pylori infection has been understood in the last few years as a culprit for ulcers in humans. Has this been investigated for horses?

If you read the links you will see that sodium bicarbonate is used to help balance the ph levels not kill all acid in the hind gut. The research is published and reviewed, what was done was tests on ph fecal levels of normal healthy horses compared to those with higher acid levels suffering from hindgut acidosis also sometimes refered to as a cause of colon ulcers. Also another thing to consider is that the one medication out there that actually allows ulcers in the stomach to heal in a quick manner widely reccomended is Gastraguard which actaully shuts down acid production in the stomach for 24hrs per dose allowing healing. Here is a very good article at thehorse.com

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=10647

You may have to register but I think it's free and a great horse health source of info.

I was adding products to my store a couple of days ago and one of them has an effect on ulcers.
dac Forumla 911
Here is what I found:
Boost immune function; relieves cough & runny nose; relieves heaves.
But another GREAT use is with ULCERS. dac can save you MUCHO bucks with 9-1-1 vs. gastro and ulcer guard. Another dac Rep has seen a equine scope where there were trachea lesions and two quarter size ulcers in the stomach. Customer used two handfuls of 9-1-1 a day and within two weeks the trachea lesions were gone and stomach ulcers were down to a pea size.. Again, two handfuls a day and clean water and hay and anything we could do to lessen the horses stress level, they did. This was a hotheaded young TB, so the barn gal lost a bit of weight with hand walking this TB. She was sooo glad to hear the results !!!!

Sodium Bicarb does not "kill" acid. When an acid and base mix, they yield a salt and water, not to mention a lot of heat. Adding a bicarb to the acid will cause the pH to be more neutral. As with any medical treatment, you must find out why the hyper-acidic condition exists in the first place and treat the cause. Otherwise, not only will you be dependent on a medication, you will mask the pathology and perhaps cause a bigger illness down the road. Treat the cause!

Horses are foraging animals and their digestive tract is designed to digest forage. Due to the demands we make upon them, we increase the energy in their food by adding grain to their diet. A horse's stomach and small intestine is much smaller than it's large intestine. Food passes quickly, and largely undigested, through the stomach and small intestine. From there it enters into the fermentation vat of the hindgut, where bacteria breaks down and digest it. Food passes much more slowly through the hindgut.
In 1884 Christopher Gram was studying bacteria. He used an iodine stain to identify and study it more closely. The bacteria that accepted the stain were labeled gram-positive bacteria, while the bacteria that would not accept the stain was labeled gram-negative. The gram positive bacteria digests starch and sugars, whereas the gram-negative bacteria digests fiber. In a healthy hind gut gram-positive bacteria are slightly higher in population than gram negative bacteria.
Carbohydrates break down and convert to starch and sugars in the hindgut. With an excessive carbohydrate diet, gram positive bacteria feed on the sugars and multiply quickly, releasing lactic acid and increase the acidity of the environment. A low pH environment can kill gram-negative bacteria, and erode the mucus lining on the gut wall. Endotoxins can pass through the gut wall and trigger laminitis.
Lactobacillus acidophilus work in the foregut to start digesting sugars to decrease the amount of sugars entering into the hindgut. MOS (Mannon oligosaccharides) bind to starch and sugar-digesting bacteria (gram-positive) and remove them from the gut in the feces. By removing the acid making bacteria, MOS leave the beneficial fiber-digesting bacteria (gram-negative) free to multiply. MOS is also reported to have a buffering affect.
dac Digestive Feed Additive uses this approach plus many more other yeasts and mircoorganism to promote geed digestive-tract health. There are 1,500,250,000,000 live cell microorganism per ounce in the product. It has been used successfully to combat chronic colic, ulcers, chronic diarrhea, and has changed bad stall habits.
The above was a personal study by Vernon Schlabach. Vernon has spoke at many dac meetings and is one of the personal farriers for Randy Jacobs, plus other high ranking equine trainers. When Vernon started doing his study of the dda (dac Digestive feed additive) he was looking for help in Laminitis, but what he also found is that the dac dda also help CUSHINGS disease in horses. Basically it is the same theory as above but the dda will also help to bind all the sugars and starches that Cushing horses can't have and pass them trough the equine body. Of course we all know that with a Cushing horse you have to change your horses diet (feed) so you most likely go to the feed store and get a high fat low carb diet. If you think of what the above says, then all you need to do is add one scoop daily of the dda along with the Cushing specific feed and you have a double approach to helping the Cushings horse. Not to mention your horse will get double benefits in retaining all the nutrients in that specific feed. You can also change the feed to STRAIGHT oats, whole, crushed, steamed whichever, and you will get the same results for laminitis and Cushings. Vernon has proved that with many laminitis horses he has worked on and the laminitis horses that then turned into cushing horses with the thick crusty neck and polls and fat deposits over the hind quarters.
Other uses that many customers are doing with the dac dda is cutting their feed costs in half by using the dda for digestion and feed breakdown in the equine gut, and adding 1/4 to 1 ounce of the dac Bloom daily for the energy. Most of the customers that have done this are using straight oats and good quality hay and within a two week to one month period, have decreased their feed use and have saved money on feed costs by doing this.

This was from another dac Rep.
I would suggest looking into either the DDA or 911.

Omeprazole is generic for Prilosec. I did not know that horses can have Prilosec. Good to know.

I can agree with that to a large extent but you have to consider that because of the man made conditions we place on many horses it's pretty simple why these conditions occour as often as they do. For ulcers in general we know that placing them in stressful conditions, stall confinement with non optomial feeding times and needing to feed grains in more than 5 pounds at a time can increase the likelyhood of ulcers. Failing to keep the stomach and hind gut full of forage is also an issue as saliva produced in the stomach is a natural protection for the acid production while introducing grains cut saliva production. The same exists for colon and hind gut issues. Proper feeding and prevntion can prevent a lot of problems but depending on the use of the horse is not always practical and why we use feed supplements and medications.

We have a lot of different people using thier horses differently here I assume. As a personal note I own and board a total of 14 horses, a sum total of one needs to be on a product like we are discussing full time. That horse is in training, is hauled to shows several hours away routinely and happens to be a little nervous to begin with, and is placed in a stressful enviroment where we expect them to preform at thier best. It's easy for me to determine why the product is needed but not easy to correct provided the horse stays with it's same usage. Another reason some of the other horses may need it is during the spring where high fructan content in the pasture grasses causes issues.