08/25/2025
🚩This might be my most important educational post I've ever made, so please share, share SHARE! 🤓
👏COMPOUNDED 👏OMEPRAZOLE 👏DOES👏 NOT👏 WORK!👏
I get it, Gastrogard is freaking EXPENSIVE. You know what is more expensive? Spending money on medications that don't even work! Money wasted is not money saved!
Here's the thing: the drug omeprazole is cheap. It's pretty simple to make and that's why lots of compounding pharmacies (and sketchy overseas companies) can manufacture *cheap* products and claim the name brand is a rip off. But there is a catch... omeprazole needs to be absorbed in the small intestine in order to work. And it is broken down by stomach acid (which is inconvenient). This means that in order to actually work, the drug needs to be protected by a gastric buffer which allows it to pass through the stomach acid and in to the small intestine for absorption. Human tablets have a thin enteric coating on the omeprazole tablets, but it's not exactly possible to get a horse to swallow without chewing medication.
THIS is why Gastrogard is so expensive, they have a gastric buffer that actually works! And they seem to be the ONLY one that actually does. There are some other pastes out there claiming to have a gastric buffer, but they predictably fail on gastroscopic exams.
As a veterinarian, it is my duty to provide the best quality care for your horse- which means recommending safe, effective medications that actually treat the disease in question. It is not because of some brand loyalty to BI, or because we get some kickbacks from big pharma (oh man I wish 😫) Once there is a product out there with a similar safety and efficacy profile as Gastrogard I will add that to my recommendations immediately.... promise!
Do you think you have a supplement/medication that works better than gastrogard? Put it to the test and get scoped! Gastroscopies never lie...👀
