Gastric Ulcers in horses

Tiffany

Tiffany

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anyone any experience, what are the symptons?
My friend's WB mare lost some weight a few weeks ago so she put her on more hard feed but she still looks a bit tucked up, she's also gone a bit grumpy which is unusual and she's become a little sensitive on her sides.

Any thoughts please?

She's going to call vet out but wondered if it could be ulcers?

Thanks
 
Forgot to say, if you do a search on here you will find many threads/posts about peoples experience of ulcers and how they have dealt with it.

In my experience a high fibre diet with no cereals or sugar and plenty of turnout will help
 
Thanks Mr Meldrew - changing the subject are you grumpy and amusing like Victor Meldrew?
laugh.gif
 
I have a horse that has had these recently. I took him off cereals and put him on lots of fibre (Allen and Paige Fast Fiber) Speedibeet and a little Pasture mix for flavour. He was also out 24/7 plus ad lib hay. In a month he regained all his lost weight - his coat improved 100% and he is tearing around like a 2 year old . Better to try this unless you horse is colicking etc. If it doesnt work then get him endosopyed and medicated by vet.
 
My horse showed very few symptoms & I think my vets thought I was being daft when I asked about them. He was a good weight (but for an ID I was shoving serious amounts of food down him), his coat was good, he had plenty of energy. But he cribbed, was seriously sharp & unpredictable (impossible on cereals), lost weight easily & always very loose in his droppings. I just knew something wasn't right, he's essentially a sweet, generous horse but he was becomeing more & more unpredictable & too often dangerous - it was as though it was outside his control at times.

When he went into hospital for coic surgery I mentioned this to the surgeon the next day & she scoped for ulcers immediately. He's now had a course of Gastroguard & four months later he's a different horse.

My advice is if you have doubts insist on a gastric scope & don't let things get to the stage I did. In the meantime try adlib hay, as much turnout as possible, no cereals & something like Equine America's U-Gard Plus.
 
Thanks Nari and Turbobert. She's getting her scoped in next couple of weeks. Apparently they have to get someone in to do it.

Poor girl she's really grumpy which is so unusal.
 
Good luck.

If the scope does find ulcers please don't panic. I can hardly believe the difference a course of GastroGuard has made, Jim is now a far more relaxed & content horse than he's been for years. In the meantime you may find that a change of diet will at least make her a bit more comfortable & less grumpy.
 
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