ulcer update

I wrote last November that my trainer and I talked about Isabel maybe having ulcers. After consulting with the vet, Isabel's owner and I opted for a two week treatment of omeprazole, followed by maintenance via gastric supplements - mostly magnesium and calcium, with a little diatomaceous earth and zinc and other goodies. 

So this post is mostly just to check-in on how she's doing. 

The supplement we started on was this pink powdery stuff. It seems to have the desired effects, but it's pretty messy and Isabel consistently leaves some behind. I suspected that was simply from too much powder given Izzy's small meal size (she's an easy keeper!). 

So now I mix the powder version with the more expensive pelleted version (she gets 1oz of each per day) to increase the surface area for powder to stick to. I pre-measure it in cups since I buy in bulk and our pharmacy feed room has limited space.

The powder, when bought in bulk, costs us about $0.17/day, and the pellets run about $0.36/day for this particular feeding regiment. Definitely cheaper than a full course of omeprazole!! 

So far Isabel seems to be doing really well with managing her stress, and all the little factors that led up to the diagnosis have mostly disappeared. Every few weeks I start to get concerned again - until I realized the concerning aspects were just related to her heat cycle. 

These supplements appear to be doing a good job of maintaining things, tho I expect to pick up a couple tubes of ulcer-gard paste for big show weekends - just to keep that tummy happy!