Nutrition for Horses With Ulcers

Significance

• It is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of stalled performance and show horses have ulcers. Ulcers are small sores in the walls of the stomach and the digestive tract, formed by overactive acids and the breakdown of the mucosa that coat and protect the gut walls. Ulcers are painful, especially when digesting food, and if they become severe enough, can become life threatening. When a horse develops an ulcer, there is often no sign of it until the condition becomes advanced, so it is best to treat a symptomless horse for it if the conditions are favorable for ulcer formation. A horse with advanced ulcer disease will go off their feed, have a thin, unhealthy appearance, and be irritable, crabby, and unhappy. They may also develop diarrhea and colic.

Effects

• Ulcers affect horses much like they do humans. They cause stomach upset, poor digestion, irritable bowels, diarrhea, and unpleasant attitudes. Feed is not processed well, and nutrition suffers. If the condition worsens, internal bleeding can occur, and a steady worsening of the ulcer can cause a perforated stomach. This can lead to abdominal infection and death. In most horses, ulcers do not get this advanced, but instead cost the horse in performance and overall health. They can also cause the horse to colic regularly, albeit in most cases mildly.

Prevention/Solution

• Ulcers can be prevented by allowing a horse to live more naturally than they do when stalled. Allowing them to have free exercise is a huge key to their health. Keeping them boxed up and not allowed to move around makes all their nervous energy turn inwards. Horses are grazing animals and are meant to eat and move steadily during the day. Keeping forage available for them all the time will go a long way to preventing ulcers from developing, and healing them once they are there. Do not give them stemmy forage such as alfalfa, unless it is very leafy--this only exacerbates their ulcer issues. Feed a low protein, fine stemmed coastal hay.

Acute Treatment

• When the horse has been diagnosed with ulcers that are having an immediate effect on its health, it will be necessary to treat it with medications prescribed by your veterinarian. While your horse is in this critical stage, you can help it by feeding it easy to digest foods that will not irritate its digestive tract. The best food for this are senior horse feeds, soaked in a bit of warm water to make then softer. Another good choice is extruded horse feeds. These have been pre-cooked and are easy to digest, with no stems or hulls or other difficult pieces to pass through the gut. They are expensive, but well worth the extra expense as they help your horse to heal faster.

Continued Care

• A horse with a history of ulcers needs a high fat, low protein diet rich in easy to digest roughage that is available to them all the time. A senior horse feed is ideal, and a constant supply of thin-stemmed, easily chewed coastal hay is a must. Avoid high protein concentrates. Leafy alfalfa is a good choice, as the calcium in the alfalfa counteracts the acid in the stomach. The main thing is to allow the horse exercise and constant forage. By keeping something in the digestive tract at all times, as nature intended, the horse's stomach juices have something to break down besides the walls of the gut.