Confinement, along with forced exercise, transport, medications, antibiotic therapy, persistent physical pain, and even a change in stabling or company are all causative factors that degrade the stomach and gut. The horse's digestive system is thus put at risk for ulcers, diarrhea, gas colic, impaction, hind gut colitis and absorption issues.
GASTROEASE offers the first truly comprehensive gastro intestinal management for high level performance horses. Fed once or twice a day, the GASTROEASE complex diminishes discomfort caused by chronic ulcers, supports healing and prevention of ulcers, improves condition, soothes and heals hind gut inflammation and supports maintenance of bacteria and enzyme levels to promote optimum performance and health.
1. Incomplete digestion and absorption of nutrients has far reaching consequences, ranging from unthrifty appearance to hind gut inflammation, colitis, impaction and gas colic.
2. EGUS, or equine gastric ulcer syndrome is a serious condition in digestive management of the equine athlete. Ulcers often present with subtle, hard to diagnose symptoms. Studies suggest that 70-80 percent of horses in training suffer from low to high grade ulcers. Many low grade ulcers go undiagnosed.
Though generally treated as separate problems by veterinarians, ulcers and incomplete digestion generally occur together. Return to total gastric health often requires the resolution of both issues.
Veterinarians routinely treat gastric ulcers using expensive proton pump inhibiting drugs that reduce symptoms by limiting the stomach’s acid production. Some also suggest somewhat less expensive drugs that coat or treat various levels of the stomach mucosal lining.
Both the proton pump inhibitors and acid neutralizing drugs offer temporary relief from ulcer discomfort and allow healing of lesions to begin. Unfortunately, healing is usually incomplete, the symptoms generally reappear and we continue to treat symptoms with acid controlling therapy at one level or another.
Suddenly acid control therapy has become part of our daily equine regimen. Going to ship your horse? Give him a proton pump inhibitor! Antibiotic therapy? Give him a proton pump inhibitor! Had an ulcer? Give him a proton pump inhibitor! Might get an ulcer? Give him a proton pump inhibitor! (popular ppi’s are Gastrogard and Ulcergard)
Acid control therapy when prescribed by the vet is certainly appropriate. Used alone it generally gives the horse relief from symptoms over a period of time, but the very elimination of the stomach’s acidity also diminishes the efficiency of protein digestion needed to heal the stomach lining. As a result of the lowering of stomach acid, partially digested nutrients now pass to the intestines where they potentially overload the hind gut. They may be absorbed in the colon lining causing inflammation, or create excess gas during fermentation process producing colitis, gas colic and other potentially bad outcomes.
Remedies for gastro intestinal conditions abound. Products that address poor digestion usually contain probiotic bacteria to repopulate the gut. Ulcer remedies either coat the horse’s stomach with an antacid barrier, or moderate the production of acid to relieve the painful symptoms. Treatment of digestive conditions with single function therapies generally does not totally achieve desired outcomes.
GastroEase delivers complete, simple, effective support.
• Use GASTROEASE alone or with PPI’s to support speedy healing of injured tissues.
• Feed GastroEase daily to support ulcer prevention.
Ulcer Resource Action
For the horse, the act of chewing and swallowing produces large quantities of saliva that has a high or basic ph. His stomach produces a constant flow of acid, which is essential to begin nutrient breakdown. Un-buffered acid can bathe the horse’s stomach lining, irritating his exposed gastric tissues and creating ulcers. Spans of 6-8 hours between roughage allows a build up of acid (causative) without sufficient saliva (protective) to neutralize the gastric environment, This creates conditions that can produce gastric discomfort and ulcers.
Various medications, forced exercise and stress also contribute to ulceration of the horse’s gastric mucosa.
GASTROEASE helps buffer excess stomach acid and provides anti inflammatory comfort enhancement to the injured stomach lining. GASTROEASE supports the body’s own efforts to provide constant protection and healing where causative factors are at work. GastroEase works at various levels of the epithelial and mucosa lining supporting thorough healing and prevention of ulcers. Visit the ingredients page to review our comprehensive list of the ingredients in the Ulcer Resource portion of our formula.
Stage 3 and 4 Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome is a condition best diagnosed and prescribed for by a veterinarian. High grade squamous ulcers are often treated by a proton pump inhibitor, which works by limiting or shutting off the production of stomach acid. PPI’s require hours or days to take effect, but offer a medically proven treatment for epithelial gastric ulcers.
Unfortunately, the very effect of the proton pump inhibitor lowering the stomach acid creates ineffective nutrient digestion, which inhibits stomach healing. As the undigested nutrient is passed back to the hind gut, it can create excessive fermentation which increases the potential for gas colic. Some of this undigested nutrient can be absorbed into the hind gut lining and cause inflammation, setting up chronic colitis.
Your performance horse will quickly reflect the complete spectrum of the GastroEase Digestive Enhancement Function.
Digestive Enhancement Function
The GASTROEASE Digestive Enhancement Function provides readily utilized probiotics and prebiotics along with amino acids and oat beta glucan to help the horse make maximum use of his nutrient intake while keeping his gastro intestinal flora in peak health.
Simply stated, the horse’s stomach can be thought of as the beginning point for turning vegetative matter into absorbable ”slurry” (ingesta) that can be further processed and utilized as it moves through the intestines.
Passing through the intestines at just the right pace (motility) the slurry is further digested by specific enzymes and fermentation that break it down into smaller and smaller units until they can be absorbed through the healthy intestinal walls.
The walls of the intestine are populated by billions of “friendly” bacteria. These bacteria are the flora that support conditions for digestion and surround and protect the absorption enhancing structures in the mucosa.
The vital balance of the flora of the equine intestine is quite fragile and is easily disrupted by stress, dehydration, medication, antibiotic therapy, grain overload, disease and environmental factors.
When such an upset occurs, unfriendly pathogenic organisms quickly begin to overgrow the flora and severe gastrointestinal issues can appear. E coli, clostridia, salmonella and other pathogens can create conditions ranging from mild diarrhea to life threatening GI disease. Nothing is more disheartening than treating a horse suffering from ongoing GI issues.
Daily feeding of GASTROEASE brings billions of healthy probiotic organisms to the flora to constantly rejuvenate the mucosa and prevent overgrowth by pathogens. The Digestive Enhancement Function also provides a very aggressive level of prebiotics, which provide nutrition to beneficial flora but are deadly to pathogens.
Billions of digestive enhancing yeast, enzymes, and amino acids are also included in each daily feeding of GASTROEASE, to completely support hind gut digestion.