Truths & updates

So Ben has been doing very well in regards to his bruise. For the past 3 days now he has gone without wearing his boots & remained perfectly comfortable. He had only been given the one dose of the Equioxx still & taking his Isoxsuprine as directed by his vet, but it clearly has made a very nice improvement or him! Seeing him walking soundly is like a breathe of fresh air by itself. If your horse ever has any foot issues forget the duct tape boot & vet wrap especially if they are less than pleased about the situation it is not worth it, consider the Easyboot Cloud. Those boots have been amazing through all of this. They did not rub, shift , or cause any problems. They have been so easy to apply & Ben has a time limit when working on his one foot so that is very important for me, if you measure your horse it is very easy to find the correct size. Ben happen to be a very popular size 2 which was hard to find but thankfully Dover had them! He was turned out 24/7 in those boots & even when it rained some & still they held up like champs! I also did use them with the animalintex pads when he was thought to have an abscess so they are very versatile. So basically I highly recommend them!

I know I've kind of strayed from the whole point of this blog which is the ulcers but these issues could have easily caused a flare up with a horse that has a history of ulcers or one that has never had ulcer prior. It's shown that a horse experiencing some type of pain even If its minor is enough to cause ulcers. I'm sure when people give their horses bute or banaimine or any other type of NSAID really don't think twice about it. The majority of people know Bute has a risk of giving horses gastric ulcers but did you know that Banamine can actually irritate the hindgut & cause hindgut ulcers over time with prolonged use? Don't believe me look It up yourself. Has your horse been on stall rest or a course of antibiotics recently? There's another risk for ulcers yet again. What exactly is the grain you feed your horse & the amount? Is it  high fiber low sugar/starch if not there's another risk. Has your horses herd dynamics changed in their field lately if so yet another risk factor! Anything your horse (not you!) considers to be a stressful event or situation is a risk factor & it is our responsibility to help lessen that to the best of our abilities.

So why not just do a trial course of Gastrogard & see if it works? Why? I will let you know why in my experience I did do a weeks trial & saw a huge improvement within that week but then he crashed yet again out of no wear. So did that mean he didn't have ulcers because of that NO it was because Gastrogard does not cover the entire stomach & depending on your horses ulceration that could be a major issue. A gastroscopy is not fun for you or your horse there is no way to try to sugar coat it & make it sound more pleasant than it is. You have to starve your horse for 12 hours while they are having all these problems to begin with & then trailer them however long (unless your vet is able to do it at the barn) to sedate them & shove a scope up their nose into the stomach. It is a necessary evil unfortunately. Scoping has provided me with so much incite & answers that I would still to this day know nothing about & honestly probably saved his life. You know exactly what your dealing with grade wise of the ulcers & how to proceed with treatment. Ben needed 2 medications just for Gastric ulcers found from the scope & we where able to see how well the treatment plan was working for him on his rescope where he went from bleeding grade 2/3 to a low grade 1 ulcers! You will spend more on medications than you will on the actual scope. Another test I highly recommend is the Succeed fecal test. Its simple & quick with a low price tag! It will tell you If your horse has colonic ulcers by detecting Albumin & Hemoglobin. The test is very sensitive & accurate & every vet I have used always uses it as a diagnostic tool. You just need fresh manure balls brought to your vet in a timely manner & they can have the results typically the same day! 

My main point is stress happens to horses does not matter whether you view it as such or not you should take note of ANY minor changes & take them seriously don't just brush them off. Diagnostic test for ulcers whether you scope or do the succeed test (for hindgut) is very important even though its not ideal always. I just want to bring more awareness to the subject so maybe someone can help their horse sooner.

Ben has been doing well that I can tell with his ulcers. He takes his Gastrogard 1/2 tube & gets the Sucralfate twice a day now & the Misoprostal pills once a day. He switched from the Succeed Vet Formula to the Assure & seems to be doing well with that as of now. He is eating like a little piggy like he used to which is great to see. He trots circles around me until I put his alfalfa hay where he can eat it! He is loving his 24/7 turnout & learned how to use his run in shed or he knew & I thought he didn't ! He seems to be slowly putting on weight now that his foot is feeling better again. He is enjoying what I lovingly call the pampered feral horse life .