Gas and discomfort under saddle

[blob99]

I have a pony with a sensitive system (I’ve posted more concerns about him in the past year than I have in all other years combined!).

He had bad ulcers, and per the vet’s advice he is still on a low-dose of omeprazole. He’s also on sucralfate (has been on since third week of April). He gets a small amount of grain. He’s out in pasture all night with access to grass. During the day he has enough coastal to last him the day. And he gets two flakes of alfalfa a day. He’s not a super easy keeper when it comes to weight and is probably slightly under ideal weight.

None of the above has changed recently, the sucralfate starting in April is the newest change.

The last couple weeks he has suddenly become very gassy. He has always been the type to pass manure while being ridden–small amounts more than once usually. But lately instead of passing small amounts of manure, he is passing lots gas. I wouldn’t worry about this too much, except that he becomes very uncomfortable before he passes gas. He will get behind my leg, fussy in the bridle, have trouble maintaining rhythm and go around with his tail up for several strides and then finally the gas will pass in a string of farts and he’ll be back to normal…until 10 minutes or so later when he needs to fart again. It’s the same on the lunge.

Given that nothing in particular has had a recent change, I’m not sure what the source of his farts are. I tried pulling his alfalfa for a few days to see if that made a difference–it didn’t. I removed the sucralfate for a few days–no difference. And I’ve pulled the omeprazole for a few days–no difference. I’ve thought about trying to keep him off grass for a day or so to see how that goes, but haven’t tried that yet. There’s no dry lot, so that would mean keeping him in overnight and my instinct says that a gasy horse should be moving, not stallbound. His temp is normal, his hydration seems good, and he is bright eyed and normal on the ground (he’s not farting around in his stall or in the pasture either from what I can see). So, I’m not sure what to make of this and would love additional horse-people brain power on what I should try.

He does not do well with probios or equisure/ritetrac (he’s had them in the past). I’ve thought about psyllium and worming (it’s been 3 months since his last fecal). But I don’t want to throw the kitchen sink at him all at once since he is sensitive.

Any thoughts on what might be making him so gassy?

[leaf]

Why so gassy? I don’t know, but my horse had low GI motility, and that’s a long story. Gastric ulcers, delayed gastric emptying, long story.
But have you tried Gas-x tablets?
I got the drugstore brand. 125 mg of Simethicone per tablet, , cherry flavored tablets. Simethicone is a surfactant, it pops bubbles. One tab per 100 lbs body weight, then half that about a half hour later. I crushed it into feed, or ground it really fine to put with water in a 60 cc catheter tipped syringe and gave it orally.
I gave it as needed, but then found if I gave it three times daily I could avoid the uncomfortable gas colics. It really helped my guy, and he was on it for a long time.

[fjordmom]

I had one that was ulcery and gassy (although not as bad as yours) when he first came to me. Did the gastroguard routine and that helped some, but not completely. Started him on aloe juice and over time (9 months - a year) he improved greatly. Now he is at the point where we don’t need the aloe. They say aloe is not curative for ulcers, but it does soothe the system. I do believe that. I think it gave him time for his system to settle down from whatever ailed it.

He’s a nervous, pleaser type and I think he was getting himself worked up trying to be “good.” And honestly, he was a VERY nicely behaved boy from day one. Might this be a bit of your pony’s issue? Time and routine may help.

[Marla_100]

Have you switched out the coastal? I’d try that but still give his normal amount of hay overall. Not all horses do well on coastal and some vets are highly against feeding it. One of mine hates it and says it causes too many colics.

[Moogles]

@blob99

…Given that nothing in particular has had a recent change, I’m not sure what the source of his farts are…

Not to poke fun, but I chuckled at this line thinking of my husband lol.

[blob99]

I have not tried him off the coastal, though he has been on coastal without problem (or a single colic, knock on wood) for several years. Then again since nothing new has been added, it’s likely something he’s had for awhile is no longer working well for him.

I will look into the gas-x and the aloe vera juice.

[Taken]

Equishure might be worth a try if you think it could be the grass. I have a horse with a sensitive hindgut that tends to get a bit bloated on omeprazole. It makes the hindgut work harder to break down food since there isn’t as much acid in the stomach, so makes sense. Could you try dropping that and just stay on sucralfate? Otherwise, Gas X tablets are a good idea (they make peppermint ones at CVS).
More food for thought–my ulcer-prone sensitive creature is MUCH less gassy and more likely to be ulcer-free on 24hr turnout since it keeps him moving all the time… but he also prefers the semi-feral lifestyle.

[blob99]

@Taken

Equishure might be worth a try if you think it could be the grass. I have a horse with a sensitive hindgut that tends to get a bit bloated on omeprazole. It makes the hindgut work harder to break down food since there isn’t as much acid in the stomach, so makes sense. Could you try dropping that and just stay on sucralfate? Otherwise, Gas X tablets are a good idea (they make peppermint ones at CVS).
More food for thought–my ulcer-prone sensitive creature is MUCH less gassy and more likely to be ulcer-free on 24hr turnout since it keeps him moving all the time… but he also prefers the semi-feral lifestyle.

I tried equishure in the past and he reacted VERY badly to it. Within a few days of it he became very bloated, irritable, and had liquid poops. After I took him off he was back to normal. Ritetrac was the same (obviously).

I tried dropping the omneprozle and the sucralfate each independently and the gas was still there.

[blob99]

tried him with gas-x, which he happily gobbled up out of my hand. It didn’t seem to make much difference. He passed small bits of manure 6 times and farted on 17 different occasions before I stopped counting. This was over the course of 45 minutes.

