Uls Gard Pellet Equine America 3 Kg

Uls-Gard Pellets is a powerful and effective pellet formulation to help maintain gastric health and comfort. It contains key ingredients traditionally used to help soothe the stomach lining, including pectins, lecithin, aloe vera, marshmallow root, glycine, and liquorice.

Also provides nutritional support to help maintain a healthy gut pH, including slow-release calcium and magnesium from marine algae. It includes beta glucans from high nucleotide yeast to support gastric content viscosity, alongside pre and probiotics to support a healthy gut microbiome. This pellet is presented on a palatable alfalfa and soya hulls base, to provide a fibrous mat that protects the stomach lining. 

Uls-Gard Pellet has been formulated using carefully selected ingredients to help maintain gastric health and comfort including:

• Calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate: help support a healthy gut pH.
• Lecithin: a special type of fat that helps to support healthy stomach lining cells.
• Pectins, marshmallow root and liquorice: help produce mucilage which acts as a physical barrier for the unprotected upper portion of the stomach.
• Aloe vera and glycine: help support a healthy gastric mucosa (lining of the stomach).
• High nucleotide yeast: provides beta-glucans which help to increase the viscosity of stomach contents and provide nutritional support for a healthy gastric mucosa.
• Pre and probiotics: support a healthy gut microbiome.
• Alfalfa and soya hulls: provide a fibrous "mat" and to help maintain a healthy gastric pH.

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Benefits:

• Natural nutritional support for gut health and comfort (calcium, magnesium, lecithin, pectin, and glycine).
• Key ingredients traditionally used to soothe the stomach wall (aloe vera, marshmallow root, and liquorice).
• Beta glucans from high nucleotide yeasts to support a healthy gastric mucosa.
• Prebiotics to help support a healthy gut microbiome.
• Palatable and easy to mix for fussy feeders.
• Suitable for foals at a reduced serving rate.

BETA NOPS and UFAS accredited, ensuring our products do not contain prohibited substances and are suitable for horses competing under FEI regulations and the Rules of Racing.

Other information

Horses are designed to trickle feed – grazing for up to 16 hours a day. This means that they need to constantly secrete acid to help digest this almost continual source of food entering their stomach. A grazing horse will also produce up to 9 gallons of saliva a day which as well as lubricating the food, also acts to help maintain a healthy gastric pH.

Furthermore, the physical presence of food in the stomach acts as a fibrous “mat” or barrier, helping to prevent acid splashing onto the upper, unprotected areas of the stomach. So, if access to forage (pasture, hay, haylage) is restricted, acid continues to be produced, and with restricted chewing time, less saliva is produced which may affect a healthy gastric pH.

The lower portion of the stomach (the glandular area), where the acid is produced, has several natural protective mechanisms, including mucous production and bicarbonate secretion, but the upper portion of the stomach (squamous area) has no such protection. If the horse is worked with a mainly empty stomach, when he trots, canters or jumps, or even just tenses his abdominal muscles, this acid can splash or be squeezed up to the unprotected area of the stomach The horse has a small stomach, and food does not stay in there for very long, so even short periods during the day without access to forage can cause problems.

In addition to restricted access to forage, there are other factors that have been reported to increase the incidence and severity of digestive disturbance, including:

• Stress: social stressors such as bullying from stable neighbours or herd mates, or box location (for example near the feed room or muck heap, resulting in increased activity past the door) have been shown to increase the risk.
• High starch diets: may result in increased volatile fatty acid production in the stomach, which may, in turn, result in abnormalities with sodium transport leading to cell damage in the stomach.
• Limited turnout and reduced access to natural antioxidants from grass.
• Intense training and competition schedules and frequent travelling, especially long-distance.

Additional management factors to help support digestive health and comfort:

• Turnout to grass where practical and possible, ideally with a placid companion, even if only for short periods.
• Ensure ad lib forage, where practical. For good doers, where calories are restricted, offer very frequent, but controlled amounts of forage, with the largest allocation overnight. Select clean but low-calorie forage to enable larger amounts to be offered.
• Offer forage in different locations in the stable to encourage natural foraging behavior.
• Try to reduce social stresses such as bullying stablemates, or proximity to the feed store.
• Feed a good double handful (or one round scoop) of alfalfa chaff before exercise or competition warmup to provide a fibrous mat in the stomach - even if forage is available in the stable or lorry.
• Plan yard and field regimes to avoid stressors such as bullying or excessive activity near the stable.
• Avoid high starch feeds and instead use a forage-based regime with digestible fibre sources and oil to provide additional energy.
• Try to provide periods of turnout or hand grazing, if possible, to enable the horse to benefit from antioxidants in fresh green forage.