Ulcers

[annasewell]

Hi everyone!
I have a rising six thoroughbred mare (never raced) and I had her scoped two months ago as she was a little girth and it turned up some grade two and grade three ulcers. she's taken oral medication for a month (Peptizole) and when she came off she seemed much happier so I didn't have her rescoped and vet was happy. However three days ago she had a bout of colic and vet said it could have possibly been caused by the ulcers. I've never had experience with ulcers before and because she isn't an expensive horse (was my project to have some fun with) she isn't insured. I'm looking for advice on how effective stronger medication would be, and how likely it is im going to have to do this process again in a year, or two years etc, even if it is effective. The only comment I can say about the first medication is that she was very troublesome to get it down her, so I can't hand on heart say she had 100% of it. I'm just a student and obviously facing very heavy vet bills, so just trying to figure out what the best move is.
many thanks in advance!

 

[Zoeypxo]

You need to find the root cause of the ulcers to eliminate them completely. This could be stress, diet or pain.

i treated ulcers 3 times (luckily insurance paid) they kept returning each time. Sent in for a lameness work up and they found mild hock arthritis, had injections and ulcers have never returned. This was probably 5 or 6 years ago now!

 

[ownedbyaconnie]

Few things to note (I've just treated some horrific ulcers in my mare so although not an expert, have experience of a few different treatments!).

- what is her feed? You want as little cereal as possible which I appreciate is maybe harder with a TB compared to my fat on thin air native. EG, my mare is on honeychop lite and healthy and fibre nuts. Essentially as much fibre as possible.
- is she ever without forage? You want to try and give adlib so she is never really without something to graze on.
- ulcers are secondary to pain so there will most likely be something else going on, get a lameness workup if you can and check teeth, saddle fit etc.

My mare had 6 weeks of omeprazole injections whilst having 2 syringes of sucralfate a day. After 6 weeks we rescoped and found they were better but still nasty so dropped the omeprazole injections but carried on the sucralfate and started misoprostal syringes twice daily before feeds too. I also started giving a dash of aloe vera in her morning feed. I think sucralfate is about £100ish a tub (I'm claiming on insurance so not sure) and a few on my yard keep their horses on a maintenance dose of a scoop a day to keep ulcers away. Think it lasts about 2-3 months for a horse on that dose.

She had another scope after 6 weeks of that and they're almost there. Just adding back in the omeprazole injections for a final blast to get rid of some stubborn ones and then will rescope and hopefully they'll be gone.

She has also been trotted up at each check to make sure she is still sound and nothing is going on. For reference, she has had hock fusion, KS surgery, coffin joint injections and her TMJ injected.

 

[nicola2019]

My mare is currently being treated for ulcers and today we have found kissing spines. Worth checking to see if it is secondary.

 

[annasewell]

Few things to note (I've just treated some horrific ulcers in my mare so although not an expert, have experience of a few different treatments!).

- what is her feed? You want as little cereal as possible which I appreciate is maybe harder with a TB compared to my fat on thin air native. EG, my mare is on honeychop lite and healthy and fibre nuts. Essentially as much fibre as possible.
- is she ever without forage? You want to try and give adlib so she is never really without something to graze on.
- ulcers are secondary to pain so there will most likely be something else going on, get a lameness workup if you can and check teeth, saddle fit etc.

My mare had 6 weeks of omeprazole injections whilst having 2 syringes of sucralfate a day. After 6 weeks we rescoped and found they were better but still nasty so dropped the omeprazole injections but carried on the sucralfate and started misoprostal syringes twice daily before feeds too. I also started giving a dash of aloe vera in her morning feed. I think sucralfate is about £100ish a tub (I'm claiming on insurance so not sure) and a few on my yard keep their horses on a maintenance dose of a scoop a day to keep ulcers away. Think it lasts about 2-3 months for a horse on that dose.

She had another scope after 6 weeks of that and they're almost there. Just adding back in the omeprazole injections for a final blast to get rid of some stubborn ones and then will rescope and hopefully they'll be gone.

She has also been trotted up at each check to make sure she is still sound and nothing is going on. For reference, she has had hock fusion, KS surgery, coffin joint injections and her TMJ injected.

Thank you for your reply.
Shes on 24/7 turnout with a round bale of hay, feed wise all she gets is alfafa chaf so I don’t think food is the issue.
we did have a lot of stress over a boxing issue a few months ago so I thought that could been a potential cause.
im pretty confident she is sound however I guess I could take her to vets to make double sure, I didn’t realise they were caused as secondary pain. Thank you

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I would add Aloe Vera juice to her feed, to keep her comfortable until you can decide what to do about investigations

 

[annasewell]

I would add Aloe Vera juice to her feed, to keep her comfortable until you can decide what to do about investigations

Thank you very much

 

[Barton Bounty]

Go right back to basics with the feeding! Strip it down and feed stuff that does not contain alfalfa, molasses, soya if you can help it. Avoid top spec feed like the plague.. I have been down this same path with my tb and with plenty of fibre in his diet we have avoided colic again touch wood …pm me if you want any advice on feeding.. Aloe juice is great! We use that too

 

[Zoeypxo]

Thank you for your reply.
Shes on 24/7 turnout with a round bale of hay, feed wise all she gets is alfafa chaf so I don’t think food is the issue.
we did have a lot of stress over a boxing issue a few months ago so I thought that could been a potential cause.
im pretty confident she is sound however I guess I could take her to vets to make double sure, I didn’t realise they were caused as secondary pain. Thank you

mine was sound on trot ups and flexions, vet kept saying she was fine. I got a specialist lameness vet instead who noticed on the lunge she was tracking up left hind but right hind was slightly shorter, xrayed hocks and found mild changes.
I do feed aloe vera juice long term just incase