Cribbing and ulcers

[Mellymoo]

Hi guys, another stupid question from me

I have had a search for ulcer threads but can't find what I want to know, so here goes. I have read on another forum that horses that crib and have ulcers are often slim but have a pot belly. Now, this is Jos to a tee He doesn't crib often (hardly ever now), but the effects of years of cribbing show on his teeth.

I have been looking at his body condition for the past few days, and he is slim except for the pot belly. We have ribs easily felt. He has no worms ( he has been wormed and counted) but he still has the pot belly. Could it be ulcers? He is a very fussy eater as well. If he didn't have the belly then I would be giving him hard feed, as he would be too thin

Any advice guys? I have asked my vet friend, but she is dismissive of ulcers in horses, and thinks Jos is just fat. I don't think he is

[jennyb]

Yes, it could be ulcers. You have two choices about how to proceed. Option a) - get your vet on board, have him scoped and find out that way. Option b) - do what I did (see my previous thread) and get the Omeprazole granules online, feed them to him for a few weeks and see if he improves.

I notice from your other thread that you are insured with SEIB. They have paid out for Gastrogard for Gazdag on the basis of my positive test with the Omeprazole granules. I had to have my vet out to check him over and do bloods to make sure it wasn't anything else, but my vet was happy to prescribe Gastrogard on the basis of my test, and SEIB accepted her diagnosis based on my test rather than insisting on a scope. Thumbs up to SEIB from me too!

[anastasia55555]

Does he have any other symptoms?

[Mellymoo]

Thanks Jenny, I'll go have a look at that stuff. The other symptoms I suppose are that he is a lot quieter than he was in the summer - just seems 'not quite right' for want of a better phrase. He is also leaving his bucket of chaff - he eats the balancer off the top, then goes to his net. He also doesn't eat all that I put in for him in his nets. I am paranoid about him having nothing to eat all night, so he gets a decent amount in. In the morning, his food bowl is empty though. Oh, he also has a pretty dull coat, and has done all year. I never thought much of it until today.

[jennyb]

Considering Omeprazole won't do any harm for a short trial period, I'd say it's definitely worth giving it a go to rule out ulcers, at least. Whether he shows an improvement on that or not, I would have bloods done as my next port of call.

[Mellymoo]

Cool, ta! I managed to get a free trial of 20 sachets to try before I buy any, so that's pretty cool! I'll have a chat to my vet friend tomorrow, and see if I can persuade her to help me out. What bloods do I ask for? She's better if I specify what I want

[jennyb]

They are good about the free trial. I had delivery problems with them though (hence ending up on the Gastrogard), so if you use them again, I would pay the extra for guaranteed quick delivery.

No idea what bloods my vet ran, she just said the ins co would expect her to have done some! You want to rule out anything that would give similar symptoms, so I guess check for liver and kidney function etc.

[Mellymoo]

Ah cool, thanks for that! I'll have a word today and see if she will run me some.