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Discussion on Updated Article: Gastric Ulcers in Adult Horses
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007 - 12:31 pm:
Equine gastric ulceration in being increasingly recognized as a cause of poor performance in adult horses and serious gastrointestinal disease of foals. Up to 93% of race horses get stomach ulcers, regardless of age. Almost 60% of other performance horses have stomach ulcers. Up to 57% of foals have stomach ulcers, particularly during the first several months of life. Increasingly we are recognizing that even the activities of pleasure horses can promote ulcer formation.
Most horses and foals with ulcers show no signs of illness but in the last few decades a constellation of symptoms commonly associated with horses in training has been associated with the presence of ulcers and has come to be called "Equine Gastric Ulcer SynDrOme" (EGUS). Traditionally these horses have been experiencing what has been called "training let down" and these symptoms center around a horse in training that begins to do poorly for no easily observed reason.
There are several known causes of gastric ulcers in horses that can be differentiated by the history and the type lesions they cause in the stomach. Gastric ulcers in foals have a different cause than EGUS. In the adult horse we can divide ulcers of the horse stomach into those caused by training and those caused by the administration of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID's). The mechanism and location of the ulcers is very different with these two types of ulcers. There may be the rare horse overly sensitive to NSAID's, by following the recommended dosages of NSAID's ulceration is very unlikely...more.
This article will focus on the type ulcers that occur in adult horses in training and describes clinical signs, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of adult horses with EGUS and has received a major rewrite. To access the article click on » Gastric Ulcers in Adult Horses » on the navigation bar at the top of this page.
DrO
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