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  Discussion on Papaya & ulcers....dare I ask?!
Author Message
Member:
loopylou

Posted on Thursday, Jul 5, 2007 - 10:22 am:

Hi folks,
My horse has ulcers that flare up under stress and I then re-finance the house and treat him with gastroguard :-) I'm sure Dr. O or others of you would have posted if Papaya is effective, but I didn't see anything on this thread about it and am hearing lots of gossip that it "really works!". Yep I know - we've all heard that before with no clinical trials. However, just wanted to put it out there just in case this might be a good remedy (as preventative/maintenance, not to replace a course of Gastroguard). Here's some blurb I found on it: The active ingredient in papaya is papain, an enzyme found in indigestion remedies. Papain stimulates the production of mucous, which coats and soothes membranes of the esophagus and stomach, quiets inflammatory bowel synDrOme, aids in protein digestion, and stimulates the appetite.

Thanks much,
Lou
Member:
lloyd

Posted on Thursday, Jul 5, 2007 - 11:52 am:

Hello Lou,
The cheapest way to find out is to have an endoscope performed. If you can't get one done and decide to treat your horse as if it has ulcers, than you can use Omeprazole / Sucralfate generic. $15.00 per tube. I trialed gastrogard and the above generic brand and found them to work equally as effective. They both cleared up the ulcers and further performance within days.

Regards,

Lloyd
Member:
loopylou

Posted on Thursday, Jul 5, 2007 - 12:09 pm:

Hi Lloyd,
I've had my horse scoped and he does have ulcers - the Gastroguard brings him back on track to being happy and healthy but I'm just wondering if the Papaya stuff holds any merit for on-going maintenance. I've tried UGuard and every other thing on the market - Papaya is just new to me so I wondered if anyone else had heard or tried it...

Thanks!
Member:
sunny66

Posted on Thursday, Jul 5, 2007 - 2:05 pm:

Hi Lou, I've used papaya and while my horse absolutely LOVES it, and I do believe it helped a bit, your money is better spent on something that is proven. I am able to guess when he will have an "incident" so I just give a quarter dose of ulcerguard before and after the incident and I haven't had an issue yet.

I should also say he was the mild colic king before treatment, and now I can't remember the last time he had a colic.
Member:
amara

Posted on Thursday, Jul 5, 2007 - 7:48 pm:

i've known several people to use papaya for aftercare on horses with (proven) ulcers..while none of the ulcers ever reoccurred, i dont know if the papaya actually had anything to do with it, or if it was the other management changes we instituted...
MAYBE it added to the whole.. dunno...it was a relatively cheap addition and if my boarders wanted me to add it as a supplement i didnt mind...for their peace of mind if for no other reason...

good luck
Member:
erika

Posted on Friday, Jul 6, 2007 - 9:16 am:

Lou, in my opinion, the cheapest medicine is the one that works. If the Gastroguard does the job, it seems to me that it is the treatment of choice over an unproven "maybe" that you could spend money on only to find that you need the Gastroguard anyway.
Member:
ilona

Posted on Saturday, Jul 7, 2007 - 5:14 pm:

Ulcerguard is really not that expensive and I keep it on hand to administer before and after what I believe is potentially stressful for eg trailering to new location. This is the same approach as Aileen. It seems to keep ulcers away. Prevention is always a great way to go IMO.

By the way how do you administer the papaya?, per
weight, dried or fresh emptied capsules? For how long? Am curious to know.
Member:
aannk

Posted on Sunday, Jul 8, 2007 - 12:14 am:

I tried it and it didn't work. My mare ate it, but nothing changed.
Alicia
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