I’m not one to usually do this but wanted to see thoughts on my 7 yo training level eventing gelding who has ulcers, now a chronic colicer and anything I could be doing different to help him? I Bought him in 2017 from family who bred, raced and retrained him-so I know his health hx, began showing in 2017 tb makeover, brought slowly up levels since then w professional trainer. 2018 he was scoped found pyloric ulcers-tx w GG, sucralfate, 2019 scoped found very mild squamous ulcers-xt w GG 30D, Jan 2020 scoped after first 2 colic episodes ever in his life-found very severe glandular ulcers-tx w GG, sucralfate. Feb 2020 more colic episodes-Tx with misoprostals, sucralfate 30D. Seem to help, most quiet he’s been ever in his life, no colic episodes until April 28th very mild colic episode, may 4th very severe colic episode. Just stated back on miso and sucralfate May 8th. Has been doing well, again being very very quiet. My question: what am I missing that may be causing these? Gets his teeth done ev 6 months by dentist, vet follows closely-can’t find any other issues but ulcers after many diagnostics, nutritionist has revised feeding regimine, lesson w professional trainer 3x week, trailer to his place but horse lives on my farm 24/7 w two goats in 2 acre grass paddock-no horses. No bad habits, very quiet in paddock, mildly grinds teeth while riding, notice he loses his “spooky” nature when I treat the ulcers with medication. He is very very sensitive TB-he tries very hard at horse shows and is the hardest working horse I have ever rode, over jumps everything and doesn’t have a sj rail on his record-he takes himself very seriously while riding but is a ham on the ground, like a dog, loves people, horses, dogs and goats, seems happy/chill most of the time but does have a “look of eagles’ at times. Loves to eat-not a picky eater. Horse is out 24/7 on grass, has a large run in shed, gets orchard grass 2nd cut hay 24/7 in slow feeder. Tc senior 6lbs, soaked alfalfa cubes and beet pulp from 9 cups dry, probiotic supplement, 2 cups ground flax, 1 cup canola oil, tablespoon salt when he sweats in feed and access to free choice salt-all of this split over two feedings per day. Sometimes get carrots and raw sweet potatoes as treats before and after riding. Things I was doing before May 4th severe colic that I think was wrong and have since changed:1. Soaking tc senior feed with beet pulp and Alfalfa (too much fermentation?), I also decreased the amount he was getting, we was on about 10 lbs/day now only about 6. 2. Dirty water trough (I totally forgot about one in the back of the field, it was really gross, has since been removed and my husband saw him drinking out of it an hour before the severe colic) 3. My stress-I’m in healthcare so there u go-trying to be 100% “zen” when I handle him. Another possibility: could he be depressed not living with other horses? It’s been almost 3 years he has not lived w another horse-could it b affecting him now? I also thought could I be overtraining him, but the severe colic episode was over a month after All I had been doing was hacking due to covid. Any other suggestions? I do plan to test my hay once their office opens again. I’m exhausted and out of money and I feel horrible for him. Physically To me the outside looks great; shiny, dapplely, good weight, good muscle…🤷ðŸ»
Food allergies can cause chronic colic in horses. A local gelding, imported from Ireland, cannot tolerate alfalfa, for example.
That is a lot of probiotics he is getting; I’d start by eliminating that. And maybe add a paragraph or two 
The first two things that came to mind (1) what are you doing for gut support before trailering (2) can he get an equine buddy so he isn’t the only horse on property.
I second food allergies. Know quite a few horses with colic and ulcer problems that were resolved with removing certain items from their diet. You may get a bit of push back from your vet if they don’t believe horses can have food allergies, but again…I have known horses that have had several episodes of colic per year go down to none in 2+ years with feeding changes.
I also think that living alone could be giving him added stress. Horses are herd animals.
I agree re: food allergies/sensitivities. We just dealt with this with my thoroughbred and pulled all concentrate (TC Senior) from his diet 2 weeks ago and we went from daily mini colics to comfortable in 2 days without grain. He scoped clean after 2 months of ulcergard and plus sucralfate so his ulcers healed but the grain just wasn’t working (soy?).
