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An owner's story
Joe
is a seven year old KWPN
cross gelding belonging to
Barbie Clarkson from Hexham,
a client of Scott Mitchell
Associates. He had been
successfully eventing in the
2011 season at BE100 level.
In January 2012 Joe began preparation for
the coming season. At this time he was
jumping well as usual but had begun to
show a bit of uncharacteristic grumpiness
in the stable.
Despite being fed on conditioning feed
at full rate plus haylage over the winter he
had failed to put on any weight and his
coat looked a bit woolly. His workload
was increased with the aim of having him
ready to event at the end of March. We
took part in a number of jumping and
dressage competitions over the course
of ten days which involved quite a lot
of travel.
Joe was then given a couple of days off,
but on returning to work he objected in a
very uncharacteristic way. He was happy
to walk but as soon as I asked him for an
upward transition he objected violently; he
planted himself and kicked out.
I persevered with the nappy bad behaviour
thinking he was just being naughty but
it got worse and eventually he refused
even to walk out. An ACPAT registered
physiotherapist checked his back etc. and
found nothing wrong. His saddles were
checked but all was fine there too. So
there was nothing obviously wrong and
he wasn't unsound.
I then saw an article in Scott Mitchell
Associates’ equine newsletter about gastric
ulcers. It referred me to a website
(www.equinegastriculcers.co.uk) which had
a questionnaire on which I entered Joe's
information. The results said to refer his
case to my vet as he was at high risk of
having ulcers.
I didn't really believe it other than reading
other horse owners' feedback about bad
behaviour in their horses and that sounded
very like Joe. Basically, nothing veterinary -
simply bad attitude from a horse which
had always been easy to ride and who
always enjoyed his work. I discussed this
with my vet Colin Mitchell who arranged
to perform a gastroscopy examination of
Joe's stomach.
Joe was diagnosed with multiple ulcers
and given a course of GastroGard
®
(omeprazole), a fibre and oil diet and
fibre fed 20 minutes prior to exercise was
recommended. At re-scoping 6 weeks later,
although his appetite had improved and
he had gained weight, the ulcers had still
not healed and it was suspected that the
lesions had become infected. The
GastroGard
®
was continued along with
an antibiotic, and Joe was re-scoped 4
weeks later. The ulcers had healed well
and we were advised to reduce the
GastroGard
®
to 1/4 tube daily, a
prevention dose, feed an antacid
supplement, continue feeding forage
prior to exercise, and work normally.
He came back into work in August
after treatment.
He has gained weight, looks well and
has bags of energy. He's a clever, big
moving horse and sometimes has a rather
opinionated attitude but the nappiness and
pain have gone, he is back to his normal
self and hopefully ready to compete and
move up to BE Novice level this year.
Having gastric ulcers cost us a year of
competing, which is a shame, but at least
we didn't have to run on wet ground
risking injury elsewhere.
SPRING 2013 ISSUE
EQUINE MATTERS
10
GASTRIC ULCERS
Barbie Clarkson eventing Joe successfully
in 2011
Joe’s stomach had multiple areas of
ulceration
Following treatment the ulceration had
completely healed