Treat now or wait?

[Mrs G]

Please be kind - I am really in a quandary about my beloved TB. Ex racer, has always cribbed but I put this down to a habit caused by his background. Good doer for a TB, loves his food, always looks a picture of health. Never been a cuddly horse, can be argumentative under saddle. I've always tried to feed and manage him with ulcers in mind, this summer he was looking and going better than ever. However this last month a friend at yard has her horse scoped positive for ulcers, coincided with my lads mood and way of going deteriorating a little (not massively, just not as good as before). Couple of people suggested ulcers is the cause for my boy too, he is insured so I could do the scoping and gastrogard BUT; starving him for the scope goes against every fibre of my being so I would prob have to ask he stays at vets for them to do this, which of course would be added stress for us both (strange place, people etc). Also I believe the best treatment is gastrogard with antepsin but antepsin not available from manufacturers at moment so horses are just being treated with gastrogard. If I'm going to do this I want to do it right first time so do I try tweaking his diet/management even more to minimise any discomfort and wait till the antepsin is available again (summer 2015) then go for treatment?

 

[be positive]

Honestly starving them overnight is not as bad as you may fear, I had one scoped and he was fed as normal early evening with hay, the hay was taken away at 9.30 so he would have 12 hours clear, that he was left overnight when nothing was happening meant he was not stressed, at breakfast time he got a little wound up but I gave him a few crumbs to lick out of his bowl and he was fine, it must be harder on a yard where there is lots going on but in the scheme of things if he has ulcers it is a few hours of being hungry to get to the bottom of his issues.
I would do it right first time by getting him scoped so you really know what you are dealing with, as he is insured you can get the most appropriate treatment before the ulcers, if he has them, cause him any more pain.

 

[paulineh]

I have just had my vet out to see my boy who like yours looks a picture of health. My vet did a new test on him, a very simple one that proved that there was bleeding somewhere, so my boy will be scoped on Wednesday.

The practise that will be doing the "Gastroscopy" told me he would need to be starved for 18 hours and no water for 6 hours. Not too bad as it will be over night and he could do with losing a bit of weight.

My lad had no real outward signs he has ulcers but little things and he was getting grumpy.

It is also known that up to 90% of racehorses have ulcers. It really is worth getting it checked out.

It is well worth getting it checked out and it is easy to treat and you will see a difference fairly quickly.

 

[Rosesandhorses]

My horse was scoped for ulcers, I thought he 100% had them so he went into the vets and stayed over night and got scoped in the morning. He was very underweight and wind sucked and despite 4 feeds per day of everything fattening you can think of with ad lib hay nothing was touching him. I didn't think twice about him going into the vets and being starved as I saw it as a means to an end. The scope came back completely clear and we found other problems but was fab to know that ulcers weren't an issue.

 

[LittleCob]

My horse was scoped and shown to have ulcers a couple of years ago (in the lower part of the stomach, cant remember the name). Treatment was antepsin only and it worked brilliantly.

The ulcers have come back judging by behaviour (maybe they never totally healed) and I have tried cimitridine (?) and gastrogard - nether of these things have made a difference for us. I'm sure if I could get my hands on some antepsin it would make an immediate difference. Now going down the supplement route to see if that helps.

In saying that, you may find (as lots of people do) that gastrogard sorts him out straightaway. I would go for it, it can only help. If GG doesn't help at least you know for sure what it is and I assume your insurance would still cover you when antepsin becomes available again.

I was also worried about the fasting but turned out I was more stressed than my horse! Last net at night, lights out and straight to vets in the morning (def get a morning appointment).