Anyway, it’s worth considering diet–even just pulling him off the senior and see how he does. I’m learning that many ulcer prone horses do really well on a grain-free diet. If he’s in light work, see how he does on forage for a few weeks and slowly add things in individually so you can judge each separately.
Just my thoughts.
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Test for food allergies. I’ve had one with corn and one with alfalfa.
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It sounds like he’s an internalizer. He may need to live on miso or sucralfate if you can’t lower his stress levels enough that he can maintain himself. More turnout, group turnout, different group (dominant herd boss so he can relax, submissive mate so he can boss someone around, solitary turnout if friends stress him out, etc.), small hole haynet, maintenance for travel/show, etc.
I went through something like this, and ended up taking my horse off all grain. My horse is a big internalizer, so when he is uncomfortable, his gut seems like it’s the first thing affected. As for hay, I eliminated the more stalky first cutting, give him western alfalfa as 25% of his daily hay by weight, and only feed second cutting orchard grass. If he’s grinding when you’re riding, it’s my opinion that something is not right. I would try some different saddles, maybe get a chiro/vet to check him over for back pain, and try to figure out where he is uncomfortable. Although my saddle allegedly fit great, my horse was not happy and showed it by grinding. New saddle = new horse.
Is he truly sound?
The rest of his management sounds almost close to ideal. The only thing I would change… horses need other horses. I don’t think they’re truly happy alone, even with a goat. I’ve tried it, with a few different horses… and they were always remarkably better both under saddle and in health, when they had a horse friend turned out with them. It does make a difference.
I would also be starting to give him Nexium or GG prior to showing/trailering.
I’ve been thru the ulcer ordeal as well. Two of my TB’s are very sensitive but it was one of the QH geldings that tried to colic on & off until we had him allergy tested. Came back positive for all kinds of stuff! Also did hair analysis which showed he was low on manganese, selenium and cobalt and had toxic levels of phosphorus. Changed his diet, added a personalized vitamin/mineral supplement to get him back in balance, was able to take him off all his meds and now he is quite happy as long as I stick to his menu. This guy was a mess! We had done all the tests and all the prescriptions with little improvement. The drastic and not so convenient diet changes along with acupuncture made a huge difference for our guy! I agree with everyone else, horses are herd animals. A buddy will allow him to relax. Older, pasture mates are often easy to find. Many times for free. You are obviously trying to do what is right for your horse. I bet if he had a friend you would see improvement when combined with your other efforts. Hang in there!
Wow-thank you all for the thoughtful replies! Hmm seems like a good excuse for The husband for me to get another horse!!😂 I do have some follow up questions for you:
- Grain free:what do you feed instead, especially if u have horses in heavy work?
- Food allergies:how do you test this on horses?
I forgot to note in the novel I wrote above…haha:
i have my saddles/tack professionally fitted yearly. I do GG at horse shows. My trainer does think there may be an underlying soundness issue as well but he has had multiple bi yearly lameness exams and nothing comes up except for “tightness in the si” which we injected Once last year and shock waved once as well and we have since maintained w adequan Ev 6 months and now the tightness has gone away on subsequent exams-but my thoughts are are the ulcers causing the tightness or is the tightness causing the ulcers? I seem to think it’s the ulcers causing the tightness but what is causing the glandular ulcers?? I watched a seminar last night by DVM which states there is zero evidence as to what causes glandular ulcers, diet is shown only to effect squamous ulcers-very interesting AND frustrating!
My previous horse could not tolerate more than a handful or two of alfalfa. Instant tummy ache.
Have an internalizer pony who showed ulcer signs (although, knock wood, no colics) shortly after he came to me. Sure enough tested + for both fore and hind gut ulcers.
I changed his diet. He had been getting oats and I think some commercial feed mix. Switched him to ration balancer and hay in slow feed net along with lots of (muzzled) grass pasture turnout.
Did the GG regimen. Monkeyed around with various supplements (he has allergies and sweet itch). One I added was aloe vera, first as 100% pure juice and then later pellets when they came out. That made a very noticeable difference for him on several counts, but especially the ulcer symptoms.
