Gastric Ulcers

All sorts of reasons, similar to why humans get them. Stress, pain, wrong diet (ie not enough fibre and/or not allowed to trickle feed), no company, disease (eg cancers) of digestive tract, poor management (eg turnout), work at wrong level for horse, ill treatment etc etc etc. Depending on the cause, curing can be relatively simple. If everything above except disease and possibly pain is addressed, you're halfway there. Sometimes the horse will need help to get on top of the ulcer/s and products like Coligone can be invaluable then. Reasons for colic that aren't management related such as cancers, diseases of the digestive tract or advanced ulcers that are too severe to respond to over-the-counter help will need veterinary intervention. Blood tests and endoscopy can help with diagnosis and then treatment/prognosis obviously depends on the findings.

Symptoms of gastric ulcer are many and varied but can include all the usual symptoms of pain as well as irritability, loss of condition, loss of willingness to work, change in demeanour/presonality, loss of appetite, stereotypical behaviours such as windsucking and cribbing, failure to thrive, general unhappiness and misery. All the sort of things you'd experience if you had a painful and untreated medical condition and people told you to just get on with it. Hope your horse is ok hun and if he has a problem that it's easily resolved xxx
 
ok thanks that is very informative, I have had horse for 10months now and over the last few months she has just got worse at tacking up and rugging up, I wont let anyone else do it, as she tries to kick and bite (not to bad with me as I am quiet and calm around her) others think she deserves a smack for it but I know she is not doing it out of naughtyness she is trying to tell me something or doing it out of habit??

she has become more and more stroppy and moody lately and after reading other posts thinking maybe it could be ulcers, we have had back and teeth and saddle checked so ruled them out,

I dont mind if she is just a stoppy mare she is worth it, but i really wouldnt want her to be in pain.
 
A friend of mine had a horse with similar problems - and used Ugard (Equine America product) - which seemed to help....
 
One of mine was diagnosed and treated for this in dec. He had to be scoped and then was on medication for 3 weeks and now has to remain on a supplement, cant tell you what the bill was as he was treated for other things as well but it was def not 5k
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thank god!!!
 
my gelding had gastric ulcers secondary to another illnesshe wastreatedwith gastro guard then rescoped and a further 3 weeks of gastro guard.he was the put onto a suplement called equitop pronutrin it is expensive but seems to be doing the job
 
Dealing with one of the olympic vets out here in America - he recommends Gastro guard - think this is an Equine American product - he said it will work within a few days to relieve symptoms such as blood in the faeces which my old boy is now suffering - so lets hope it makes a difference.
 
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