Hind gut acidosis/ulcers or something else?

[ekitteridge]

I was just wondering whether my boy has HGA/ulcers and would appreciate your thoughts, or whether you think it might be something else?

He is a chunky TB, barefoot, lives out 24/7 in the same field he has been in for the past year, has ad lib hay on top of his grazing (not eating much hay at the moment). worked 5-6 days a week either schooling or hacking with the odd lesson also.

Feed wise per day he's on 1 kg dry weight copra (soaked), 600 grammes linseed, hand full of hi-fi molasses free in each feed, salt, mag ox, pro balance, and up to last month he was also on 700 grammes of equi jewel, all of which is split into 3 feeds. he has been on this for the past 2 years.

He was seen by the physio 4 weeks ago and has his saddle regularly checked (due again on 6th July), though the physio did ask whether he has been scoped at all and wondered whether it was worth getting it done.

He has always been notoriously hard to keep weight on, he wintered out this year and although dropped a little bit of weight, actually did ok.

Over the past 2 weeks he has been more grumpy in canter, more spooky,
less attentive, more irritable generally and his poos have turned into very smelly cow pats.

 

[Regandal]

That's a lot of copra if his weight is ok at the moment, plus linseed. Droppings may be runny because of a grass surge. You could try one of the ulcer supplements or chia seeds. I had success with them for possible hind gut problems. If you're really worried, get the vet out.

 

[Busybusybusy]

If I drop the copra he loses weight - it has taken me nearly 2 years to get him to a half decent weight after he had kissing spines and was operated on. At that time he looked like a hat rack and had no muscle or topline. When I said he was chunky I meant that he was a big rangy national hunt stamp of a TB rather than well rounded, he could still do with a little more weight on but it's not bad at the moment.

I did wonder about the grass, particularly as the weather has finally got wet & warm.

I'm not particularly worried as he seems pretty ok otherwise, but obviously don't want him to be uncomfortable.

Just realised my original post was done in my old username - don't know how that happened!

 

[JoClark]

If insured I would go for a scoping, TBs are more prone to them any way, especially after a KS operation previously. My ISH with a lot of TB in was difficult and was cribbing non stop, very girthy, after the scoping and treatment he's been excellent. It's just a matter of finding what suits them after and maintaining. I still give him a peptizole when something changes or he gets a bit grouchy and it seems to calm him very quickly. Good luck

 

[JillA]

I had a discussion with Roger Meacock about mine (all sort of issues, some of them metabolic, most due to an intolerance to........wait for it............grass!!!) and he suggested a good detox/liver boost with something like Restore. We are a week in, suggested course is at least 3 weeks, and also we feed mycosorb because my land is full of clover. I'm working on it but my poor doer (also a big rangy ex chaser) is on milk thistle and mycosorb and is gaining weight steady, although it is early days. Worth thinking about - much cheaper than scoping which can't find ulcers anywhere but in the stomach anyway.
I'm eradicating the clover by spraying BTW.