Gastric ulcers

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Lyndocoops

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My Tb mare has had a flare up again from gastric ulcers she has just started gastro guard today.
She's currently fed alfalfa A Un-Molassed and fibre nuggets with ad lib hay. Trouble is she is not eating much hay, my vet said its ok to feed haylage with the hay maybe mix the two together but other folk on yard as saying that haylage should not be fed. I'm struggling with all the conflicting information. I've only had my mate for a year and want to do the very best for her.
 
It must be better to give her haylage that she will eat than her leaving the hay and having an empty tummy, your vet is qualified to give advice not all the well meaning but unqualified other people on the yard, it is difficult to know what advice to listen to at times but the flare up may well be because she is not eating enough.
 
thank you for replying, totally agree vet said flare up it most likelly not getting enough fibre, she is turned out during the day and in on a night but I have arranged now for a friend to bring her in early with a net so she is not standing out waiting until i get up the yard after work.
 
The specialist who scoped my boy said to give him a mix of both so he can choose for himself. His name is Richard Hepburn and hes written an article in H&H today about ulcers. It says in that haylage is fine
 
Agree with Stilton. Richard Hepburn is a top gastric specialist. He also advised me that haylage isn't the problem for gastric ulcers that people have come to say that it is. The priority is to keep the horse eating. The danger of haylage is two things in this case: 1) some horses love the sweetness so much they then turn their nose up at hay, which causes as many problems as it solves because then you can't keep them eating as it's not advisable to feed haylage completely ad lib because of the sugars and you need them to still like hay... And 2) lots of horses with gastric ulcers also have hind gut sensitivity and that can be badly exacerbated by rich haylage.

But the priority is to keep fibre going in the front end. You'll find with ulcers, as with so many other horsey things, there are a lot of experts out there ;-) Fact is different things work for different horses and knowledge is moving on all the time :-)
 
I feed mainly haylege ( or other hay replacer a ) we never have hay on the yard .
I have had no problem managing horses with gastric ulcers .
Use a low energy haylege if you can.
The the more I learn about ulcers the more I am sure that in most cases they secondary to another problem find that and treat it and you will solve the issue .
I a think of much the time we are spending a fortune on gastrogard to treat a sympton.
 
I quite agree Goldenstar. We are 10 months into trying to find out what my boys problem is and hes just coming to the end of his third course of gastrogard and quite frankly it has done nothing for him so he wont be getting anymore
 
GG did absolutely nothing for mine (together with the other stuff you get prescribed at the same time) & his insides were identical on rescope. I eventually had his back x-rayed & he had quite bad KS. 3 processes removed in June 15 & a ligament snip, back in work, still slow. I was pretty certain we had an ulcer-free few months, then he had a change of companion & I think we are now back to sq 1. Aaaarrrggghhhhh.... Sometimes I truly think that it's time to pick another hobby. All that time, money & angst & I am *still* only doing 10 mins a day in walk.

So yeah, maybe the ulcers are the symptom as GS has suggested, rather than the whole story? (Apols for rant, but I am having a fed-up phase.)

T x
 
I know exactly how you feel Catembi. My boy has had nearly every scan , xray and test available and ive spent over 6k trying to find out whats wrong with him to no avail. Tomorrow hes having his hind suspensories blocked to see if thats the problem as thats the last thing to try. To be honest ive given up worrying about his ulcers because i know hes stuck with them until we find out whats causing his pain
 
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