Efficacy of omeprazole paste for prevention of recurrence of gastric ulcers in horses in race training.

The research article focuses on the effectiveness of using omeprazole oral paste to prevent the recurrence of gastric ulcers in racing horses.

Introduction

• This study aims to ascertain whether administering omeprazole oral paste at specific dosages would prevent gastric ulcers from recurring in training race horses.

Methods

• The study is prospective in nature and involves 135 horses.
• Initially, horses with gastric ulcers were given omeprazole at a dosage of 4 mg/kg orally, every 24 hours for a period of 28 days.
• The research followed two phases: dose selection and dose confirmation. In the dose selection phase, horses were either given a sham dosage or received 0.5 or 1 mg of omeprazole/kg orally, for an additional 28 days.
• In the dose confirmation phase, horses were either given a sham dosage or received 1 mg of omeprazole/kg orally, for another 28 days.
• Gastric ulcers in the horses were scored via gastroscopy before and after the preventive phase (day 28 to day 56) and results were compared.

Results

• The results indicated that horses that received the sham dosage and those given 0.5 mg of omeprazole/kg had significantly higher ulcer scores than those that received 1 mg of omeprazole/kg.
• There was a considerable difference between the proportion of horses that remained ulcer-free after receiving the 1 mg dosage per kg (38 out of 48, 79%) and those that received the sham dosage (7 out of 44, 16%).

Conclusion

• The study concluded that omeprazole oral paste, administered at a dosage of 1 mg/kg orally every 24 hours for 28 days, effectively prevents the recurrence of gastric ulcers in horses undergoing race training.