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Treating & Preventing Gut Ulcers in Horses Naturally

Published on Thursday, January 21, 2016 in Health

By: © Victoria Ferguson Dip.Herb.Med.

Modern methods of horse keeping and feeding is the reason why a significant proportion of the performance horse population suffers from gut ulceration. Until recently it was thought to be mainly confined to racehorses but now many equestrian horses are also falling victim to this debilitating condition.  

It is natural for a horse to graze almost continuously, for more than 50% of a 24 hour period.  The horse whose mechanism survival is flight, does not need to carry a large amount of food in it’s stomach, obviously that would impede it’s speed.  So equines have quite a small stomach designed to take continuous, but small amounts of feed. Their liver secretes bile continuously into the stomach, the partially digested food then passes to the small intestine and eventually to the large intestine (aka the hind gut)  where the digestion process is completed. This is why the horse does not have a gall bladder, the storage organ for bile, as we do.

So as can be seen from the simplified anatomy & physiology lesson above, bile being secreted into a stomach which is devoid of recently chewed food, is a cause of gut ulcers.

Although the horse by it’s dentition is classified as a grazing animal, it’s genetic influence passed down from the days when it was a tapir like creature which browsed on leaves, shoots, herbs, woody stems, flowers & twigs, still likes to partake from this wide array of food items. 

So if one considers that most “performance” horses are locked away from grazing for most of their working life, with only very short spells, it is perfectly obvious why gut ulceration has reached epidemic proportions. I have put the word “performance” in inverted comas, because by doing this, their “performance” will inevitably be severely compromised. Even horses which are regularly spelled, like racehorses, often do not have access to grazing during their spells.  

Demands of competition and travel also stress horses and trigger gut ulceration.

PREVENT ULCERS BY FEEDING PLENTY OF ROUGHAGE

It is very difficult to provide good grazing for horses in this day & age, drought & urban sprawl, being two factors. So the next best thing is to feed a lot of hay. Access to hay should be continuous if there is nil or very poor grazing.

It depends where you live what sort of hay you can access, in WA & SA oaten hay is the staple, whereas in Tasmania & Victoria, pasture hay is readily available, in NSW lucerne is the hay of choice and in Qld, lucerne, Rhodes grass and barley hay is available. In the Territory Rhodes grass and a lot of other tropical grass hays are made. It is a matter of getting a balance between the rough whites & rich greens when it comes to feeding roughage – that is hay & chaff.

Despite vets for many years now, having made it very clear that diets must be based on a high proportion of hay & chaff to prevent gut ulceration, this is often ignored.  

The lure of pre-mixed feeds & pellets, which are quick & easy to feed is generally popular, and this is the next big problem when it comes to gut ulcers. The vast majority of manufacturers of these feeds recommend feeding a proportionately higher percentage of chaffs and hays with their feeds, but unfortunately their advice is often not followed.  I feel sure if adequate roughage was fed in conjunction with these feeds, many problems would be averted.  Nevertheless I always recommend a completely natural diet to heal ulcers and provide ongoing prevention.

With horses that do have grazing it is important to get a good idea of the nutritional value, or otherwise, and adjust hay feeding levels accordingly.

And in those lucky times when there is really good grass about, nothing beats a good spell in the paddock doing nothing much but eating and being a horse.

 TREATING ULCERS USING HERBS

I have been treating ulcers successfully in all types of horses now for many years and it is essential that the horse in question is fed a natural diet during treatment & for maintenance in the future.   If it is treated then put back on a low roughage, high percentage processed feed diet, the ulcers will return.  Herbs can be given concurrently with this kind of diet, but it won’t work nearly as well as the combination of natural diet and therapeutic herbal treatment using medicinal liquid extracts.  These are necessary for treating horses with ulcers as they are syringed orally and start to be absorbed in the mouth, some go straight to the portal vein circulation to the liver, so they don’t all go through the gastro-intestinal tract, whose absorption is compromised with gut ulceration.

 Not all horses with ulcers exhibit the same symptoms, so the symptoms help me in deciding which herbs to prescribe.

 For example Marshmallow is a nutritious, healing and demulcent herb which is particularly applicable to horses with loose manure.  If the horse has very hard or dry manure I would use Liquorice extract instead. 

Horses with ulcers inevitably have a poor appetite so even when you give them natural  feed, they need a helping hand in the form of appetite stimulants such as Peppermint and Fenugreek.. 

The liver also needs detoxification and there are many liver herbs to choose from, Dandelion root being the most gentle and applicable for many horses.  St Marys Thistle is called for where a horse has been subjected to a continuing regime of performance enhancing drugs, such as steroids.

Nervine herbs are also part of treatment, as these horses show a lot of unhappy, nervy behaviour due to the fact that they are in pain, Chamomile is one of the best.

For pain relief Meadowsweet heads the list, it is absolutely specific for treatment of gut ulceration. 

Some horses with ulcers are also poor drinkers, so herbs to balance hydration must be used for them.  Aloe Vera Juice is excellent for this and also helps heal the gut, human grade top quality all natural product must be used, as the cheap ones have chemicals added & are therefore not natural.

So it’s not just a matter of chucking a few herbs in the feed, the herbs must be chosen carefully for the individual horse concerned, dosage and form of herbs are also critical and the horse must be monitored during the course of treatment so that any necessary changes can be made.  The initial course of treatment is usually 3 months (one full blood cycle).  However owners and trainers must realise that ulcers return very quickly if prevention is not maintained.

And remember a horse is a herbivore which according to the Oxford dictionary means herb eating!  Horses and other herbivores have always used herbs to self medicate and it was humans observing this behaviour centuries ago, which led to the use of herbs as medicine as well as food.

Thank you to Victoria Ferguson Equine Herbalist for this informative article. Visit Victoria's website for more information here www.victoriaferguson.com.au

 

   


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