Feeding to prevent ulcers & promote condition.

[Roisin_M]

Hi!
I'm about to take on a horse that has suffered in the past with stomach ulcers, he's 8yrs old and a typical stressy TB.

He really needs to put on some weight & condition, at the moment he's not doing any work, but i am going to begin gentle slow work, lots of road work and light schooling with the intention to eventually regulary hunting and some small comps.

So i've been scouring the web, books to find feed that is suitable and good for ulcer prone horses. Is anything in the below list a total no-no? would you personally recommend any of them?

Here is the list, I obviously won't be feeding it all at once!

allen & page Fast fibre
Spillers conditioning fibre
alfa a oil
alfa a balancer
hi fi balancer
rapeseed oil
veg oil
olive oil
flaxseed oil
unmollassed sugar beet
sugar beet pulp
alfa beet
pink powder
equine gold biotal
gastro gold
limestone flour

Thanks for reading!

 

[YasandCrystal]

The list looks ok. You must just avoid all mollasses and sugar and haylage if you can. My boy is also cereal and sugar intolerant so he gets A & P's cereal and sugar intolerant feed and carob kibble (locust bean), plain chaff and a mug of micronized linseed and magnesium. Linseed is great for gut health and condition.
You can feed grass nuts (GrazeOn make them) - I am trying to source these as an alternative to the pricey A & P mix.

 

[Nocturnal]

I think the main thing with ulcers is to make sure the horse always has access to forage - hay is prob better than haylage. That will also help the horse put on condition. Other than that, micronised linseed is great, and yea-sacc to aid digestion.

 

[ellie_e]

Linseed, great for weight gain, condition

 

[Tammytoo]

First of all, are you sure his ulcers have healed?

I have fed my tbs on the following and it works well for me.

Brewers Yeast - is very good for stressy horses, lots of racing yards feed it.
Micronised linseed - is great for skin and hooves and general conditioning.
Allan & Page C&C mixed with Fast Fibre works well for tbs.

Some people find the alfa products can send their horses a bit silly.

Hay is much better than haylage for ulcer-prone horses.

Plenty of turnout, pref. 24/7 if you can get it is also recommended. Standing in a stable with an empty stomach is not good for ulcers.

Keeping your horse in as natural a way as possible is the best way to avoid stress.

I am sure you'll get loads of help on here, Oberon is "the expert" on feeding!

 

[Puppy]

Some people find the alfa products can send their horses a bit silly.

Yes, my poor boy recently had a complete melt down on the Alfa A Mol free and talking about it on FB it seems an awful lots of my friends have had similar experiences, so I'm avoiding it from now on.

I would say lots of fibre, readily available, and a high oil diet for condition. Avoid sugars and starchy products. Also, a feed of chaff before riding.

 

[EquestrianFairy]

Another here!

Always hay over hayledge- makes a huge difference to my cribber (ulcer prone)
She has:

Topspec balancer
Topspec condition cubes
Topspec Alfa topchop (worth noting here tht she will not eat ANY other chaff product including Alpha A Oil)
linseed Oil
Coligone/equine biotal if I can't get my hands on coligone.

This altogether has done wonders for her both condition wise, health wise and in her case, cribbing wise.

 

[Inchy]

My boy has had bad ulcers in the past, he lives out 24/7, but if he has to come in for any reason he has adlib hay. For feed he has:

Graze on chaff
Alfa a molasses free
Dengie Alfa a balancer
Brewers yeast
Corn oil

If needs a bit more 'omph' or condition I add grass pellets (northern crop driers)

As long as its as starch and molasses free as possible should be fine. Beware of chaffs with molasses coatings (alfa a, alfa a oil, hi fi range. Happy hoof etc etc) I stick to molasses free chaffs and feeds!

 

[TigerTail]

You can get rid of everything on your list by feeding micronised linseed and having your forage anlysed so you only feed the minerals which your area is lacking.

He needs to be able to graze all the time, trickle feed properly. If not the acids in his stomach build up and up and have no place to go so start irritating the stomach lining.

Id avoid alfa or any variety as it irritates a lot of horses.

Too much oil is pointless as it just greases all the nutrition straight through so the horse gets no benefit.

Start reading the labels on feed bags, if it sounds like a science lesson its not worth the risk of feeding it. Some info below to help.

http://thunderbrook.co.uk/app/download/3106767802/Some+ingredients+of+processed+horse+feeds.pdf

With Ulcers and stressy horses the most vital bit is their management - for eg iv got a tb x arab and a tb living with mine, living out 24.7 Before they came to me theyd been on your typical livery yard with not enough turn out full stop, never mind winter, aggrivated by all the comings and goings of people an dhorses, their feed messed about with depending who was feeding etc. Now they live out and are totally different animals.

 

[goneshowjumping]

First of all, are you sure his ulcers have healed?

I have fed my tbs on the following and it works well for me.

Brewers Yeast - is very good for stressy horses, lots of racing yards feed it.
Micronised linseed - is great for skin and hooves and general conditioning.
Allan & Page C&C mixed with Fast Fibre works well for tbs.

Some people find the alfa products can send their horses a bit silly.

Hay is much better than haylage for ulcer-prone horses.

Plenty of turnout, pref. 24/7 if you can get it is also recommended. Standing in a stable with an empty stomach is not good for ulcers.

Keeping your horse in as natural a way as possible is the best way to avoid stress.

I am sure you'll get loads of help on here, Oberon is "the expert" on feeding!

this is exactly what I feed my ex racer, and he is thriving on it! second the haylage thing, my vet advised def no haylage as this can aggrivate. I feed ad lib hay so he is always having enough fibre. I used to feed a mollassed chaff but since taking him off it he has improved condition and his general manners. I have allen and page out to my yard on a 3 month basis this is a free service they offer where they weigh your horse and give out fab advice, and on the first visit i got a free bag of feed. Allen and page have been excellent with my horse and nothing is ever too much trouble for them. I have them out on the 14th jan with the weigh bridge to check him over. A lot of my yard are also taking advantage of this and getting thier horses weighed too.
good luck with your horse.

 

[belle31]

Talking from experience and owning a high maitenance ex racer:

Havens Slobbermash

My 'recurring colic' mare put on it by vet a year ago, never looked back she is in fantastic condition

http://shop.havens.dk/shop/havens-slobber-mash-176p.html