I am not surprised that performance horses suffer from ulcers. Considering the lives they live - mostly stalled & very little access to free grazing - it would be amazing if they did not have ulcers.
My horse is not a performance horse, but was recently diagonosed with colon ulcers. He has been on Gastrogard and has improved. Although I,m not sure if it is due to the Gastrogard or changing him to a pelleted feed. I am told he will have to be on a pellted feed for the rest of his life. Maybe this is something learned since this article was published. Does anyone have more current information on the subject? P.S. It's been just over a month since he was diagnosed and treatment started, and he is doing wonderfully! So there is hope if your horse gets the diagnosis.
I work as an equine nutritionist, and the idea of putting a horse on a "natural diet", and then using the terms oats and barley in the same sentence is a contradiction. Wild horses do not seek out grain products in the wild. They desire the best quality grass, that contains the best digestible fiber and highest nutrients possible. Oats, corn and barley are all very high in starch and non-digestible fiber. My guess is that poorly digestible fiber sources in the horses feed and poor quality/stemmy hay are big culprits of these ulcers. The recommendation of a pelleted feed makes sense to me because the components in a QUALITY pelleted feed are typically lower in starch and higher in fiber and digestibility, which more closely resembles the horses natural diet of grasses. I would suggest checking out http://www.admani.com and reading about the importance of feeding your horse like a horse. It should help you make sense of the pellet recommendation. ADM on a whole always suggests pelleted feeds. Too much starch in the diet (cereal grains and sweet feeds) can destroy fiber digesting bacteria in the digestive tract. Perhaps that too could aggravate a colonic ulcer? I hope this makes sence and helps :0)
My horse Diamond had a colonic ulcer and she had sudden symptoms. She did have heaves though. It can be treated because they gave us many medicines to take home and give her. They would have worked if the ulcer wasn't so progressed. By the time we found the ulcer it was 20 inches long.
Wow, wonder if my barrel and pole horse had ulcers... Scarry thought. He would get so nervous before an event, he pooped like crazy.
I have a 15 yr old Hanovarian that was Dx's with Ulcers. He is a dressage competition horse. My vet told me to buy Equiflora from Natren Inc. He says that the Equiflora has a special super strain of Acidophilus called NAS that no other probiotic has and that can stick to the intestinal wall to increase the ph and protective mucin layer of the intestine and crowd out the bad bacteria. Giving the ulcer time to heal safely. the bonus is that while he is on this stuff. What ever feed he eats he is able to utilize more of the nutrients. I gotta say, after 4 months of using it. It works! Im a believer. It also has another strain of probiotic too but I forget what it is. But, Im so sold on this stuff! I also like the fact the company makes their own probiotics as well as human versions too. So they just dont relabel other products and sell it as their own.