Authorized General Practitioner of Natural Medicine
In my daily work as a Practitioner of Natural Medicine, I do get many questions from concerned horse owners and trainers. Some are very individual questions and some are more related to common symptoms and conditions.
Of course, our alternative treatments and our hair analysis will also be disputed by people who find it difficult to grasp that something other than the traditional medicine could work.
We are not trying to convince anyone that our methods are the only correct but many have already tried traditional care and not been helped and therefore looking at alternative forms of treatment for themselves and their animals.
If you have a question concerning your horse, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Elisabeth
When I switched from GastroGard to Gastrofor, my horse got all the “old” symptoms of gastric ulcers. I went back on GastroGard and the horse recovered. What is the reason for this and how does the Gastrofor work?
Answer
When a horse is treated with Gastrogard/ Omepraole for an extended period, the horse can react when the drug is removed too quickly. Treatment with GastroGard/Omeprazole will result in an immediate reduction of stomach acid. However, prolonged treatment will result in the glands, which produce the stomach acid, to increase production of acid. This is a normal reaction in order for the stomach to process the food. When the GastroGard/Omepraole is removed suddenly, you can compare this to an ”explosion” of stomach acid being produced and the horse will, of course, show the symptoms again.
Gastrofor needs a somewhat longer time in order to be affective in such a situation.In order to avoid these reactions, it is best if the dosage of GastroGard/Omeprazole can be decreased over a certain time period, for instance 2 weeks to one month. At the same time, Gastrofor should be administered three to four times a day. This procedure will avoid any noticeable problems with the change over.
My horse seems to do very good from have using Gastrofor for a couple of months, how long do I need to feed him the product?
Answer
If you feed your horse whole oats (not sprayed with oil), good quality hay (not sprayed with pesticides), beat pulp and let him graze you do not need to use any medication for him.
If you race him it may bee a good idea to give him Gastrofor because of stress and change of fodder which is very common when the horses is moving around to different race tracks.If you feed him pellets, grain mix, corn, soy, sweet feed, oil or other industrial made products I recommend you use Gastrofor all time for helping his digesting and keep him in good shape.
I am an equine veterinarian and I am bewildered by your claims that you can make diagnosis and future lameness predictions based on a hair sample. Are you not aware that this is impossible? The only information that can be gathered by analysis of hair is some chronic dermatologic conditions, genetic conditions, and previous exposure to toxic metals and pharmaceuticals.
Answer
Dear Mr. Y,We are very much aware of the fact that the traditional western medicine does not recognize that a hair analysis can provide any other information than those mentioned in your e-mail.
However, there are large groups of medicinal practitioners that claim otherwise, groups which I believe have much more knowledge of the hair analysis and its possibilities than most veterinarians. Now, maybe you do have the knowledge that gives you the right to dismiss the millions of people all over the world that seeks alternative and complementary ways for keeping themselves and their animals healthy. I certainly hope so since this is what you are doing in your letter.
We are, with our hair analysis method, able to achieve very accurate and precise results that is working out very well for our purposes, namely to help the horse in the best way we can.We do not, and have never, claimed that our services in any way will replace veterinarians or veterinary treatments. In fact, almost all of the horse owners we get in contact with have already sought that help. They have had their horses examined and medicated numerous times and at great cost. The reason as to why they then have turned to us for assistance is that the treatments their horses have been undergoing have not been successful.
The hair analysis is a method that will help us understand why the horses’ in question do not respond well to these treatments, but since you already have such a strong opinion of the hair analysis method I will not even start to try to tell you why it is such a powerful tool.
As for your claim that it is impossible to get specific information from a hair analysis; I am afraid that we aren’t aware of that fact! Our clients, and we have had many during the 30 odd years of performing hair analyses, haven’t noticed it either, on the contrary, we have repeatedly been told that the outcome of the analyses have been very accurate in addressing the horses’ problems and symptoms.