I’m starting to wonder if there is something in his pasture that he’s getting into. I’ll have to take a walk through.

[Wanderosa]

Weird. Sounds like his gut is revving too fast. is it possible that something, be it food or drug, is functioning as a stimulant? Like coffee makes people poop? Or does something he’s eating have a lot of protein? High protein foods like suppliment shakes can cause people to have gas. Wonder if horses can be the same way?

[Dutchmare433]

My horse had similar symptoms when he has hind gut ulcers. We treated with misoprostol, platinum balance, and we removed long stem forage for 30 days and gradually reintroduced it over a 6 week period.

I wouldn’t go removing the hay without vet input, but maybe ask about the misoprostol.

[blob99]

@Wanderosa

Weird. Sounds like his gut is revving too fast. is it possible that something, be it food or drug, is functioning as a stimulant? Like coffee makes people poop? Or does something he’s eating have a lot of protein? High protein foods like suppliment shakes can cause people to have gas. Wonder if horses can be the same way?

The highest protein element in his diet is probably the alfalfa, but he’s not on a ton of it and has been on it for some time. I also tried him without for about half a week when this first started because I thought a recent shipment of new hay (same distributor, but still) might be the culprit. But removing the alfalfa seemed to make no difference.

@Dutchmare433 he’s been treated for hindgut ulcers with sucralfate and is still on a maintenance dose.

[joiedevie99]

Ditto the hind gut ulcers. And just because he was treated for it before doesn’t mean he’s clean now. Sucralfate alone isn’t enough for some of them. Sucralfate, misoprostol, and no long-stem forage might do the trick.

[Dutchmare433]

@joiedevie99

Ditto the hind gut ulcers. And just because he was treated for it before doesn’t mean he’s clean now. Sucralfate alone isn’t enough for some of them. Sucralfate, misoprostol, and no long-stem forage might do the trick.

This was what we did for my guy. Though looking at your location, either we use the same vet or we talked about it on here.

My horse went from absolutely refusing to move under saddle—just planting his feet and grinding his teeth, to maybe 50% better with the miso. To fully back to normal once we took away the long stem forage.

[Lieslot]

I could have written your post. I have a similar problem, except not sure he’s actually passing gas, but he constantly stops and lifts his tail, only under saddle, not in stall or turnout. He poops the entire ride, so he empties himself as much as he can. Something is bothering him, no clue what.
I had him scoped, he had pyloric & duodenal ulcers and tested positive for hindgut ulcers. Treated him 6 weeks with miso, sulcra, glutamine & boulardii as per clinic’s instructions. Re-scoped all clean, and negative for hindgut ulcers, yet his behavior under saddle has not changed at all.
So where to go from there, I don’t know.
Vet cannot see any lameness issue, however personally I wonder about SI pain by which maybe lifting his taill & passing manure releases some kind of tightness in the area.
Funny thing, once he poops, he works really well and is a pleasant ride for about 10 mins, then we have to work thru the pooping thing again before we have another 10 mins of pleasant work.
I asked the int.med specialist about tumors etc, they ultrasounded what they could and told me it’s highly unlikely.

He’s off meds, maintained on Outlast, glutamine & boulardii.

He’s on a soft western timothy mixed with soft orchard. Next month I should have 2nd cutting grass available, so he’ll go back on that. But previous he was on soft 2nd cut grass and that made no difference either.
He gets Nutrena Senior and Fibre Beet as well as soaked alfalfa pellets.

I have no clue what we are missing, but it’s frustrating both for him and myself.

[Fharoah]

I know a mare whom tested allergic to orchard grass but was not allergic to Timothy or alfalfa. Wonder if allergy testing could help.

[blob99]

@Lieslot

I could have written your post. I have a similar problem, except not sure he’s actually passing gas, but he constantly stops and lifts his tail, only under saddle, not in stall or turnout. He poops the entire ride, so he empties himself as much as he can. Something is bothering him, no clue what.
I had him scoped, he had pyloric & duodenal ulcers and tested positive for hindgut ulcers. Treated him 6 weeks with miso, sulcra, glutamine & boulardii as per clinic’s instructions. Re-scoped all clean, and negative for hindgut ulcers, yet his behavior under saddle has not changed at all.
So where to go from there, I don’t know.
Vet cannot see any lameness issue, however personally I wonder about SI pain by which maybe lifting his taill & passing manure releases some kind of tightness in the area.
Funny thing, once he poops, he works really well and is a pleasant ride for about 10 mins, then we have to work thru the pooping thing again before we have another 10 mins of pleasant work.
I asked the int.med specialist about tumors etc, they ultrasounded what they could and told me it’s highly unlikely.

He’s off meds, maintained on Outlast, glutamine & boulardii.

He’s on a soft western timothy mixed with soft orchard. Next month I should have 2nd cutting grass available, so he’ll go back on that. But previous he was on soft 2nd cut grass and that made no difference either.
He gets Nutrena Senior and Fibre Beet as well as soaked alfalfa pellets.

I have no clue what we are missing, but it’s frustrating both for him and myself.

ugh yes, this is very similar to my situation. the 10 minutes of good work and then pooping/farting strangeness mess and then back to good work is especially similar and telling.

BUT I was coming back to share that there’s been a noticeable improvement the last few days and a few variables at play. I had slowly removed everything he eats one by one and right now he is off both his sucralfate and magnesium supplement and the gas issue is nearly 80% resolved. So, it seems likely one of those (or the combination of those with each other or something else) is the issue. I’m going to keep him as is for awhile and then add one back to see if I can’t nail down specifically the issue.

[kpony]

Watching with interest.