Gastric Ulcers

[little_pink_piggies]

Bought a horse who had only done pc last year... hes pretty awesome v talented, 7 year old
anyhow potched about in pre nov and intro on him until july and he was going so weel then starte dto get him fitter for nbovices and hes started stopping and losing all his lush movement
he looks in good condition, shiny coat and eyes, by no strech of the imagination looks poor... but hes not eating and as he's lost weight as hes gotten fitter (hes muscled up behind) bur he looks "upside down" if that makes sense... thinking gastric ulcers???

anyone have any info on them and what treatment is and how much time the horse has to have off?

any info appreciated hugely!

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Vet can endoscope him to look for ulcers and give treatment. If hee's not eating they would be likely. Lots of food is the best way to prevent ulcers, but obviously if he won't eat much then that's a problem, try to encourage him to eat, especially forage, could you try giving him haylage or soaked hay (if he's on hay now), give him plenty of chaff, preferably alfalfa based in his feed as this helps buffer stomach acids. Good luck, hope you find out the cause soon.

 

[Em_charlie]

Hi, My horse is suspected to have gastric ulcers and my friends horse has got them. A big give away sign is wind sucking or crib biting. With something like this though, oyu need to get it checked out and the best way to do it is have him scoped but it is a very traumatic procedeure, but if its got to be done, its got to be done. Both our horses are on GNF (gut nutrition formula) which is very expensive but works really well and my horse has never been so well now that hes on it. LEt me know what happens Good luck

 

[Em_charlie]

Also, i meant to say dnt give your horse any fruit or veg as these contain a lot of sugars which make the stomach lining more acidic and will make the ulcers worse.

 

[Nari]

If you don't want to go down the scoping route lots of vets will give a course of ulcer treatment to see if it works - if it does the odds are you're dealing with ulcers! Or you could try Equine America's U-Gard Plus which doesn't need a prescription, it worked wonders on my horse.

If you need to get more fibre down him try giving him some choice - dry hay, soaked hay, damp hay, some in nets & some on the floor, dried grass, unmollassed alfalfa, unmollassed sugar beet or anything else you can think of that may tempt him. Be careful with haylage though as it's more acidic so isn't really ideal if he does have ulcers. I found with Jim that his appetite increased dramatically after a few days of U-Gard, he went from only eating 2-3 slices of hay (not even that a lot of the time since he tended to play with it rather than eat) to putting away the best part of a bale a night!

I also found that cutting out cereals helped a lot. If he needs more energy I now feed Saracen ReLeve which looks (& I assume tastes) like a normal mix but is cereal free.