Ulcer advice?

[Jericho]

Horse has started cribbing and wind sucking usually only when you tie him up (grabs leadrole) or when he comes over to see you in field and is expecting a treat so latches onto fence. He also seems more lazy to ride, not moving off leg, jumping in canter, switching legs and squealing. His owner (he is on loan) has had him 6 years and said he has always done this and the ridden work is just due to being asked to do more when he doesn't really want to.

He is a very laid back, incredibly friendly and not stressy ever and a very good doer (Connemara) but the other classic sign is that he stamps a foot when girthing. To me this is all screaming ulcers isn't it? So next step is scoping but in the short term alongside his top spec comprehensive balancer and Saracen releve mix (low starch/sugar mix for energy), I have started feeding him NAf gastriAid and Toospec Ulsakind and switched his straw based chaff to Thunderbrooks healthy chaff and added alfalfa pellets of which I give him (with the chaff) a cupful before riding. He is currently out on quite sparse grazing 24/7 and a small tub of hay for long fibre roughage at night in the field.

Does that sound ok? And also with the scoping will this make him sore? Daughter is competing at BRC nationals this weekend doing dressage - I don't feel he is uncomfortable enough not to do and let team down but want to help as soon as possible and if that means scoping this week rather than next then I would want to.

 

[Goldenstar]

I pretty sure they can compete on gastrogard ask your vet .

 

[be positive]

The scoping may leave him with a sore throat or irritation within the nose, they often get a minor nosebleed, but nothing of real concern however with the fact that they also require fairly heavy sedation following a night of starvation which if they do have ulcers will make matters worse I would not do it before this weekend unless I was prepared to withdraw, you are unlikely to get it done now before Thurs which is leaving it later than ideal for the drugs to be fully out of his system regardless of whether he ends up with a sore nose/ throat.

I would book it in for early next week as it may well not be just ulcers you need to think about but also the root cause, they nearly always present alongside pain elsewhere, if it is not down to poor management, and the vet will probably want to take a look at him generally and not just do the scoping.

I don't think it is so bad that you need to pull out, the changes to his diet should help, I had one I thought had ulcers he showed many symptoms but scoped clear and turned out to have very minor issues in his feet which appeared fine, the vet thought he was 100% sound but xrays showed a different story so be prepared for more than just ulcers, it may be worth putting him on gastrogard for a week if your vet will prescribe it without scoping first.