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  Discussion on Are ulcers all treated the same?
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New Member:
laura63

Posted on Monday, Apr 2, 2007 - 1:01 pm:

I went through gastric ulcers last year with my 3 yr. old gelding thoroughbred racehorse. He never healed completely until we changed his life to fox hunting! Gastroguard everyday, Succeed in feed, acid buffers before training, etc. Now we have a three year old filly that was involved in the herpes outbreak here in Florida and lived. BUT, BEFORE she came down with the virus her symptoms were NOT the same as my other horse, not even thinking she had ulcers. She ALWAYS ate up, she NEVER backed off of training, improved every race. HER stools I was never happy with. Always loose, cow patties. Never thought she had ulcers. here is the scenario: She came to us to train in her two year old year in March 06. She trained awsome, ate up always, but showed the same muscle breakdown as the other horse, never thought anything of it, (always wondered why) because her performance was great and always ate. Raced from May to November '06. Had the problem with Herpes in December and recooperated on the farm in Ocala. March '07: We visit the farm. She's out in the pasture and looks gorgeous, weight on, muscle tone is back, dapples, still has cow patties, never formed a healthy stool. The farm vet visited, has a "spot" under the belly he puts pressure on and if they buckle and almost fall down, he says they have ulcers. Well, I hear she almost fell to the ground. My question is, do all ulcers get treated the same? Do they ever biopsy horses ulcers? Do horses have different kinds of ulcers like people? Viral ulcers, fungal ulcers, bacterial ulcers, stress induced ulcers? Do all ulcers create the same excess in acid in the gut? I've been down that road of nightmares with gastroguard EVERY DAY, so much money poored into these remedies, do they ever go away completely or do they have to be maintained always like people. I am the type of person that would rather take an "x-ray" and know what I'm dealing with and deal with it properly instead of guessing. Sorry so long. lots to think about. Can't sleep.
Thank you, Laura
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 3, 2007 - 7:25 am:

Welcome Laura,
I consider this finger test nonsense and there is no support for this idea. If you could see the amount of muscle and other tissue (including the diaphragmatic flexures of the large bowel) between any point on the skin covering the abdomen and the stomach you too would think this foolish. The fact of the matter is that most horses in training have some amount of gastric ulceration and this is explained in the article.

The article also explains what we think is the most common cause of ulcers and other types are not well characterized in horses. You should have her scoped if this is your concern. On the other hand cow patty stools from a horse on spring pasture that is healthy in all other respects would not be a cause for me to scope a horse.
DrO
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