Advice from people experienced in dealing with GASTRIC ULCERS

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jenz87

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Hi everyone:)

Horsey has just been diagnosed with Chronic Gastric Ulcers, Grade 3. Hopefully going on Gastroguard when Insurance gives go ahead.

So after treatment im looking for cost affective methods to help keep her ulcer free.

Im thinking two hay nets at night on different sides of the box. As much turnout as possible.
Two/Three feeds a day whilst on winter turnout.
Feed of
Fibre Beet, Readi Grass and Grass Pellets. Also maybe some sunflower oil to keep weight on.

What does everyone think?

Also heard good things about the NAF Gastrivet / Gastriaid?

Thank you :D Panicky mum here!
 
When my horse went for scoping on gastric ulcers, my vet who deals with a lot of racehorses said that he sees quite a few grade 4 ulcers. He tells the owner/trainer to turn them out 24/7 for a couple of months and hey presto the majority clear up without any treatment at all.
 
Mine was scoped 3 years ago and was found to have grade 4 gastric ulcers. He was on a 2month course of gastroguard, then re scoped which showed it had cleared it up.

He now lives out 24/7 all year round, he has a little shetland friend, that is HIS friend, so is never taken out the field from him. If he has to be stabled or is travelling he has ad-lib soaked hay. Basically he is never left without hay or grass for any length of time.

He is fed Graze on chaff and grass pellets, a feed balancer, brewers yeast and linseed oil.

Day before, day of and day after any potentially stressful situation (competition, travel, vet etc.) he has a maintenance dose of gastro guard and protexin biopremium.

i have had him scope yearly since and he's been given the all clear each time.

Good Luck! PM if you want any advice!
 
Inchy said:
Mine was scoped 3 years ago and was found to have grade 4 gastric ulcers. He was on a 2month course of gastroguard, then re scoped which showed it had cleared it up.

He now lives out 24/7 all year round, he has a little shetland friend, that is HIS friend, so is never taken out the field from him. If he has to be stabled or is travelling he has ad-lib soaked hay. Basically he is never left without hay or grass for any length of time.

He is fed Graze on chaff and grass pellets, a feed balancer, brewers yeast and linseed oil.

Day before, day of and day after any potentially stressful situation (competition, travel, vet etc.) he has a maintenance dose of gastro guard and protexin biopremium.

i have had him scope yearly since and he's been given the all clear each time.

Good Luck! PM if you want any advice!
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Thats very interesting and reassuring thank you!!

Just wondering what do the brewers yeast and linseed oil do?
 
Linseed oil, is for coat/joints/condition/energy as I can't feed cereals - find the grass nuts very good for a bit of cereal free oomph too!

Brewers yeast is what most probiotic supplements are based on - but its cheaper to feed as it is rather than when its been packaged and marketed by a feed company! Feeding pre/pro biotics has been proven to help prevent gastric ulcer in some cases. The protexin I am lead to believe is a very good pre/pro biotic, but my vet said as I was already feeding brewers yeast there was no point using it all the time, just use for stressful situations.
 
Also.. If you look at what some of these gastric ulcer supplements have in...I'm pretty sure they can't do that much! I've managed to keep mine all clear (and still competing) without them, so if you can save your money!
 
Mine live out, and don't get fed any cereals at all. I used gastro guard, and to be honest, I'm not sure they go away when they are bad without any treatment in a couple of months, my mares certainly didn't! My vet recomends corn oil for horses that have had ulcers, and neighlox from kentucky equine is also good. You need to check the rules on gastro guard for competing, I know your not allowed to use it for about a week prior to racing but I'm not sure for other sports. Also if you need a feed for energy, Releve from Saracen is great, as it has no cereal, and is designed for working horses. Hay is good, I was told to use less haylage more hay, and preferably different types. I also bucket fed alfa and a readi grass type feed if left in overnight.
 
Holly Hocks said:
When my horse went for scoping on gastric ulcers, my vet who deals with a lot of racehorses said that he sees quite a few grade 4 ulcers. He tells the owner/trainer to turn them out 24/7 for a couple of months and hey presto the majority clear up without any treatment at all.
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Like!

As posted on another thread a high fibre, protein and oil diet is the key according to my vet. My mare is on ad lib hay, alpha a oil, build up cubes, speedibeet and linseed with think pink vit/min supp (£12 a month). She was diagnosed by blood test so not sure what grade hers are but she is so much happier since she started on this routine a month ago.
 
jenz87 said:
Hi everyone:)

Horsey has just been diagnosed with Chronic Gastric Ulcers, Grade 3. Hopefully going on Gastroguard when Insurance gives go ahead.

So after treatment im looking for cost affective methods to help keep her ulcer free.

Im thinking two hay nets at night on different sides of the box. As much turnout as possible.
Two/Three feeds a day whilst on winter turnout.
Feed of
Fibre Beet, Readi Grass and Grass Pellets. Also maybe some sunflower oil to keep weight on.

What does everyone think?

Also heard good things about the NAF Gastrivet / Gastriaid?

Thank you :D Panicky mum here!
Click to expand...


