Stomache Ulcers

[showingmadfilly]

Does anyone have any handy tips on how to keep the pony comfortable and tips to help keep them under control?. I'm not interested in Gastro Guard or any other things like that just handy little tips people have found to help. She's not in pain all the time just gets an upset tummy after hard work but it soon goes away. Vet suggested food before work and some after just to keep her stomach lined.

 

[Rose Folly]

I've had no experience of a horse with current ulcers, but one of my liveries, a chaser who came out of racing last year, had had very bad ulcers. He has had no problem since he has been with us, and I put it down to the fact that he is

a) stress free (he is kept as a hack)
b) he has a very simple diet - cool mix, mollichaff, sugar beet and linseed
c) has steady feeding throughout the 24 hours (he is kept out 24/7 with shelter, and he and his companions have haylage, pretty much ad lib, three times a day - 9am, 5pm and midnight, so it is never 'feast and famine' - he always has something going through his gut)
d) his feed is always warmed in winter
e) is in a low-key environment with a few horses for company and a 'family' atmosphere which he seems visibly to enjoy.

I don't know if this is any help, but it seems to be working for our boy.

 

[Spotsrock]

My boy last raced a month ago. I have had him 2 weeks and suspect ulcers. When I sell my for sale dressage horse I will have him scoped etc. Not ideal but I an doing my best. For now he is having no grains, chamomile tea in his breakfast and liquorice and peppermint tea in his dinner. His symptoms have lessened slightly. I have orded an aloe vera thing for him too which he will have to line his tummy before a feed, and dodson and horrell do a supplement which I will pick up for him this weekend to replace his teas.

 

[kaiserchief]

If you don't treat the ulcers, they won't go away and may in fact get worse. If she's been scoped and proven to have ulcers, please invest in the correct treatment (Gastroguard) and have her sorted before she ends up in pain and starts displaying further symptoms - after all, you don't want to end up with an unrideable horse because having a girth done up or leg applied hurts her so much that she bronks you off.

 

[BigGinger]

My TB suffered with stomach ulcers and initialy he did need the gastro gaurd, which apprently most do as its treats the ulcers till they have gone completely not just make them better. After doing lots of reasearch of my own i found it is possible that if ulcers aren't properly treated and just made better then they can form back into bad ulcers again over a number of days! Which i found quite scary.. I think the mane thing is management and prevention.. Mine is on a very strict diet and has no apples carrots treats etc he has adlib hay and try to make his life as stress free as i can

 

[kaiserchief]

BigGinger is absolutely right. A friend of mine suspected her horse had ulcers - she had all the classic signs (big belly despite being on little food and regularly wormed, unhappy to have her stomach groomed, would twitch and try and avoid having her saddle put on and bronked like stink when a rider put their legs on).

She didn't want to put her through the stress of scoping her so put her on an off-the-shelf ulcer "treatment" (not cheap either at nearly £100 a month!) and the horse seemed to improve, however each time she stopped the supplement, the symptoms were back very soon after.

She finally bit the bullet and had her scoped and the horse had grade 3 bleeding ulcers. It's taken ages to treat them with gastroguard, and cost a fortune, and she'll never know if she could have saved herself some cash and the horse some discomfort by treating with gastroguard sooner. BUT the horse is now ulcer free.