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All,
I wanted to share a recent horrifying experience I had in hopes that others can learn from this. I have learned more in the last week than I ever want to again.
A week ago Sunday, I brought all my horses up for shoeing and worming. We had recently changed hay sources, as my hay man hadn't been able to deliver. The new hay wasn't the best quality, but it was put up correctly, and wasn't weedy or moldy. My senior stallion (Lobo) had been boycotting it, but I didn't think much of it. So, when the shoer was finished, I wormed everyone and groomed them.
I noticed in the next few days that Lobo wasn't finishing his grain, but thought it was because we had a new mare in for breeding. By last Wednesday, he wasn't eating any grain. I brushed it off as needing his teeth floated and made an appointment for Friday. By Friday afternoon, he had completely stopped eating
The vet took one look and said "ulcers".
I had always though ulcers were for competing show horses, and not for breeding stallions that only trail rode. That's where the learning curve began.
We immediately started him on GastroGard (omeprazole). By Sunday, he was shivering, depressed, and didn't want to drink. By Monday, he was in so much pain that he wouldn't allow the vet to touch him. We went through an aggressive treatment of nasogastric tube oiling, blood screen, tox screen, teeth floating, Vitamin B shots (appetite boost), fibrinogen test, and injectable banamine (to control the pain) in hopes of confirming the ulcer diagnosis, and preventing colic. All tests came back (within two hours) as completely normal. By the third hour he was in shock,. and down in the stall. I thought right then and there we were going to lose him.
I got him up, blanketed him, and got the vet there. He pulled out of shock slowly. We upped the GastroGard dose to double (each dose is $35/day at vet cost).
At this point, I began pulling out all the stops, and contacting gastro specialists at Oklahoma State University and Colorado State University (after being advised to do so by vets at Mizzou).
As advised, we began getting fresh grass to him (envision five adults in the pouring rain for 2 hours pulling grass). This was the only thing he would touch. With the double dose of GastroGard, warm mashes, constant watch, and hand grazing three times a day, he began to improve.
So, in summary, I've put together a quick list of things I've learned in hopes this may help others and prevent future problems.
1) Over 60% of all horses will experience some degree of ulcers in their lifetime, with performance horses (showing racing, etc.), and weaning foals comprising the highest number. Many horses will never be diagnosed until it becomes severe.
2) Omeprazole (trade name GastroGard) is the only FDA approved drug that will actually heal the ulcer. Meriel has the patent until 2015, so there's no chance of a cheaper generic until then. To get complete healing, treatment is recommended for 28 days (at $35/day).
3) Many other drugs act as "buffers" (Neigh Lox, etc.), but they only coat the stomach, and there are typically backlashes after the drug wears off. Some can cause diarrhea, or may slow the digestibility and actually cause limited gut motility.
4) The only true way to diagnose an ulcer is by endoscopy (passing a small camera into the stomach), although response to ulcer drugs is typically a method of diagnosis.
5) Feeding techniques can cause, aggravate or prevent ulcers. High forage (hay and grass), and lower grain concentrations help prevent ulcers. A high grain, low forage diet, or intermittent large meals can create ulcers. Senior feeds with a low fat content (higher fat promotes more stomach acid creation for digestion), high fiber (complete feed) are a good feed for post ulcer horses. Alfalfa hay also helps reduce stomach acid due to the high calcium content.
We discovered that changing the hay had caused Lobo to reduce (almost totally) his hay consumption (problem #1). Since he appeared to be losing some weight (another ulcer symptom), we increased his grain (problem #2). And to add insult to injury, we wormed him. Although the wormer (ivermectin) did not cause the ulcers, it certainly aggravated the heck out of them.
As of yesterday, he was firmly diagnosed with stage 3 ulcers (the worst).
The good news is he should recover totally, and I have learned a huge amount over the last few days. The bad news is the vet bill.
Hopefully this information will be of help to others.
If you have specific questions, please feel free to e mail me privately. Please also feel free to pass this on.
Thanks to the vets that helped, and to Gabby Moore for urging me to act quickly and start the blood draw.
Most of all..... do your homework. Go to www.yahoo.com, or any other web browser, and type in equine ulcers. There is a wealth of information.
Linda V.
www.zorrofarms.com
www.zorrofarms.com
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