My vet has just emailed me saying to stay clear of cereal and beet based products....! Thats thrown a spanner in the works! :(
 
Double check the beet stuff s/he may mean sugar beet as sugar can irritate ulcers. Speedibeet may be fine as it is lower in sugar than sugar beet.
 
Thanks BBH, I forget some people may not know about speedibeet not really been traditional Beet!

Fingers crossed thats what he meant as i quite like the sound of that product!!

So does any one have any additional supplements besides brewers yeast? :)
 
Struggling with diet myself ATM for a potential ulcer sufferer (booked in to be scoped)

I was feeding a stupidly expensive amount a month of products but am slowly cutting them down.

I've bought a bag of linseed (as advised on here)
Then fibrebeet instead of sugarbeet.
Condition cubes (TS are cereal free as I need condition on mine but the linseed may enable me to cancel this out)
Naf pink powder because it's a vit/min AND a probiotic in one however I have heard of the prox one someone else stated above I just haven't used it myself yet.
 
Ulcers like laminitis and other metabolic dis orders are primarily caused by the physical management of the horse and it's diet.

Obviously, some horses cope well with a high degree of variation in their lifestyle and have a wide margin of tolerance, others do not and react very quickly to circumstances which don't suite them.

Generally speaking, race horses and more and more competition horses are showing higher incidences of gastric ulcers, and better diagnostic techniques are being employed, so owners and keepers are more aware of them.

It is possible to cause ulcers in very little time, but can take an age to cure them.

My own view is that to prevent ulcers from happening, or to cure existing ones, one has to look at the horse in its most natural state and ask why ulcers effect only domesticated horses often in a regime many would consider at the higher end of comfort and care.

Ulcers are caused and aggravated by acid naturally produced by the horse to help digest its food. The horse being a trickle feeder is also a constant acid producer. It should therefore be eating for the majority of it's time, periods where the alimentary tract are allowed to become empty exacerbate the problem. Cereals, are not a natural food for the horse and have the effect of slowing down the digestive tract significantly, causing an imballance in digestion and acid production.

Ad lib long fibre, and the removal of cereals from the diet and avoiding prolonged periods where hay or haylage is unavailable will significantly reduce the incidence of ulcers.
 
My horse had G4 splash and glandular ulcers, the former cleared up with gastrogard, the latter needed antibiotics as well. The problem with the turn away approach is that if there is an underlying reason why the ulcers have developed, you will improve them to the point of there being no clinical symptoms, but you won't heal them, so eventually they will come back when you 'stress' the horse again (and I don't mean stress in a negative way here).

I've got mine back to doing a couple of intermediates (with another rider!) and competing for a couple of years at BE100/Novice with no recurrence.

1. Hay is better than haylage, but it's not as massive a deal as some people believe. My horse coughs on hay, and I only have one place to hang up nets, so I feed haylage in one place. My vet said the absolute best is 3 or 4 nets of different types of hay hung round the stable. Frankly that's impractical and life is too short!

2. Look at Pure Feeds - perfect for horses which have had ulcers as low in starch and sugar, no molasses, no cereal grains, oat straw chaff to help buffer against splash ulcers, small amount of alfalfa to help neutralise stomach acid, and a balancer pellet. I event my horse on half the recommended amount of Pure Easy and he has never looked so well. Takes away all the complication of several different bags of feed too.

3. Make sure you feed something stalky about 30mins before exercise. I either give a net whilst I am grooming, or I feed him his Pure Feeds whilst mucking out, then groom and ride. The 'don't feed before exercise' thing applies to cereals and straights, not to fibre (otherwise wild horses would all drop down dead after grazing then being chased by a lion!). At competitions, I feed a double handful of Pure Feeds or just chaff in those sample bags you can get at shows from tradestands before each phase.

4. Adlib forage. I never leave him without haylage. I even kept him with a net right up until I tacked up for the XC phase of the 3 day I did.

5. Look at Feedmark's UlcerCalm. Ingredients are virtually identical to the only supplement which has had any kind of clinical trial, but it is a fraction of the price. They are forever doing offers, I don't think I've ever bought it full price!
 
Thanks everyone for your advice.

The insurance has just okayed the claim thank goodness, so started GastroGuard !
Bit of a nerve wrecking experience as they were questioning everything due to the wind sucking, god knows what their exclusions will be now! But we have coverage for the next year, so fingers crossed we will be ok!

Just started her on Fibre Beet too, lots of soaked hay, and turn out. Fingers crossed they will go away!
 
SpottedCat said:
3. Make sure you feed something stalky about 30mins before exercise. I either give a net whilst I am grooming, or I feed him his Pure Feeds whilst mucking out, then groom and ride. The 'don't feed before exercise' thing applies to cereals and straights, not to fibre (otherwise wild horses would all drop down dead after grazing then being chased by a lion!). At competitions, I feed a double handful of Pure Feeds or just chaff in those sample bags you can get at shows from tradestands before each phase.
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really good advice Spottedcat but the bit i've hilighted did make me giggle, :D:D
 
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