Exercising Horse with Ulcers

[luckycricket123]

I’ve been treating my horse for ulcers for nearly 3 weeks now. He is getting ulcergard and succeed. I think he had a particularly nasty case of ulcers, because I kept thinking it was back soreness and left the ulcers untreated for 4 months. I have seen some improvement, I am in particular seeing a lot less cow patty poos.

Otherwise, he is still reactive to touch on his belly, and hesitant to pick up the trot in the arena under saddle. He will happily walk around under saddle in and trots willingly outside of the arena (maybe the extra tinge of adrenaline overruling the pain?), and I can lunge him w/t/c with him happy as a clam. My arena footing has been mostly frozen so he has had the majority of the treatment period off. The only times I rode him were when I thought he had stopped reacting to belly touch, but when I rode him and tried to trot he would throw out these massive bucks and rears, which I took as my sign that he was not feeling good still.

Anyways, I hate to see him losing any more topline than he already has and to be perfectly honest, with the weather warming up I am getting spring fever and I’d love to ride him, even just at the walk and build up his fitness on the lunge so we can jump back in when he’s feeling 100%. I can’t find any straight answers online, and am awaiting a reply email from my vet still, but I am impatient and wanted to know sooner. Can I be exercising my horse while he is still showing discomfort from ulcers?

[Scribbler]

One tip is to make sure his stomach is full before you ride. That helps stop the acid sloshing around. Preferably a small flake of alfalfa.

Did you have the horse scoped for ulcers, and what treatment are you using? If you want to know if the treatment is working get him scoped again.

Certainly a horse that had a pain reaction in one venue like an arena can become stoppy there even after the pain is gone. The constant corners and circles in an arena work the body differently than the trails.

Certainly a horse off work will be potentially higher energy and more explosive.

I also haven’t heard of ulcers being a case for stall rest especially as boredom and confinement increase the risk.

Consult your vet. But I think that if you ride on a full stomach and he is happening n trails, you could start conditioning walk/trot out there. Maybe ride light seat/ light posting rather than sitting trot?

[luckycricket123]

@Scribbler

One tip is to make sure his stomach is full before you ride. That helps stop the acid sloshing around. Preferably a small flake of alfalfa.

Did you have the horse scoped for ulcers, and what treatment are you using? If you want to know if the treatment is working get him scoped again.

He hasn’t been scoped. He is not insured, and the symptoms were pretty textbook ulcery. He showed improvement after the first week on ulcergard which is why we chose to carry on with the improvement and I didn’t have him scoped. Of course, now I am so stressed about whether or not its really working it probably would have been worthwhile to have him scoped. Live and learn I guess.

[Scribbler]

Well get him scoped and see what’s going on in there. That at least will answer your question about whether he still has ulcers.

[drafting_dots]

@luckycricket123

He hasn’t been scoped. He is not insured, and the symptoms were pretty textbook ulcery. He showed improvement after the first week on ulcergard which is why we chose to carry on with the improvement and I didn’t have him scoped. Of course, now I am so stressed about whether or not its really working it probably would have been worthwhile to have him scoped. Live and learn I guess.

I just went through the same thing. I am still not sure if it is/was ulcers. I rode the whole time but fed alfalfa cubes before riding (still doing that). I would think the symptoms would improve fairly quickly if it IS ulcers, which makes me suspicious that it might not be. The meds should make him feel better within a week, the only issue after is that the ulcers may not heal fully and the symptoms will come back once the meds are stopped. The only other thing would be if he has developed pain reaction habits that you now can’t untangle from the actual pain reaction?

My vet showed me some very cool techniques to manage my horse’s sensitivity to touch, if you want to message me for more info!

Otherwise, not much help because I still haven’t figured it out

[outerbanks77]

Maybe try some bodywork too. He could be tight in the barrel from tension due to the ulcer pain. Agree with getting him scoped. How does he do with LUNGING? If he’s not comfortable with that, I wouldn’t ride.

[luckycricket123]

@outerbanks77

Maybe try some bodywork too. He could be tight in the barrel from tension due to the ulcer pain. Agree with getting him scoped. How does he do with LUNGING? If he’s not comfortable with that, I wouldn’t ride.

He lunges fine. He will walk trot and canter happily on the lunge.

[outerbanks77]

That’s a good sign. And I have no idea why lunging is in all caps. Perils of typing on a tablet.

Anyway, I mention the bodywork because my mare was consistently out in her ribs, and was diagnosed with ulcers and treated in December/January, and I have to wonder if they are linked. Have not had the bodyworker out this month to see if there is still an issue with the ribs or not.

[IPEsq]

Mine does exactly this. Walks fine. Longes fine. Ask to trot under saddle, and he gets pissed. Treating for ulcers helps a little bit the real reason is back / SI issues. He is mostly over that but will still act out if gassy. Actually, he has learned to try to act out with me basically all the time, but he is fine for others, which is not the case when he’s really uncomfortable, so we have some learned / anticipation behavior to unwind as well. Anyway, it took a long time to figure it out, including trying a million different gut things. While his belly is sensitive for sure, it’s usually not the only thing. Perhaps the belly gets upset because he’s stressed in general…I’m not totally sure…still tying to figure it out and get him back to being his old self.

