The "I think my horse has ulcers"

Just as the title states this blog is for the people that have that thought in their head regarding their horse. It's mind blowing to read through posts on the internet with so many people who state "I think my horse has ulcers" & what do they do about it? Not what you should be doing..... I don't understand why people have this idea in their head that ulcers are not a big deal...what you can't see won't hurt right? WRONG! I along with many other horse owners have gone through just how bad ulcers can truly be & the havoc they can wreck in your horses & your life. Sure you may try this supplement & you may make a few minor adjustments & you may get lucky that those things might actually work.... but have you really truly completely healed the problem or have you masked the symptoms enough to where you "think" everything is just fine..... Scary thought... Ulcers are not an easy 1 2 fix & wham you'll never have an issue again. Ulcers are almost always a secondary condition to a primary cause & it's your job to figure out both. Is it easy? HECK NO! It's extremely hard to figure it out & even harder to keep it all under control! Ulcers are never easy or cheap & trying to "get away with" the lazy route will get your right back to where you started quicker than you thought.

I recently read an article written by a vet & that vet made a very bold but in my opinion very true statement. He wrote "there are two types of horses, those that have ulcers & those that WILL have ulcers". We create a lot of horses problems these days by our feeding & management. Years ago horses never had half the issues they have now & I don't even mean just ulcers! Getting horses back to the basics with how we feed them & how we manage them is key to their success & your long term healthy, happy partner under saddle. Many things nowadays are for the convenience of the horse owner not what the horse truly needs to thrive. So why is it half of you reading this probably have a little thought in your head maybe my horse has ulcers & you just push it to the back & not do anything about it? Why is it not a big deal? Ok you haven't had a major issue ....yet.... but how lucky do you feel in a few weeks, months, or even year? 

Depending on your horses pain tolerance level & how well they hide things it can be hard to tell if there is a problem. Sometimes horses can be screaming at you & no one seems to listen, but instead play it off as "bad behavior" or "poor training". Nine times out of ten a behavior issue is the result of a physical/ medical issue not a "training issue" or "bad behavior" issue. Yes some are training & behavior, but you need to look at everything. Has your horse recently moved to a new barn, changed field mates, food changes, trailering, competition, more riding, pain somewhere, suddenly behaving badly even if it's as minor as a head toss or tail swish, not eating as much, touchy when being groomed, moody, anything at all? Any & all of those things can cause ulcers & in as little as 5 days. Yes 5 days is all it takes for an ulcer to form....Let me guess my horse is in perfect weight & condition & super shiny so clearly there is no ulcers right..... NO.... they may "appear" perfect on the outside but their insides might be screaming & burning.

The ulcer grade scale runs from 1-4 with 1 being the least severe & may show little to no symptoms depending on the horse & 4 being the absolute worst & hardest to treat. Bleeding is usually for grade 3 & up ulcers. Ok your thinking well I will just try some supplements & maybe a round of ulcergard & I should be good to go.... sure if your lucky & have maybe 1 ulcer at grade one... but if not then no your mostly doing more harm then good. Treating a horse blindly for an injury such as ulcers is like putting a blindfold on & aiming for a small target in a big field maybe you will hit it just right or you will miss altogether. Scoping is the best option. Is it fun for you or the horse no. Is it worth it yes. You will know exactly what you are dealing with & HOW to deal with it. Ben needed 3 medications to treat his ulcers. He was on Gastrogard prior to scoping & he still hit rock bottom! Gastrogard does NOT treat the entire stomach so depending on where your ulcers are you may be doing nothing! Ben had them coating his entire GI tract & while the Gastrogard helped it was not enough so we still had a problem! Gastrogard & Sucralfate do not reach the hindgut so they will not treat the hindgut/colonic ulcers. Ben was on a separate medication for his colonic ulcers. He was also treated for 6 months with extremely slow tapering doses of all the medications. You can't just throw ulcergard at them for a month & call it a day more like call it an even bigger problem because now you haven't tapered off & created gastric rebound effect yay!

This blog is based off the experience I have gone through, my opinion, & the countless hours of research I have done. If you don't agree or believe it stop reading & google things for yourself. Open up your eyes & your horse will thank you. No not every single horse has an ulcer problem & i'm not trying to say you ignore your horse or anything of the such. What I am saying is monitor your horse & if you find yourself even possibly thinking there might be an ulcer don't put it off to the back of your mind, but instead make some changes. Take a look at things & change them! Management & diet explore those avenues. Have a vet check your horse for any pain issues, make sure your tack fits properly , run some blood work , make sure the teeth are level & your not having sudden problems. Run a succeed equine fecal blood test! It's cheap easy & will give you an indication if there is an issue. It's not 100% because it's to be used as a part of other diagnostic tests & overall well being. Your horse may still have a problem despite negative results because you ran that test for a reason right?