My little ex racer now rides like a giant warmblood...gastric ulcer related!

Hi Spotted Cat, do you know when GG goes out of patient? Also is Liquid Gold any cheaper and do you have to buy it through a vet or can you get it off the shelf? Sorry to bombard you with questions.
 
If you want horsey scoped stencilface, just book it. I didn't get into a discussion about whether to do it I just rang the surgery and booked in for one. They seemed to think this was quite normal behaviour :)
 
SpottedCat said:
I did read your post carefully, and it implied that because the cause in humans is mostly bacterial, the same must be true for horses - it isn't.
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I can't quote the whole "discussion" so just picking this bit out.

Even if we theorise that ulcers in horses are caused by Helicobacter pylori as is now thought to be the case in people, this isn't the whole story. First, it's apparently not a 100% situation - NSAID use, cigarette smoking and "unknown causes" account for a fair number of human cases. Second, not everyone with the bacteria gets ulcers immediately or, indeed, even ever so there is a fairly clear case for "cofactors" that predispose and individual, including ethnicity, socio-economic position and physical stress (illness, surgery etc). So no, stress does not cause ulcers, but something upsets the balance and allows the ulcers to develop. Heck, for all we know, a number of horses have always had ulcers!

On the upside, if we're going with the human model ;), curing the infection and allowing the mucosal layer to heal often stops the problem. I guess the issue with horses though is, if you treat the ulcers, they go away and then return, is there another factor in play?

The problem with horses (and the rest of us) is that they are organic systems. And, of course, they aren't people! ;)
 
TS - completely agree. Vets have so far been unable to isolate the bacteria in horses too, so they have extrapolated that it is the helicobacter - they don't actually know, but treating it seems to work for some horses. The other issue is there is no equine antibiotic to use so you have to use a human one, which is unpleasant and difficult to administer - most of the human ones would kill a horse according to my vet.

Onemoretime - you misunderstood me - I was saying GG is liquid gold because of the cost, not that there is an alternative treatment called liquid gold :)
 
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