signs of gastric ulcers

china

china

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i have an ex racer, had him about 3 years now, he is 11 years old and since the day iv had him he is a stress head in the stable and at feed times, he box walks and wood chews, part of me thinks he maybe has gastric ulcers. he holds his weight well in the summer, in the winter i strugle to keep it on him. with the amount he eats he should explode, he gets adlib haylage, in his case its a humungous pile twice a day and two bucket feeds a day with alfa oil, conditioning cubes and fibrebeet and solid gold feedbalancer but he is now on globalvite. he is looking ok at the moment, his coat is looking better. his box walking was really bad the other day when the others had been turned out and he went mad and was foaming under his rug, he was dripping from head to toe. i started looking for a field shelter so he could live out in the sand paddock for the winter. he seems to have lost his stamina in ridden work, wether thats just because he is unfit i dont know. it only seems to be since the end of the summer. he isnt always the easiest to ride either. but i think thats just him being awkward. after all that, do you think there is a possibility he has gastric ulcers, i dont want to go through and endoscopy if the signs arnt right and his health isnt going downhill.
rice pudding available if you like it!!
 
he grinds his teeth when being ridden usually when he is being a prat though, i think when he comes back into competition work load i will see if he gets lethargic and have a chat with me vet, he is such a stress head i cant ever seem to get him in a possition where he is chilled with his stable etc.
 
Mine used to grind his teeth & chew wood when I first got him off the track. I chucked him out 24/7 and slowly it started to ease off. He loves his forage more than hard feed, and gets plenty of it. His feed is now fibre nuts & D&H Just Grass. I think that a combination of this diet & the turnout is the reason that he neither chews wood or grinds his teeth anymore. Unfortunately I know that 24/7 turnout isn't an option for everybody, but is does sound like it would suit your horse.
 
yes it would suit him and i would rather he was out tbh, but he has no shelter and we are right on the coast so it gets very very windy down there. and he is a massive poof but would survive with a shelter.
 
Yes - difficult. I think there are various supplements you can get to assist with the management of gastric ulcers. Might be worth googling it. Does sound like he might have them from the symptoms described. Good luck!
 
My vet said that about 35% of 'happy hacker horses' have ulcers. About 64% of 'sports/performance horases' will have ulcers & about 96% of race horses will have ulcers. As your horse is an ex racer then it is highly likely he will have them.

Gastroguard is a treatment for them but I would definately get your vet out first before you treat.
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Get him scoped. It's the only sure way of knowing whether he has a gastric ulcer or not & your insurance should cover that & the GastroGard. My horse was diagnosed with gastric ulcer in 2005 & put on gastroGard for 8 weeks - £250 per week - ins paid up. he has been on NeighLox ever since to help control / keep ulcer at bay. he may have had an ulcer / gastric problem for a long time. Have you had him blood tested? This won't reveal if gastric ulcer there but may reveal other problem.
Other symptoms to look for are change in temperament/personality, grumpy behaviour, doesn't like being tacked up or touched around girth area, eats a bit of hard feed & leaves rest.
 
A friend of mine has a WB mare who was diagnosed with gastric ulcers and anemia just before christmas. Symptoms were not much stamina (presume that was anemia) Re ulcers, mare went a bit grumpy, lost weight, some signs of colic such as pawing the ground and patchy sweating.
 
I put on a post about this recently and someone recomended coligon it is a cheeper option than going down the scoping route, and it wont harm the horse if it isnt that,

robinsons sell it or you can google it, im thinking of giving it a try.
 
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