Ulcers

[JanetN]

My girl is 18 and has always been sensitive on her belly and doing up girth. Been wondering about ulcers but no other symptoms. Due to situations before me she is not insured as most things are now exempt. I have spent hours and hours literally tonight reading into things. Scoping will cost a lot of money and it might be negative but if I don’t I feel guilty. Been looking at aloe Vera gel and such like see if she improves and maybe that will then show I indication of ulcers. Also read about testing her ph of her poo x can anyone suggest anything. Ahhhhh I am going mad. I should also add she is a Tb ex polo pony

 

[Ellietotz]

Has she got any other underlying health conditions? That can commonly be a cause to ulcers if she has them. Obviously the only way of really knowing is to scope but my mare had ulcers which were treated via the vet and now if she starts getting funny with her belly again, I do my own little course of slippery elm powder and she is back to normal after that. It's not too expensive to try either. Sadly, scoping is actually the cheapest part of going down veterinary route, it's the treatment that is expensive but some people buy omeprazole straight from Ablèr (not sure of I'm allowed to say that) which you don't need a prescription for but if you go down that route, it might be best to do one month full dose, see if she is better and then one month half dose, two weeks quarter then stop. Problem with that though is it would only work if the grade of the ulcers aren't severe and if symptoms remain, you would be blindly treating again for an unknown amount of time needed to only stop the course with potentially the same symptoms meaning it could actually be something else. Sorry, I've been going on but my best advice is to scope and if you aren't sure, try slippery elm first. I start with feeding a 25ml scoop (roughly 25g) for two weeks, reduce to a 15ml scoop for two weeks and then 10ml for two weeks. It works for my mare anyway. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

 

[JanetN]

This has been something I have been thinking about if it helps then she probably has ulcers. I am going to discuss with my vet as they know she is not insured and see if she thinks this is a good idea. She has navicular but has always had issues with me touching her belly and doing up girth. So it’s always on the back of my mind but then she goes on. It’s worse in fits and starts. But your post has been really helpful thank you xoxo

 

[PSD]

If you’re on Facebook then join the horses with ulcers group. Their knowledge was invaluable to me, again slippery elm is great, yea sacc and marshmallow root. Protexin is also commonly used for keeping the gut functioning but without a scope you won’t really know what you’re dealing with.

my mare had grade 4 last year and they were rotten. She didn’t show signs for a while but when she did I just knew something wasn’t right, she wouldn’t let me ride her at all and she was always such a willing pony. The treatment is often the expensive part but there are ways to get the omeprazole without the vets.

Diet is a massive thing with ulcers, you need to get rid of any sugar and starch and have lots and lots of fibre. Always fill their tummy with some kind of forage (chaff usually) before riding, turning out etc. And ad lib good quality forage

 

[JanetN]

Funny thing is she has never felt so good as the past few days. She is barefoot so been on low sugar low starch diet for year and infact has no hard feed in summer as she can either take or leave hard feed. But will take a look at the group. Thanks x