4/2/2023 0 Comments Week 6: UlcersUnfortunately over the past week, we learned Marty has ulcers, not back problems like we originally thought. There are 3 major types of ulcers a horse can get gastric, hindgut, and upper gut ulcers. Gastric and upper gut ulcers are typically diagnosed by getting your horse scoped by a vet. Scoping is when you take a small video camera and put it down a horse's nose so you can see different parts of its stomach and intestines. It doesn’t hurt the horse and they are sedated so the vet and the horse aren't hurt. Hindgut ulcers cannot be seen when you scope a horse because of where they are located and can only be diagnosed based on symptoms, which is the type of ulcers Marty was diagnosed with. The most common signs of ulcers are changes in behavior, not wanting to eat or drink, and being very sensitive when you touch the horse's side. Marty had all of these signs besides not eating or drinking. Hindgut ulcers mostly affect a horse’s colon which sits on the right side of a horse's body and makes up a big part of their digestive tract. Which is unfortunately also right where I have put my leg to ask Marty to pick up his right lead canter.
I had been noticing that Marty hadn't been acting normal for the past 2-3 weeks on the ground, me and my trainers had thought that maybe it was the drastic weather changes. There were also lots of horses coming and going at our barn. Because Marty is such an easygoing horse we never expected him to have ulcers, horses with high-stress levels are usually the ones who get ulcers. During our last lesson we had lots of problems, Marty was refusing to move out and was bucking. After this happened we finally got him help and put him on multiple different medications. We put him on Gut X ulcer prevention, Ulcergard, and a probiotic that treats ulcers. We think part of the reason Marty is getting ulcers is that he does not get hay constantly throughout the day. This would cause ulcers because horses are grazing animals, and without constant hay or grass the acid builds up in their stomachs and causes ulcers. We decided to get Marty a slow feeder that helps slow down how fast he is eating hay when he is in his stall. To make sure Marty makes the quickest and most stress-free recovery possible we are not going to ride him for 2 weeks, and then we are going to reassess his condition and see if he is clear to go back to work. In the meantime, we are going to be doing lots of groundwork to keep him busy
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |