Treating Reoccurring or Chronic Ulcers in Horses
When a horse is suffering with chronic ulcers, it’s best to take a “whole horse” approach to resolving them. Often times owners find themselves treating ulcers, noticing an improvement, and then having a relapse sometime later. This can be because of two reasons.
Two Reasons Ulcers Reoccur in Horses:
The root cause of the ulcers was not addressed or fixed.
Omeprazole (the top treatment for ulcers) only treats the symptoms of the ulcers, it does not cure the reason they developed in the first place.
Reasons Horses Develop Ulcers:
PAIN
Stress
Inconsistent access to forage
Long period of time (4 hours +) with an empty stomach
High consumption of grain
Imbalanced diet, minerals, vitamins, etc.
Traveling, even short trips away from home
Moving, to a new barn, environment, state, etc.
Changes to their herd
Changes to their turnout
Training
Excessive time spent in a stall
Limited access to turnout (even in a drylot)
Gut imbalance, leaky gut syndrome, etc.
Musculoskeletal health is compromised
How to Beat Ulcers:
Alleviate the symptoms and treat the root cause.
Alleviate the Symptoms
Omeprazole, UlcerGuard, GastroGuard - they’re all the same and are the most widely recommended treatment for ulcers. While Omeprazole works immediately to alleviate the pain associated with ulcers, long-term use has been linked to reoccurrence of ulcers, a rebound effect, vitamin B and other deficiencies.
Sucralfate - pairing Omeprazole with Sucralfate is proving to have a lot of success. Sucralfate is also recommended for treating hind-gut ulcers.
Constant access to friends, forage and freedom
Slow fed forage, 24/7
Alfalfa (no more than 20% of dietary intake), loose or pellets
Certain supplements and grains
Bentonite clay, offered in water or as a top-dressing on plain hay pellets
Supplements and Grains
Jeremiah’s Ulcer Repulser
GastroElm
Slippery Elm Bark Powder
Marshmallow Root
Fennel
Chamomile
Chia Seeds
Aloe Vera Juice
Triple Crown Senior (Contains ButiPearlZ)
Uckele GUT or Aloe Pellets
Succeed - Veterinary Rx
Purina Outlast
Stride GastroPHIX
Friends, Forage, Freedom
When in doubt, refer to “The Three F’s”.
Friends
Horses are social animals that will almost always choose a herd over solidarity. Unfortunately, humans often make the choice of solidarity for them. Having a reliable herd setup is essential to their mental and emotional health. Horses experience a lot of emotions, including loneliness, depression and stress. When they don’t have consistent interactions with other horses, they can become shut-down, making them more susceptible to other issues. Living next to one another is helpful, but they really need to be able to touch, play, eat and explore with one another in the same area.Forage
Keeping forage in front of horses at all times is essential to eliminating many issues. Most owners opt for hay nets or other slow feeder options. This allows them to feed an appropriate amount of forage at a slower rate. When horses needs are being met, and they don’t feel as though they have to rely on us to throw them their next meal, resource guarding often fades away.Freedom
Stalls are a manmade invention, and while providing shelter for our horses is ideal, that doesn’t mean they need to live in a stall. Living in a herd, in full time turnout, with constant access to their required resources (forage and water), can solve a lot of issues in their lives! Having the ability to do whatever they want, whenever they want, is more than beneficial for their minds and bodies.
Musculoskeletal Health
Physical causes of ulcers are less talked about but the fact of the matter is, when the structure of the body is compromised due to compensation, training, soft tissue imbalance, visceral (organ) imbalance, or something else of the sorts - it cannot function as nature intended. Structural or fascial imbalance can impede ulcers resolving. Ulcers can cause physical discomforts and that physical discomfort can contribute to the compromised structure that impedes resolving them.
