Stomach ulcers are quite common in horses, as 70 percent of horses are affected, and they can be identified with loss of appetite, weight loss and behavioral problems. Get an endoscopy to confirm a horse's stomach ulcer with helpful advice from a veterinarian in this video on caring for horses.
Hi! I'm Dr. Joanna Robson. I'm a doctor of veterinary medicine with Inspiritus Equine, Inc. I'd like to talk to you about the basics of stomach ulcers in our horses. We've learned a lot about stomach ulcers especially over the last few years by studying our performance horses in particular. And what's been found is that up to 70% of our horses have stomach ulcers regardless of whether they're showing outward clinical signs. So, what are some of the signs that you might see in your horse if stomach ulcers might be present? One of the signs of stomach ulcers in your horse could be that they have a change in their appetite, maybe they're not eating quite as ravenously, they take a lot longer to ingest their feed, or they've had a change in the types of feed that they like to eat. One of the other signs of stomach ulcers is that they're actually losing weight. Maybe their appetite has stayed the same but you've noticed that your horse's condition isn't as good. Maybe they're actually starting to appear ribby, you can feel the ribs beneath their skin or even see them outwardly. Most importantly, a lot of the behavioral problems that we see in our horses, such as biting when being saddled or girthed, bucking under saddle, having performance-related problems, may not be training issues at all but could actually indicate that your horse has gastric ulcers. The only definitive way to determine if your horse has stomach ulcers is to do endoscopy where they put in endoscope up your horse's nose down into the stomach to look for objective evidence of stomach ulcers. However, some people decide to just treat the horses for ulcers without the diagnostics to see if they notice changes in their horse's performance or outward appearance. Please contact your veterinarian if you have any concerns that your horse may have stomach ulcers or you think that some of the behavioral problems you're seeing may be due to stomach ulcers instead of training problems.
Specialty: Vetrinary Medicine
