Help with ulcers

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Ellielou92

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I have 16 year old mare on loan which is very mardy with being girthed or touching her tummy.

Apparently she has always been like this but has been on previous loans for the past 3 years so unknown when it really started.
My first thought was ulcers, shes such an amazing mare i dont want this to have any affect on us working together

So basically wondering what i could try her on feed/supplement wise to see if anything helps to see if it is ulcers and to make her more comfortable!

Thankyou
 
To see if it's ulcers, I would give her a smallish amount of alfalfa pellets soaked in aloe juice about 30 min before you go to ride. I saw a difference in my horse the same day, then went on to treat ulcers (in the US it's usually cheaper and less stress to treat than to scope if you're anything over 50% sure about ulcers). Maybe try this for a week or so. The one caveat being that sometimes if they've had belly pain for so long, the tension/nipping/behavior has become a habit and you have to be REALLY keyed in to know the difference between a habitual behavior from long term pain, vs. present pain.
 
I have a horse with ulcer issues. Scoped and treated numerous times only to return even though he has a relatively stress-free life and lives out. Vet eventually recommended managing rather than retreating so I've tried numerous feeds and supplements over the years. Happy to share some of my findings:

- No cereals or anything high in starch or sugar at all.
- Alfalfa is supposed to have a "buffering" effect for stomach acid. It forms a mat over the stomach acid to prevent splash-back during exercise. It's also supposed to help with neutralising acid but, to achieve this, you'd have to feed mountains of the stuff. I've tried both chaff and pelleted versions. I now use Simple System Lucie Pellets to soak for feeds and Agrobs Luzerne chaff dampened before exercise. I chose these as they're both organic. Not many brands are and, apparently, pesticides sprayed onto crops can irritate ulcers further so you have to be careful not to make things worse. (Even within brands, there are differences. Eg Simple System Lucie Pellets are organic but their Lucie Nuts aren't!)
- Oils can be helpful to line the stomach wall. I use 50ml sunflower or corn oil added to feed twice a day.
- There are loads of supplements available. Vet told me to go for something to create barrier as some horses prone to ulcers don't produce enough gut mucosa to protect stomach wall from acid. Beware of supplements claiming to neutralise stomach acid as they can actually make things worse. (Acid neutralising effect can only work for a few hous at a time so, to be effective, they'd need to be given every few hours even through the night. Without this, acid levels will rise between doses and this acid rebound is more dangerous than consistently high levels of acid in the first place).
- in terms of coating supplements, there are loads. I've tried most over the years. (Some really expensive!) The one I've gone back to though (and one that's quite reasonably priced so may be worth a go as an experiment for you) is slippery elm bark powder.

I hope you find something that works.
 
Fiona36 said:
I have a horse with ulcer issues. Scoped and treated numerous times only to return even though he has a relatively stress-free life and lives out. Vet eventually recommended managing rather than retreating so I've tried numerous feeds and supplements over the years. Happy to share some of my findings:

- No cereals or anything high in starch or sugar at all.
- Alfalfa is supposed to have a "buffering" effect for stomach acid. It forms a mat over the stomach acid to prevent splash-back during exercise. It's also supposed to help with neutralising acid but, to achieve this, you'd have to feed mountains of the stuff. I've tried both chaff and pelleted versions. I now use Simple System Lucie Pellets to soak for feeds and Agrobs Luzerne chaff dampened before exercise. I chose these as they're both organic. Not many brands are and, apparently, pesticides sprayed onto crops can irritate ulcers further so you have to be careful not to make things worse. (Even within brands, there are differences. Eg Simple System Lucie Pellets are organic but their Lucie Nuts aren't!)
- Oils can be helpful to line the stomach wall. I use 50ml sunflower or corn oil added to feed twice a day.
- There are loads of supplements available. Vet told me to go for something to create barrier as some horses prone to ulcers don't produce enough gut mucosa to protect stomach wall from acid. Beware of supplements claiming to neutralise stomach acid as they can actually make things worse. (Acid neutralising effect can only work for a few hous at a time so, to be effective, they'd need to be given every few hours even through the night. Without this, acid levels will rise between doses and this acid rebound is more dangerous than consistently high levels of acid in the first place).
- in terms of coating supplements, there are loads. I've tried most over the years. (Some really expensive!) The one I've gone back to though (and one that's quite reasonably priced so may be worth a go as an experiment for you) is slippery elm bark powder.

I hope you find something that works.
Click to expand...

Ooh, I'm following and interested in this thread, my mare has similar traits as OP's horse. Thanks for your info Fiona36 I feed simple systems, lucid nuts but after reading your comment am going to change to lucid pellets. I also feed greengold chop, as advised by simple systems. I didn't even think about whether is should be organic or not. I was feeding barley but am in the process of taking that out of her feed and trying Allen and Page Calm and condition, molasses and barley free. She looses weight easily.

I was thinking to try Equinox Gastro U just to see if that settles her.
 
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