Stomach ulcers in foals
According to research 25 to 50% of the foals under the age of 3 months have stomach ulcers. The stomach of a young foal (since the age of 10 days old) has to adjust to a change in food, from pure milk to solid food. In this sensitive period ulcers forme very easily, but they heal most of the time automatically. Other reasons for stomach ulcers in foals are:
- Stress. Because of stress the production of ulcer protective matter will decrease.
- Disease. Foals that are ill do not eat well and so the gastric contents get more acid. In addition are disease and pain stressful for a foal.
- Medication. Certain medicine can lead to stomach ulcers.
- Weaning. Removing the mother gives stress, resulting that the foal doens't eat well. Or it eats concentrates, but not enough roughage. Concentrates stay longer in the stomach because the foal doesn't swallow it with a lot of saliva. Because concentrates forme a firmer mush in the stumach, it doesn't mix so well with gastric juice so that the gastric juice stays longer in touch with the stomach wall. In addition the concentrates produce fatty acids that make the gastric contents more acid. Therefor it's important to not give more than 0,5 kg per 100 kg of body weight per meal.
Stomach ulcers in adult animals
Here as well stress is an important factor. This can be stress as a result of diseases or surgery. But also transport, ranking conflicts and overtraining can have great concequences for the stomach wall. A lot of horses have a nurture with a disturbed rate of concentrate and roughage. We especially see this with trotters and racehorses in training. Studies show that 60 to 90% of these horses have stomach ulcers. Also adult horses that, for whatever reason, don't eat, have an increased chance for ulcers. Medicine (particularly pain killers) can, if they've been given for a long time and in high dosises, lead to stumach ulcers.
Common complaints are:
Dry fur, apathetic, moderate appetite, light colic after eating, gnashing, changing stool.
If the ulcers are very big and very deep they could eventually lead to bad colic. Especially with foals they can expand to the first part of the small intestine. Eventually this can lead to a rupture of the stomach with an acute death as a result. However, we also see a lot of horses with stomach ulcers that don't seem to have any discomfort because of this. The only reliable way of telling that a horse has a stomach ulcer, is to look in the stomach through a 3 metre long endoscope. The horse can't eat for 12 hours before this so that the stomach is empty. The horse gets slightly anaesthetized and the endoscope gets inserted through the nose into the stomach and sometimes in the first part of the small intestine. By blowing air into the stomach you can take a look at the stomach wall on a monitor. We have such an endoscope so that we can diagnose in an early stage and if necessary take action. The therapie consists out of a combination of medicine (antacids) and change of food, sometimes completed with stomach wall protective supplements. Because of this the stomach ulcers can heal completely and also this can be checked very easily with an endoscope
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