I’ve seen several articles stating that horses with hindgut ulcers should be taken off long stem hay and fed only soaked hay cubes/pellets/beet pulp for a time to let the intestinal walls heal. My vet never mentioned this when my horse was diagnosed but I am researching everything I can to help him heal and stay healed!
Where are you getting this information?
I did several google searches in regards to hindgut ulcers and almost every article I clicked on suggested removing long stem fiber. I also saw it mentioned in many forum posts. There seems to be some debate about whether or not that is necessary (or even at all beneficial).
Can you link to the most credible site you found?
Not a feed store website or a “natural medicine” website or supplement factory… Something from an actual vet preferably with some research citations
I say this in because while hindgut ulcers are a real thing they are also notoriously hard to diagnose so have become the focus of alot of Imaginary illness and remedies. The equivalent in humans is subclinical “leaky gut syndrome.”
Also often the same bit of information bounces around from site to site.
How do you know he has hindgut ulcers and what do you understand this to mean?
Edited to add: this was the first Google hit to come up that wasn’t a supplement company. Dr Kellon is credible.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/horsene…ut-ulcers/amp/
This suggests hay pellets or else putting a horse on pasture
https://www.lsu.edu/vetmed/ehsp/horse_health/lsu_tips/colonic_ulcers.php
Did your vet actually make a definitive diagnosis with an ultrasound? I’ve always been under the impression that only really severe cases of hindgut ulcers or right dorsal colitis, should be taken off long stemmed hay and fed either mash or senior so that the intestines can heal. But I always thought that was just for the really severe, like horse needs to be hospitalized or euthanized severe cases.
For milder cases, or the horse “maybe” has hindgut ulcers, you can treat that with a couple different medications. Taking them off long stemmed hay is kind of a last resort because that’s a pretty drastic diet change that may end up causing more problems so you don’t want to jump to that if you can fix the issue with sucralfate or misoprostol or whatever it is that your vet prescribed. Or just with management changes.
Like I said, that was just my understanding, and I’m not a vet.
1 Like
I think this was the preferred method to treat hindgut ulcers when we had nothing else available to treat them. You see it recommended in a lot of older veterinary texts (example). The idea being that if you have active ulceration in the hindgut, long stem forage and the process of breaking it down may irritate the lesions and inflammation. Therefore, “resting” the hindgut would help heal it.
However, I think we have a better understanding today of the consequences of disrupting the microbial flora. We also have both prescription and OTC pharmaceutical treatment options (many of which aren’t actually “pharmaceutical” at all, just dietary supplementation to create a more favorable hindgut environment). The diet change is reserved for the most severe incidents.
Personally, I’d rather start with something like Succeed, Rite Trac, or misoprostol than a major dietary change.
Beet pulp does aid in hind guy motility, and I truly believe in using well soaked Beet pulp in a horses’ diet.
Having said that, it isn’t going to fix a horse with acute issues. You need to address those, and then get your horse on an appropriate diet.
1 Like
I’m not sure there is such a thing as “stay healed” if the ulcers are bad enough:(
Succeed was the magic bullet for one of my senior horses but it hasn’t helped another senior horse that is fraught with health issues.
Egusin has been the mIracle for this horse. http://www.centauranimalhealth.com/egusin/Egusin.htm
I did Centaurs recommended 2-phase treatment last November. The horse is just now starting to act as if he needs another treatment. I will be ordering the second phase Egusin to put him on when I de-worm him.
There are credible studies behind Egusin. It’s not cheap but nothing is, if it stands a chance of working.
We did this for my horse who was diagnosed for right dorsal colitis via ultrasound. He was off hay for 1 month, during which time he ate a combination of alfalfa cubes, chopped hay, beet pulp and TC senior. (We tried to feed him as many times a day as possible, I also hand grazed or turned him out on grass as much as possible.) He was weaned back onto hay 1 flake per day per week until he was back on a full ration.
This was in addition to pre/probiotics, misoprostol, sucralfate, and eventually a course of metronidazole.
I will say this is not something I would do without proper diagnostics—the horse was not happy during the time he was on a limited diet. It fixed his issues under saddle and he was generally much happier once he was treated.
I’d be happy to chat more about the whole saga if you’d like!
Even with misoprositol and sulcralfate, reducing long stem hay, and replacing it with chopped hay, soaked hay cubes, and fresh forage is pretty standard protocol among the vets I know, including USET vets. Hay is reduced from 6 plus flakes a day to 1-2 flakes per day, particularly at night.
The meds alone are not a silver bullet with hind gut ulcers.
Generally on this protocol, the hind gut ulcers resolve in 30 days.
1 Like
Hello Dutchmare433, I have been reading your posts as I do have a 3 year old who was diagnosed with right dorsal colitis with no reason why it developed, who is on all the meds/supplements you are mentioning I am wondering how your horse recovered and how long it took for healing and if you have a maintenance protocol to avoid reoccurring
I have an older gelding that has problems with chronic diarrhea and free fecal water in the winter months (more hay, more trouble). Last year I hired an equine nutritionist (PhD) who had me reduce his hay (we were actually going to remove it entirely for a short time, but he improved once he got to the 1/4 amount of hay daily mark).
While he was on greatly reduced hay he ate 4 meals a day of Senior feed and Timothy pellets. He did not seem unhappy on this feed regimen. He improved very rapidly. We ended up keeping him on that diet for about a month, then slowly started adding hay back in and lowering his senior feed and pellets. He has done very well since then. In the summer he gets a small amount of hay and lots of grass and a ration balancer. In the winter I start adding in Timothy pellets when I start increasing his hay. Right now he is eating a 2-3 pounds of Timothy pellets daily, 2 pounds of Senior feed, and his ration balancer.
This horse is well maintained at this point and his poops are pretty consistently decent to good. No poop all over his tail, which is a huge improvement. Before changing his feed program his winter poops looked like cow plops or frank water.
He has been fine since his second fecal transfer. I was able to keep him on the same hay for a year post transfer and was able to switch him onto hay from the same field just 1 year newer. He made that switch fine and has actually been fine now that I am down in Florida buying much much smaller batches of hay. He does well on a mix of second cut alfalfa and orchard grass.
He even had a bout of gastric ulcers with diarrhea, but the diarrhea resolved fully after a few days of gastrogard.
