By now, many horse owners and trainers are in the middle of training and showing horses. Breeders are also busy with finishing up the breeding season and starting to think about weaning foals. With all these activities comes a lot of stress, especially for those horses spending many days and nights on the road and for foals dealing with separation anxiety and learning socialization with other horses. Believe it or not, standing in a nice, warm stall all day long is extremely stressful for an animal designed to roam the open prairie.
Stomach (gastric) ulceration is a common side effect of some of the activities and feeding regimes we put our horses through. In fact, gastric ulcers affect up to 90% of racehorses in training and 60% of show horses. About half of all foals can have stomach ulcers, especially in the first months of life. Factors that may increase a horse's risk of stomach ulcers include:
• Infrequent grazing and reduced hay intake
• Intense exercise (horses without feed for several hours during training)
• Physical stress--sick or hospitalized animals
• Changes in growth
• Shipping and increased stall time
• Medications, especially high doses of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications such as Phenylbutazone (Bute) and Flunixamine (Banamine)
• High grain/starch diets
How can you tell if your horse has gastric ulcers? Clinical signs can vary, ranging from poor hair coat and appearance, dullness, diarrhea, frequent colic, poor performance, and attitude or behavioral changes. Foals may have a potbelly, grind their teeth, and classically will lie on their backs. Some foals may even drool frequently. The history, diet, and use of the horse can help with the diagnosis as well as response to treatment.
A complete diagnosis can be made with a gastroscope. A 3-meter flexible endoscope is passed through the nose and into the stomach, allowing you and your veterinarian to visualize the inside of the stomach. Visualization of the stomach not only helps with the diagnosis, but can also indicate response to treatment.
Treatment of gastric ulcers involves diet modification, activity changes, and anti-ulcer medication. Frequent feeding of high quality grass hay or pasture helps to buffer the stomach acids, keeping them from eroding an empty stomach lining. Limiting high starch grains in the diet may help also because of the volatile fatty acids they produce. Activity changes include regular exercise--especially pasture turnout--and reducing stress. Give the horse something to do with their time such as stall balls, toys, or better yet, another horse.
Medications used for stomach ulcer treatment include mucosal protectants and acid reducers. Sucralfate coats the eroded stomach mucosa to help protect it from the effects of the harmful gastric acids. Acid reducers such as ranitidine (Zantac) and omeprazole (GastroGard) actually decrease the production of acid in the stomach, giving the ulcers time to heal. Omeprazole has the added benefit of healing gastric ulcers, and the brand GastroGard is the only anti-ulcer medication approved by the FDA for use in horses. The makers of GastroGard have also released a lower dose product called UlcerGard that can help in the prevention of gastric ulcers in those horses at increased risk.
In summary, gastric ulcers are extremely common in racehorses in training, show horses, and foals, but should be considered in any horse showing signs of poor growth, stress, dull hair coat, frequent colic, diarrhea, or attitude change. Pasture turnout and frequent feeding of good quality forage is essential to the stomach health of horses, as is regular exercise.