Aloe has good ant-inflammatory properties. After about a year, I was able to take him off of many of the supplements, aloe included. He is one happy camper these days.
Also second getting him a horse buddy. I don’t think my guy would do well without one. I originally got him as a companion for my one remaining horse after I had to have my other PTS. Until he came here, my other one had a ewe on loan from the next door neighbor. While he still recognizes and watches the ewe back in her flock, the two horses became almost instant BFFs. They really do need each other.
I found a vet that specialized in dermatology and allergies that did skin testing. We sent hair samples to Dr DePaolo in Dallas. As far as feed… In our case, many of the changes were based on the test findings. Ex: no more bermuda to munch on throughout the day, had to switch to orchard grass. My guy hated timothy. He still gets alfalfa, just a smaller amount. I feed Renew Gold instead of grain, beet pulp shreds, wheat bran, orchard grass pellets, flax meal, bee pollen, dried chamomile flowers, Excel, apple cider vinegar, garlic, aloe vera juice and spirulina all mixed with a bunch of water. And yes, it’s a PIA! But the ulcer prone guys have happy tummies. 😀 Don’t listen to all the research and literature. Follow your heart and find a routine that works for your horse. And a buddy…
You can do blood testing or skin testing. Some vets send off blood first, then either an exclusion diet or skin testing of only those few ingredients that are high positive on blood.
Don’t downplay the pain possibility. Even good vets have greatly varied knowledge of lameness, and greatly varied eyes to see it. Some horses can also mask a great deal of pain - especially when it’s not in a distal limb - cervical arthritis, kissing spine, etc.
I know even a trace amount of flax gives me intense stomach pain. Obviously horses have a different digestive system but I would 100% start with eliminating the flax. Seeds are known for being hard to digest, and two cups is quite a lot.
Personally I would also eliminate the TC senior and see if a pound or two of rice bran (in addition to the beet pulp) would keep enough weight on him.
A friend’s horse gets ulcers regularly. He colics regularly. He continued to do so even after being retired. He always has another horse as a buddy. She added electrolytes to his diet all year round. No more colics.
We added that to his feed since my horse would colic everytime the weather turned in the spring. Just some mild gas colic. Once I had moved him to year round electrolytes he didn’t colic again. I think it just helps encourage them to drink more.
Friend’s horse can’t be on 24/7 turn-out. He doesn’t tolerate the heat/bugs and really cold/rain he doesn’t do well with either. Yes he has a run-in shed. He is just one of those. There is only so much you can change his routine. He is picky about feed so changing too much of his diet will just make him go on hunger strike. He can’t afford to lose the weight as he is a hard keeper.
Have you considered using something like Purina Outlast?
OP, the two things that popped in my head…that seems to be a lot of flax. Secondly, we had one that consistently would colic on beet pulp. He could eat senior feed well, but anytime we added additional soaked beet pulp in, he’d get an upset tummy.
Update! Weaned off grain-personality did 180, calm/relaxed/no teeth grinding/no spooking or colic, but started to lose weight quickly as he would not eat the alfalfa pellets or beet pulp without grain. So I gradually changed to a kow starch, higher fat feed, and slowly started adding back in and decreased the alfalfa/beet pulp dramatically. He gets only 3 quarts of grain in am and pm and I give him about 1 quart of beet pulp and alfalfa pellets soaked, eliminated everything else. I also started feeding him in a large pan on the ground (used to feed From hung bucket) as I watched a seminar about how feeing from hung buckets decreases chewing/saliva which is an important protectant of the stomach. He has been doing amazing, weight has been maintained, performing at an all time high (got our PB dressage score this weekend). He is grazing more than ever, again no spooking or grinding teeth, sleeping lying down during day! I think I was feeding too much!! Hopefully out of clear! Thank you for input!
Don’t tell hubby he’s all better cause you still need that new horse buddy for him. :D:D:D
2nd this. I think he’d be happier with a buddy…maybe you should get two more! That way when one is getting ridden the other one has a buddy 
