🥕Let's talk about enrichment 🥕
Put simply - this is any activity or item that encourages your horse to display their natural behaviours. This is super important for a good quality of life and can help manage behaviours caused by stress (ie windsucking) and this in turn can help reduce the possibility of ulcers.
Below are a few fairly easy ideas for you to easily incorporate into your horse's routine - give them a go and let me know if your horse has a favourite!
🍯 Smear boards - these relieve boredom and encourage relaxation. Experiment with different flavours like honey, unsweetened apple sauce, natural peanut butter (no added sweeteners) or garlic.
🍎 Apple bob - place some large chunks of apple in a bucket of water. Also good to encourage water intake if your horse doesn't drink much!
🧸 Toy box - use dog toys in a large bucket and scatter tasty treats amongst them. This enables natural food-seeking behaviour.
🛢 Bin lid - make some holes in a bin lid and hang in the stable, with foods such as celery, carrots and tufts of hay in it. This encourages natural foraging patterns.
🌾 Hay ball - these cost around £40 (Charlie's, Amazon etc) but are very hardwearing. They provide more challenging feeding than just eating hay from a hay bar for example. In the video, the horse has access to exactly the same hay in a manger as well as in her hay ball - and she is choosing to eat from the ball first!
🏀 Hanging toys - stuff soft rubber dog toys with hay and/or treats and hang around the stable. Choose the more durable dog toys!
Of course it goes without saying that these activities should be done supervised and with your horses individual needs and safety in mind.
https://enrichingequines.com has some brilliant ideas and explanations.
Thank you to Jen and Magic, and Megan, Zara and Champ for the videos.
Post your enrichment ideas/videos in the comments!
What does the scope procedure actually involve?
If you have never seen one done before, having your horse scoped can seem like a really daunting prospect. The fact is, it's a relatively quick and simple procedure, with the advantage of having instant answers.
This video is of course sped up, but in real time it lasts just under 11 minutes. This is a step by step of how the scope is done, shown by lovely horse Champ.
1) Champ was sedated before the video starts, as you can see he is nice and relaxed but not totally out of it
2) A tube is passed down the nostril and into the oesophagus (this is the worst bit for the horse - it doesn't hurt but the very first bit tickles!)
3) The scope is passed down the tube and into the stomach
4) Air is pumped into the stomach so we can see all areas (I use this opportunity to look at Champ's first scope images to refresh our minds)
5) The camera is passed and guided around the whole stomach, and images or videos are taken as we go (we can see direct side by side comparisons with the first scope images)
6) Water can be pumped down the scope to wash off any bits of food or mucus covering the stomach lining
7) After we have seen all of Champ's stomach, the air is sucked back out to avoid him feeling uncomfortable or bloated
8) The scope is removed
9) The tube is removed (occasionally nosebleeds can happen here)
10) Champ was starting to come round from his sedation as we were finishing, and so he was able to eat about 10 minutes later!
Champ was a superstar to be scoped, but most horses do tolerate it amazingly well and once the tube is passed, they are settled throughout the whole procedure.
Thank you to Champ and his owner for allowing me to film and post this!
Case Study - Seamus
I will try and keep this post as short as possible, but I felt it was important to share an example of a more complicated ulcer story. Please note I can't talk about specific medications on Facebook, but am happy to discuss the treatment options over the phone or text.
Most ulcer cases are straightforward, requiring 2 or maybe 3 scopes. Seamus is the first horse who I've done 5 scopes on!
He had a history of roughly 12 months of various health issues like sinusitis and hives, which had been treated and were resolved. His owner wanted him scoped because of new and extreme spooky behaviour, both ridden and on the ground.
His first scope was in May, where we found significant squamous and glandular ulcers, so we started treatment and altered his management and diet slightly.
July was his second scope, there was good improvement in the glandular ulcers but little improvement in the squamous ones. I did an examination of his back and limbs (including trotting him up) to rule out lameness or back pain as a cause. We switched treatment at this point.
August - 3rd scope - again, the squamous ulcers were no better. We decided to take him off all the acid suppressing medication, in case that was having a negative impact (he had also been on this for a number of months so I felt it was time to have a break to let his gut flora recover). He was on numerous supplements designed to promote a healthy tummy and support the gut bacteria.
October - 4th scope - squamous ulcers were the worst they had been across all scopes. One in particular was very deep and concerning me. This was an emotional low point for Seamus' owner and myself, as nothing seemed to be working! He was also showing aggressive behaviour towards his owner which was not like him. At this point we stripped his diet right back to basics, and tried yet another type of treatment and supplement. He was also put on Nutracalm, although he didn't show outward signs of stress we were concerned he was
🐴 What to feed your ulcer horse? 🐴
As part of my consultation, after the scope I tend to look in depth at what that horse is being fed, as this impacts ulcers in a massive way. There are so many feeds claiming to be good for horses with ulcers but what are the basics?
The most important thing to remember for all ulcer horses is LOW SUGAR, LOW STARCH. Look on the back of your feed bags to see the % sugar and starch. Often feed companies don’t put the % sugar on, in which case it is normally on their websites. This is so so important because sugar and starch increase acid production which aggravate or even cause ulcers.
The above does not mean you have to feed low calorie feeds- if your horse is lean and needs to gain weight, get the calories from fats and oils. Linseed and corn oil are my personal favourites. Good quality protein in moderate levels can help maintain energy and muscle tone too.
Another way we can help improve ulcers by feeding is to encourage chewing. The more a horse chews, the more saliva is produced which contains bicarbonate, which helps to neutralise the acid in the stomach. Something like chopped alfalfa (unmolassed) is perfect.
Finally, we want to minimise or even eliminate time that the stomach is empty. This is largely achieved by ad lib hay or grass, but certain elements of hard feed can help by increasing the viscosity of the stomach contents- like beta glucans or pectin (found in sugarbeet- again stick to unmolassed).
These are just the very basic rules- of course every horse is different, at different work loads with different nutritional needs. I love chatting about nutrition so give me a shout if you want to talk in more detail about your horse!
Video showing how food/forage creates a “fibre mat” over the stomach acid to help stop it splashing the rest of the stomach.
This video demonstrates just how active the stomach is. I am not moving the scope at all- the stomach is pushing it around! This also highlights the importance of ensuring the horse has an empty stomach before their scope- this is the exit of the stomach (pylorus) which is normally sat under a “soup” of acid and food material. This owner had done a great job and so we got super clear images 👍🏼 at the end of the video is when the horse “burped” and in doing so we got submerged under that soup! I do love scoping 😍
#horse #equine #ulcers #vetlife