[PREconvert]

It won’t help any underlying ulcers, but if he’s uncomfortable with exercise because of the stomach acid sloshing, a cheap experiment is tums 15 minutes or so before you ride. It temporarily buffers the acid same as with people. You can do 10 of the regular strength or 5 of the 1000mg. Whichever is in your cabinet;). IF its going to work, you will see an improvement in 1 ride so no big investment needed.
Of course if your horse has Cushings, IR, whatever, read the label first to be sure the sweetener is allowed.

[Pico_Banana]

@PREconvert

It won’t help any underlying ulcers, but if he’s uncomfortable with exercise because of the stomach acid sloshing, a cheap experiment is tums 15 minutes or so before you ride. It temporarily buffers the acid same as with people. You can do 10 of the regular strength or 5 of the 1000mg. Whichever is in your cabinet;). IF its going to work, you will see an improvement in 1 ride so no big investment needed.
Of course if your horse has Cushings, IR, whatever, read the label first to be sure the sweetener is allowed.

Better yet, get a bag of Purina Outlast. It’s an antacid like Tums but made for horses. Give 1-2 cups about 30 min before you ride and it is supposed to last 2-3 hours. Tums don’t last that long for horses. I give my horse the outlast with some soaked alfalfa cubes for extra protection.

[ThreeFigs]

Yes, I second Pico Banana’s suggestion! My horse is recovering from metabolic laminitis right now and alfalfa is NOT on his diet. My vet suggested the Outlast before rides to protect him from ulcers. he loves the stuff and it’s easy to feed.

My guy loves generic Tums as an after ride treat. Hey, can’t hurt!

[luckycricket123]

I actually rode today and stuffed him full of alfalfa before I got on. Huge difference. He was still naughty at the beginning but he moved off my leg nicely. He only bucked when I used my crop which suggests sassiness more than discomfort, at least from him.

Early on he was a bit hesitant to go forward but it seemed more tied to certain areas of the arena than an actual pain response. I’d normally pull up, but today I rode him through the bucks and after I didn’t back down twice, he kind of decided to move off my leg and start listening. He’s been on ulcergard a full 3 weeks now and on succeed for two so I hope this is a sign that he’s actually feeling better. I’ll be sure to try alfalfa before every ride (or tums if I can convince him to eat them) because I’m thrilled at the improvement I got today. A little surprised too, since my guys always have free choice hay so I didn’t think I’d need to give extra alfalfa.

[JBD]

You may need Gastrogard to heal the ulcers. Ulcergard is the same thing but 1/2 strength. You could use twice as much Ulcergard I guess.

[IPEsq]

@JBD

You may need Gastrogard to heal the ulcers. Ulcergard is the same thing but 1/2 strength. You could use twice as much Ulcergard I guess.

One tube of Ulcergard is the exact same thing as one tube of Gastrogard.

[Fiona_785]

@luckycricket123

I actually rode today and stuffed him full of alfalfa before I got on. Huge difference. He was still naughty at the beginning but he moved off my leg nicely. He only bucked when I used my crop which suggests sassiness more than discomfort, at least from him.

Early on he was a bit hesitant to go forward but it seemed more tied to certain areas of the arena than an actual pain response. I’d normally pull up, but today I rode him through the bucks and after I didn’t back down twice, he kind of decided to move off my leg and start listening. He’s been on ulcergard a full 3 weeks now and on succeed for two so I hope this is a sign that he’s actually feeling better. I’ll be sure to try alfalfa before every ride (or tums if I can convince him to eat them) because I’m thrilled at the improvement I got today. A little surprised too, since my guys always have free choice hay so I didn’t think I’d need to give extra alfalfa.

Hey, how is your horse doing now? I ask because I’m going through something similar with my new horse. I just had him shipped from 500 miles away 2 weeks ago and all of a sudden yesterday he won’t.go.forward to trot under saddle. He has a bunch of other ulcer symptoms in addition to this so my trainer strongly feels he is ulcery and we just gave him his first does of UG. (I’m also having the vet come out this week too.)

[Texarkana]

I know this thread was recently bumped back up, but I have had really good luck with letting my horse eat hay while I groom/tack up, in addition to Nexium SID in her feed when she starts showing ulcer symptoms.

[luckycricket123]

He’s actually completely normal again. I tried ulcergard, succeed and nexium without much success so I was starting to worry ulcers weren’t the problem because he was like 3 different horses depending on the day. Then we tried ritetrac and within a week he was his big sweet self again (but still sassy if I use a crop).

My horse had been exhibiting plenty of hindgut ulcer symptoms so I suspect it was the equishure in the ritetrack that helped. Anyways, definitely have your vet come take a look, but that’s what ended up working for me. Good luck!

[Millie123]

Hi - been reading this thread and I believe my horse has hindgut acidosis. She had gastric ulcers which have been treated and cleared but she was still unhappy to trot or canter under saddle but will happily lunge so we are about to start her on succeed. However has anyone here also seen additional symptoms of horse being unhappy to be shod? Mine is clearly struggling with front and hind and is recent but usual farrier

[Fharoah]

I knew a friends horse who died of colic related to the worst ulcers. My friend didn’t know her horse had ulcers or she would have treated, they did a obtopsy. Horses can be really stoic and the best way to be certain is to do a scope. The scope costs less than the treatment. I scoped my horse as it is very hard to tell if he has ulcers. I asked my vet proir to scheduling if she thought he had ulcers and she said no, he had a shine to his coat, good weight, good appetite no sensitivity. I had him scoped anyways and he had mild ulcers which I had treated him for. I would finish the 30 day treatment then consider a follow up scope to make sure your horse is truly ulcer free.