Think my horse has stomach ulcers!!

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NicoleS_007

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Well as title really. He is an ex racer, been out of racing about 3 years. He is a grumpy sod, trys to bite all the time, grinds teeth when people are around his stable and when being tacked and groomed, he has to be tyed up to be groomed (hes like jaws) particularly when grooming sides and girth and stifle area. When girthed he also grinds teeth and turns to bite, its actually like Jaws coming at you :eek: I read somewere that napping is a symtom (sp) and he did used to nap quite alot but only when hacked alone now, may be related, my not! Atm he is on about 3kg of performance mix with chaff and haylage. I really have a feeling that ulcers are the problem, but ive had him near 3 years and hes always been this way but has got a bit worse to girth and groom in the past while. What is the treatment usually for ulcers?

Thanks for any replies in advance :)
 
The only way to determine ulcers is to get a stomach scope via your vet. If the horse has ulcers they would be graded according to their severity and usually treated with a drug called 'gastroguard'. The scoping itself is not too expensive, but the treatment can be costly.
If you suspect ulcers the first thing to do is take the horse off any cereals so the performance mix is a big 'no-no', and to introduce a high fibre diet with ad-lib forage. There are several supplements on the market to help reduce the discomfort of ulcers, and therefore reduce the accompanying behaviour, such as Coligone, but will not eliminate the problem fully.
There are loads of posts on this forum re ulcers which may provide more info.
Good luck!
 
Ditto the above. Cereals are a bit contributing factor towards gastric ulcers. If your horse requires a lot of energy either for his work or to maintain his condition you can replace his cereal feed with oil (any make really). They've done studies in racehorses and you can in fact replace most of a racehorse's cereal with oil and continue to provide them with enough energy for training.

Your horse's symptoms do sound suspicious, but as Sidney says the nly way to know is to have your vet gastroscope him.
 
Hmmm, depends on how portable their equipment is. Have a chat with your vets, you need a long endoscope to get into the stomach of a large horse, so you may need to be referred if your own vets don't have one.
 
As already suggested

You might not like the answer! Drop all cereals. Replace it with unmolassed sugar beet and think about providing a good quality mineral supplement.

Also consider linseed meal - it provides a number of useful Omega 3/6, protein and so on - but the lovely thing is that it also provides a good amount of mucilage which soothes the mucosal linings and helps the horse's gut to settle.

Think too about adding a scoop of Magnesium Oxide - it can often just balance things up and help the acidity to reduce.

Lots of other things to try - but basics are no cereal, linseed, Magnesium Oxide and a really good mineral supplement

Linseed is £24 a bag from Charnwood - I use a full tea mug each feed, two in the winter. They look utterly marvelous on it too - I never groom them - never need to.
 
I can highly recommend Global Herbs Acid-X, it did the trick with my TB. He wasn't insured so paying for gastro guard just wasn't an option but after 3-4 months of this the vet commented on how healthy his stomach looked.
I'd also recommend everything brucea says too, horses really don't need all those cereals, if you really need the energy try adding soaked oats.
 
I thought oats would be a no no! ... Was thinking of changing his diet to hay instead of haylage (as looking back he seemed alot more settled on it), 2-2.5kg of Alfa A oil with 0.5kg of equi jewel or some type of conditioning balancer like outshine? and some type of oil for extra caleries like soya or sunflower? Is the linseed stuff the micronised linseed powder stuff???

Sorry theres so many questions
 
In general, the current thinkingis that cereals are a no-no- the equine stomach is designed to eat fibre to keep the pH high (ie acidity low) and some horses just can't cope when the acidity rises (as perpetuated by cereals). Also, a big bulk of fibre inthe stomach stops the stomach acid sloshing around on the unprotected part of the stomach, which is where we see ulcers on gastroscopy.

Hay is generally considered better than haylage (less acid, more fibrous) and oil is very good at providing the energy/condition that you would normally want cereals to provide.

I wouldurge you to have a chat with your vet- explained the symptoms, see what they recommend and see if they are able to scope him, they shouldn't mind having a chat about it on the phone.
 
As I said horses don't need all those cereals and yes they are a no no where ulcers are concerned but oats are the highest in fibre of cereals so the lesser of the evils if fast release energy is needed.
 
Hi, my horse had ulcers - he was scoped on our yard, my vet contacted another practice who had a scope and they travelled over to us to do him.
re the diet - I was advised to drop all hard feed ( he only had pony nuts, chaff and sugar beet anyway) - increase turnout to 24/7 with as much hay as he could eat ( he was part Arab) - within a month he was much improved, scoped again all clear.
3 months later he was ridden, he still showed snappyness when girthed, but was a lot better when brushed ( I think he anticipated pain at this point).
We didnt need to use gastroguard or any supplements, just changing his routine made such a difference.
 
I had a similar problem and it was solved by a course of Ellen Collinson's herbal ulcer remedy! All symptoms gone, very easy! Worth having a chat with your vet, but I didn't as I didn't see the point after all the symptoms disappeared. They haven't returned since either!
 
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