11/6/14

Ulcers, Ulcers, Ulcers.

Shalom has the ulcers. I, however, may get some before the week is over. Gah, stresssss.

 We've stalled Shalom since his little surgery, vet's orders. He is not a happy camper in the stall at all whatsoever, so poor Red gets to be his buddy in the stall next to him. Red says, "Geeze, I'm the good one, why am I always punished for being good?" and Shalom says, "Whateva whateva imma bite people"

Yes, our dear, sweet Shalom has lunged out to bite us about 3 times now. Just randomly. His ear pinning is back, too. Yay. Mom went to check on him this morning and instead of going the typical firm, "I'm angry at you!" route when he pinned ears, she just talked calmly and talked him down and he finally fell asleep while she groomed him. She came in today and told me that she's 99% sure that it's his ulcers. We've been giving him supplements for ulcers but didn't read the label well enough (stupid stupid stupid) so he actually could have two more doses than we're giving him. He's supposed to get two scoops, but he was getting one. :P He's always had an issue with ulcers and she felt around his gut and thinks that's his main problem right now. He's super stressed out in the stall but it's the only option right now because we only have one pasture ready and he can't be turned out with horses because they'll rip the drain out.

So what are we doing today? Fencing in another pasture so he can have a nice place and not be, ya know, evil and freaked out.

The things we do for horses.

His back is healing really nicely, though. He let her clean it again this morning once he settled down and apparently did really well once he wasn't so scared. He's very tense in the stall. Mom let Red out for a few minutes in the round pen while she mucked out his stall and apparently he galloped and bucked around like a frisky colt. (Thank youuuu for not doing that under saddle, Red.)

Shalom is very protective over his stomach area right now, just like he was when we first got him and the vet said he was having ulcer issues. Lovely. If anyone has tips or info on ulcers, comment please because we could use some ideas.

He's lucky he's so cute.

Red decided to kill his forelock with burs.


9 comments:

  1. Sounds like Shalom is really feeling under the weather. As always, when malnourished horses get plumper/bright-eyed, they will try and test boundaries more and more because they simply have the ability to argue back, whereas before they were too tired to get up to any mischief!

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  2. I have a ulcer prone performance horse. I have to keep her on a maintenance dose of Omprezole and shes been treated twice for gastric and once for hind gut. Look at abler.com its so much cheaper then getting ugard et al. This is a subject i know a lot about feel free to email me if you want :) (myexracer@gmail.com) happy to share the knowledge.

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  3. What supplements are you giving him? It's my understanding that a supplement can address symptoms but not actually help an ulcer to heal. For that, you need full-on medicate like Gastroguard. It can be very pricey, unfortunately. :( You might see a short-term improvement with a supplement but you won't see them fixed for good.

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  4. I've heard good things about Neighlox AFTER you've "cured" the ulcers. It helps with the final stages as well as future digestion issues and as a preventative.

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  5. Get thee some U Gard - STAT! Add pro biotics - Equine Choice. Hay 24/7. Can he go out and the other horses come in? If he is stressed that is not going to help the ulcers at all.

    Also, not sure if Red is turned out in that halter, if he is just be careful, rope halters are extremely dangerous for turn out.

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    1. He's on U-Gard right now! Right now he's just in the stall and we walk him regularly, Red is in the stall next to him which has calmed him majorly.

      He's only out in it when I'm out there and normally I take it right off even if I leave, but my mom was down there and I forgot my lead rope so I walked back up. :) I hate rope halters but they're good for quick tying, haha!

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  6. Alfalfa and aloe vera juice are both great for soothing tummies, but I don't think they will cure ulcers. They help prevent them. Aloe helps with reflux in humans. :) I hope he feels better soon. Ulcers are no fun at all. I'm glad his withers are healing up!

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    1. Thank you!! I knew about aloe vera but didn't know about alfalfa.

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  7. Ulcers. UGH! They are the worst! We treated Georgous for ulcers shortly after we got him. He was majorly showing signs of having ulcers so we decided to just bite the bullet and give him the 28 day round of Gastrogard. It's not fun to pay for, ( almost cried when I paid for it I mean I was spending all that money on a free horse...) but it's the only FDA approved medication that heals ulcers and not just makes them feel better. If I had an ulcer I would want it treated, healed and done with.. and not just take something every day to mask the pain. When Gorgeous went to the trainer we gave him a Ulcergard a few days before he left and the trainer gave him a few doses when he first got there. Just as a preventative. But at the end of the day... it is expensive so I understand exercising other options first is always better than not doing anything at all!!
    We've also started using slow feeder hay nets with the horses. It keeps the horses busy. They can't just stuff their faces and be done with their hay, they need to work a little harder at getting it. It's the next best thing to grazing in a pasture all day long. As you know, horses were designed to continually graze all day long, so giving them small little meals just doesn't cut it for them. They need a buffer in their stomach to keep the acid from doing yucky things to it. We have small hay nets for when we travel and a great big one for the round bales. (The small ones were like $5 online and have nice small holes so the hay doesn't blow around in the trailer!) The nets also really help cut down herd aggression. They can't be awful to each other because they are too busy eating. ALSO it puts weight on the skinny horses and keeps weight of the fat horses! Bonus!

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