Renee Tcker, DVM

Renee Tucker, DVM

Equine Health Solutions, PC

Equine Veterinarian for 16 years

Certified in Equine Acupuncture

& Chiropractic Care

Where does my horse hurt?amazon book
  • Body Checkups for the entire horse
  • Easy, step-by-step directions
  • Full-color photos and illustrations

Horses with ulcers

Ulcers in horses. Ugh. Ulcers are far, far too prevalent in horses. Research data shows anywhere from 50-90% of horses have ulcers. Why do so many horses have ulcers??

Listed below we will talk about:

  1. The causes of ulcers in horses
  2. The REAL cause of horse ulcers
  3. How you can know if your horse has ulcers (symptoms & more)
  4. Options for treatment of horse ulcers
  5. Prevention of horse ulcers


Causes of ulcers in horses

 

The cause of ulcers in horses is multifactorial. The tendency to develop ulcers also varies with breed, age, and personality type. In addition, horses that have had ulcers in the past have more of a tendency to develop ulcers again in the future.

Here is the short list of horse ulcer causes:

  1. Stress
    1. Training stress (too much, too little, too confusing, too punishing)
    2. Housing stress (stalled too much, stressful barn, too noisy)
    3. Environment stress (other horses bossing too much, fights over food)
    4. People stress (owner under stress and horse senses it, trainer too demanding, all owners in barn under stress from show pressure or other)
    5. Food stress (too much, too little, too much grain, too long in between feedings)
  2. Medications such as corticosteroids or bute
  3. Pain from elsewhere in the body
  4. Nutrition
    1. Food (too much or too little)
    2. Vitamins and minerals (too little or the wrong kind)
  5. Overvaccinating

 The REAL cause of horse ulcers

Whenever there is a really long list of possible causes for a disease, and there are horses that have NONE of the possible causes (and never have) but still have that disease, then something is unknown.

While all of the above causes of ulcers are correct, that list is incomplete. The real cause of many horse ulcers is the encephalitis vaccines. There are side effects to every vaccine. Ulcers is one of the side effects to the encephalitis vaccines (Eastern, Western, Venezuelan, and West Nile Virus). While these diseases can be deadly, almost all horses are overvaccinated for these vaccines. Very healthy horses will be able to heal the ulcers that the vaccines create. The rest will not.

 

How can you know if your horse has ulcers?

There’s a few ways you can tell. Look for symptoms of ulcers, check for “stress lines”, try a peppermint tea trial, sucrose urine test, and scoping the horse’s stomach.

First, the typical symptoms of  horse ulcers are:

  • Poor appetite
  • Weight loss and poor body condition
  • Mild colic
  • Poor performance
  • Lying down more than usual
  • Mental dullness or attitude changes
  • Poor hair coat
  • Teeth grinding
  • Eating slowly, including walking away from food and returning
  • Picky appetite
These typical symptoms, however, are usually only seen when a horse has bad ulcers. “Bad” meaning that there is quite a bit of inflammation and bleeding. At this point, you may also notice that the horse’s feces is quite dark, almost appearing black. This is due to the blood from the ulcers being digested and coming out in the feces.

If your horse has these types of symptoms, call your veterinarian. Gastric ulcers at this “bad” point can be life-threatening.

 

Early symptoms of potential ulcers in horses include:

  •  Just looks and acts “stressed”
  • Girthy
  • Loss of “spirit”
  • Seems uncomfortable at times
  • “Stress lines” (see below)

 “Stress Lines”

Second, look closely at the skin around your horse’s eyes. Look for (what I call) “stress lines”.  Horses normally have a few skin wrinkles around their eyes. But look closely. If your horse has an extra line under his lower eyelid, that can indicate stress. This “stress line” is not necessarily indicating that he has ulcers, but it is definitely a sign of stress of some kind.
It can be difficult to discern what stress lines are until you have seen a few.  Find several horses to check and you will most likely find one or two with stress lines. It’s just an extra skin wrinkle (or 2 or 3) below where the eye wrinkles would normally be located.

 

 

Peppermint tea trial

Third, try a peppermint tea trial.

Simply give some peppermint tea to your horse and see what happens. Just get regular peppermint tea (herbal, no caffeine) in a teabag. Cut open the teabag, and pour the peppermint tea into your horse’s feed once per day for two weeks. You do not need to boil the tea first. This is a very low dose and completely non-harmful.

If your horse does not want to eat it, do NOT force feed it. Horses know what they need, and if your horse says, “No, thank you” to the peppermint tea, then respect his decision.

Many people see changes in their horse when he is taking the peppermint tea. You may see changes such as calmness, a more peaceful eye, decrease in stress lines, and eating better. You may see this within 3 days, or towards the end of the two week trial.

If you see these kinds of changes, however minimal, the changes are your clue that your horse is indeed having trouble with ulcers. Peppermint tea will not CURE your horse, but it will help most horses with ulcers. You can leave your horse on the peppermint tea indefinitely. Or you can choose any of the treatments below.

There is literature that states that peppermint tea is not good for humans with ulcers. I have never found this dosage to have a negative effect on any horse.

Please note that peppermint will “test” and the horse should be off of peppermint for five days prior to showing.

There are many good herbal treatments for horses with ulcers. Recommendations include chamomile, nutmeg root, slippery elm, licorice, comfrey, and apple cider vineger. As I am not an herbalist, I leave it to you to find an herbal regimen for your horse, if that is what you desire.

 

Sucrose test

Fourth, try a sucrose test. This is a human test for ulcers that may work in horses. I haven’t seen any data that talks about how well this works yet, but it’s worth a chat with your local veterinarian.

Sucrose is not metabolized by the horse, so any sucrose found in urine can presumably only get to the urine if the horse has ulcers, or “leaks” from the GI (gastrointestinal) tract.

 

Scope your horse’s stomach

Fifth, getting your horse’s stomach scoped (endoscoped) is a good option.  However, your horse must fast for 24 hours to make sure that no food remains in the stomach during the procedure.

Also remember that the scope can only get as far as the stomach. There may be intestinal irritation all along the entire GI tract, including the cecum. These are not found during the scoping.

So while scoping is helpful if you can find something, it does have its drawbacks. Therefore, most ulcers are diagnosed with symptoms and response to treatment.

 

Options for horse ulcer treatment

You can choose either traditional treatments or alternative treatments for horses with ulcers.

Traditional treatments include medications that have varying methods of decreasing acid production and helping the stomach (and GI tract) heal. There are many web pages out there filled with information about these types of treatments. Here are a few:


Alternative treatments consist of herbal remedies (as discussed above), homeopathic remedies, acupuncture, and probably more I’m unfamiliar with.

Either road you take, traditional or herbal, remember to add probiotics to help your horses GI tract. Also, to completely resolve the ulcers and keep them from coming back, you will need to address the encephalitis vaccine problem. Consult your local naturopath, homeopath, or other alternative practitioner for more information on that.

Prevention of horse ulcers

If you’ve read this far, you probably already know what to do to prevent horse ulcers. That includes:

  • avoiding the list of “stresses” that can cause ulcers in horses (listed above);
  • avoid medications, especially Bute (phenylbutazone) and cortisones (which are in joint injections and allergy medications);
  • Be sure your horse is not in physical pain elsewhere in the body. This means you will need good bodyworkers (chiropractor, massage, structural integration, etc.) to check your horse periodically.
  • Avoid encephalitis vaccines. If your horse has been given them, or has to have them, be sure and “clear” them back out using homeopathic remedies (or any other way you discover). Consult your local homeopath for more information.
Best of luck!