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Elite Veteran
Posts: 911
 
Location: Durango CO | What are signs of ulcers in a horse that is not cinchy, does not have a bad hair coat, not underweight, not spooky or anxious? |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 595
Location: North Dakota | Picky eater |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 889
| MidWest1452 - 2017-01-12 10:12 PM
Picky eater
^^^This. It was my mare's ONLY symptom...or she'd go straight to hay before eating grain...or go back and forth...then finally wouldn't eat grain at all. |
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Regular
Posts: 80
Location: Oregon | What about dunking hay. This horse also gets a bite of grain and dunks that, too. I put water on his grain before I feed it. Maybe ulcers?
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| I have friends that do not believe me when I say it, but my gelding would buck about 30 or 40 minutes into riding him. He did it randomly, like you could go for months without it happening, and then one day just have a little episode. He was so quiet and had such a willing attitude about everything we asked him to do, that we just knew that something had to be bothering him. My guess is that when his ulcers were at their worst and after riding for a while the acid would start splashing around and burn and he would be in pain which caused him to buck.
Long story short...we treated him for ulcers with ulcer guard and he has not had any bucking episodes in 4 years. I keep him on U-Gard, aloe vera juice and I give him a flake of alfalfa an hour before running him. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | With a horse like this, I think it just comes down to knowing your horse really well. Noting the subtle changes. I have a 2yo that was just born super gentle, super laid back, can't rattle him if you try.
I sold his favorite pasture buddy and noticed 2 small changes in him. When I ponied him from our ATV he started getting a little hyper, trying to go faster than I was driving. He used to kinda lag behind at the end of the lead rope. He only did this while ponying next to the ATV, not next to a horse or any other time.
Also, he continued to finish his grain and alfalfa cubes like normal, but started leaving some of his hay at first. Then he started to ignore his hay and left just a few alfalfa cubes, still finishing his grain fine.
That's when I treated him for ulcers. He went back to completely normal. |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
 
Location: Pacific Northwest | Like someone else said, it comes down to knowing your horse. I think most of us have gut instincts when it comes to our horses. I knew my mare was sore when she barely, almost, thought about refusing the gate. It was like a split second stutter step and I felt her stiffen against my leg like she wanted to move sideways. She made a run like normal, but when I had her massaged she has incredibly body sore.
They don't always give us textbook signs that something is wrong. If you think your horse might have ulcers, it doesn't hurt to treat. Not as noticeable symptoms could be not finishing feed, dunking hay, not firing/not clocking.... |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 428
Location: God's country | Mine would have mild colic symptoms, a lot. Actually, that's what we ended up losing her to. She would get mild colic episodes about 10+ times a year. Other than that, the most chill/laid back horse ever. I sure did like her and hate we lost her at 6 years old.
Edited by redcbrf3 2017-01-13 11:00 AM
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 Color Coordination Director
| Most performance horses have ulcer to some degree. It's the nature of the beast so to speak, the way we feed plays a huge roll as well as stress. As owners we do not really think about trailering, any changes, training etc being stressful but they are for a horse. When a horse is stressed they produce a large amount than normal of cortisol. That excess irriates the stomach lining and causes ulcers after a while esp when they have an empty stomach at those times. This is how I got involved with Pro Earth Animal Health. When 2 yr olds go from the life of leasure to race training they can fall off fairly quickly, they train pourly, end up nervous etc and then there are some that never show those signs but just don't stretch out and run. Everything that we have in training gets Equi-sure daily now, for the cost per dose it is cheap enough that we use it as insurance on the colts. For less than $1.80 a day, it saves us a lot of money on vet bills in the long run. |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | My most ulcer prone horses in the past have been the really quiet ones. Some will just stand off by themselves. Lack of appetite. Don't stand to be saddles and cinched up as well as they used to. |
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 Ms. Marine
Posts: 4627
Location: Texas | Becoming cinchy. |
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 Owner of a ratting catting machine
Posts: 2258
| Mine shows ulcers by having a heart beating out of his chest right before running down the alley.
He also reduces his food intake and drinks a ton more water.
Sometimes he'll get a slightly ganty look in his flank.
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 Expert
Posts: 1611
Location: bring on the heat, NV | Aww the quiet stressors. I have a few. Our mare would take a bite or two of hay then go stand in center of her pen. Eat a few bites of grain and do the same. Sometimes a sucked up stomach. Later after they got worse she spent a lot of time laying down. Acted pretty colicky when they got more severe. After treatment their stomachs relaxed, they ate good, and were more relaxed. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 516
| Two signs I've noticed in my guy is right when I go to cinch him up, he'll start chewing/grinding his teeth. It might only be a couple times, but that's when I know to start watching him. If it gets worse, I'll treat him.
Another is he'll leave grain and head straight for the alfalfa. He's always been a slow eater but I know if he leaves it and goes looking for hay, then he needs to be treated again. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 520
| Yawning a lot when saddled |
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