Omeprazole and ulcers

[HeadFairy]

My TB has previously been suspected of having ulcers, partly because of his breed, he's an ex racer, and he's always displayed girthy behaviour. 18 months ago for other health reasons he was scoped and was clear, but he's started showing signs of discomfort. He's recently started a daily bute dose which I think has affected his stomach. He's always cribbed, but it's getting worse, and he's more girthy than he's been for a while, even reacting to rugs. Will a vet have to scope him to give a prescription for omeprazole, or are they likely to be ok to prescribe and see if it alleviates his symptoms?

Depends on the vet but I never give my ulcer prone horse bute for this reason. There are gentler alternatives for pain relief.

Yeah, I'm thinking of moving him to Danilon. Is that what you're using?

Yes I only use danilon but I hardly ever use that either. Owning a TB I need him to feel pain points cos otherwise he is a bit of a tit! I only ever use it immediately after a surgical intervention for shortest period of time

Yes they have to scope in order to prescribe Omeprazole or sucralfate.

You might be able to get them prescribed without a scope on the grounds of 'prevention' if the horse has previously been diagnosed with ulcers.

Id definitely recommend scoping for ulcers. One of mine was treated for ulcers & was really surprised at the changes - things I hadn't thought would be related to ulcers eg disunited canter & difficulty with correct lead turned out to be ulcer pain related.

@twistyizzy sadly my poor boy has to be on a daily pain med as he has recurrent lameness due to his poor conformation. I think moving to danilon will have to be our next move.

@Serencwtch I'll go and have a chat with the vet. I try to avoid any invasive procedures for him as he had colic surgery a couple of years ago and poor boy had been through a lot. He's been scoped once in Nov '23 so I know he's ok having it done, I just try and minimise anything if I can.

Mine had colic surgery in Jan 2022 so know what you mean.
I was really worried about the scope especially starving her overnight but it turned out to be a complete non event. It was done on the yard in her own stable.
So glad I had it done as her symptoms weren't obviously ulcers.
The vet advice at the time (summer 2023) was they can't prescribe Omeprazole without a scope in the past 6 months.
I can now get a 7 day course without a new scope on the grounds of 'prevention' so if she needed bute I could get it without a further scope.

@Serencwtch thanks, spoke to my vet today, they're going to do bloods to rule out bute toxicity. Unlikely but they'd like to rule it out. They said he's unlikely to have developed an ulcer so quickly given he started the Bute in November, so we'll see what the bloods show.

Little update, bloods are back so definitely not Bute toxicity, which is great news. Vet thinks increased cribbing could be down to winter, my horse is very prone to blues, and hates having to stay in when there are storms galore at the moment, so could be stress response to that. I'm going to go back to my anti ulcer plan, feeding him 4 small feeds, and ad lib haylage, plus a pre and pro biotic to see if that makes his tummy a bit more comfortable.