Stomach acid is needed by horses to digest proteins.While this action is beneficial for healing ulcers in the squamous portion, there are ramifications. Omeprazole is capable of reducing hydrochloric acid in the stomach by up to 99%. The glandular region comprises two-thirds of the stomach area.Īccording to an omeprazole study from 2015, “as many as 36% of the glandular ulcers actually worsened over the 28 days of the study, without any association to the dose level.” However, omeprazole has not been effective in treating ulcers in the glandular portion of the stomach.
Omeprazole has proven to be extremely effective in treating squamous ulcers, which are ulcers occurring in the upper one-third region of the stomach.
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Using a full tube UlcerGard as a replacement or alternative to GastroGard is technically using the product off label. While both GastroGard and UlcerGard contain the same amount of omeprazole per tube (2.28 grams of omeprazole), only GastroGard is approved by the FDA for full tube use. UlcerGard is sold over-the-counter as a preventative providing 1 mg/kg, given at ¼ tube for horses weighing up to 1200 pounds, and ½ tube over 1200lbs. GastroGard is sold by prescription based on the FDA approval of 4.0 mg/kg dosage. We may think of these products for horses interchangeably, yet the FDA has given approval for GastroGard as a treatment for gastric ulcers, and UlcerGard as a preventative drug for gastric ulcers. Omeprazole is also known in the equine industry by its trade names: GastroGard and UlcerGard. Omeprazole is a medicine classified as a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), and its purpose is to block stomach acid production.