08/05/2024
WARNING: A LONG POST… and A SORE SUBJECT.
One of the hardest things in horsemanship is in learning what you can do to change and make better… and what you must stop because it is unkind to continue.
Enter Pamela.
The teenaged Thoroughbred mare has come with an up-and-down rollercoaster of emotions in the two years we have known her. The plan was, I would school her to become a lovely riding horse for my sister, Kerry. Many days, it seemed as though our goal was coming to fruition. Other days, however, it seemed to be slipping farther from our grasp.
Last fall, before the deep cold descended upon us, Pamela and I had some beautiful rides together. The mare was working happily, breathing deeply, swinging along lightly with everything about her speaking of relaxation and understanding. Finally, finally, we’d found victory! Or, so I’d thought.
This spring, I’ve been plagued with the gut feeling that all is not well, deep within this beautiful mare.
Pamela is lately telling us to go no further back than the point of her shoulder. She is hurting somewhere, even without riding. Because we’ve had a similar issue, once before with a Thoroughbred warhorse with years of racing, my mind immediately went to ‘kissing spines’, or Baastrup Syndrome. Two weeks ago, I scheduled a thorough workup with an equine specialist clinic, for the mare is telling us that to continue on with her ridden training would be wrong.
We need facts and information because sometimes, ‘feeling’ is not enough.
Our vet appointment dawned on a chilly, wildly windy day in May. As I gripped the wheel of the wind-whipped truck and stock trailer on the highway to the city, I was relieved to be finally looking into the cause of Pamela’s sporadic performance. It has not been due to her lack of heart, or that we have in any way failed to try.
At the vet clinic, Pamela stood for her pokings and proddings like a lady. “What a gorgeous mare!” the vet and assistants kept saying. The good news is, her back and legs look fabulous. Her heart and lungs are excellent. Back to the drawing board. A return visit was made to scope the mare for ulcers, despite her obvious ‘bloom’. At the same time, based on an uncomfortable hunch, I made an appointment to have Credo scoped, as well.
The results, when up on the clinic’s monitor, spoke volumes.
I know that I am not alone in avoiding the issue of ulcers because, quite frankly, it is an overwhelmingly expensive proposition, with no real promises, long-term. Treatment could work and then, in years to come, it might need repeating. The initial evaluation, the scoping and ultimately, the treatment is not for the faint of heart, or those with thin pocketbooks. Times this by two and we’re now talking thousands of dollars spent… for two horses who have yet to really turn their wheels.
While I’d say that some of the habits and mannerisms of these horses are classic symptoms, others are opposing and to my eye, nonexistent. With ulcers, the rule is ‘there are no rules’.
Both horses hold their weight easily, even the Thoroughbred, through the coldest winters. Both are in fine fettle, with shiny coats and no looseness to their bowels. Both love their feed. Both live outside on quiet ranch pasture, within a small and constant herd. Both, from the outside perspective, are living good lives here.
Like so many Thoroughbreds, however, Pamela had a stressful training as a youngster for the track. Troubled and not easily handled, she has changed owners many times. Credo, as a Morgan, is an easy keeper and I suspect that he has spent more time than was good for him running on empty, in a dry lot pen. Such horses do so well on rough browse, on track systems and rotational grazing lots and on picking away at scattered straw. Anything to avoid a horse standing with an empty, acid-filled stomach.
Credo is also an internalizer, a worrier, who doesn’t give too much away.
The photo shown is of three views on the monitor, during the two horses’ initial scoping. Healthy gut resembles raw chicken breast, smooth with a pale pink colour and these are anything but. The vet suspects that these horses have had the issue for a long time, that their ulcers are in no way recent, though Pamela’s ‘fight or flight’ behaviour has constantly been ramping up. Credo walks around as though he is in constant pain… or, as it turns out, a bellyache.
The diagnosis? On a scale from zero to four—from nonexistent to severe—Pamela has a Grade Four pyloric ulcer; for Credo, a Grade Three gastric ulcer, with a horrible twist. The poor horse has a host of bot larvae attached to and feeding off the lacerations in his gut and by all appearances, this has been his lot in life for years.
To both horses’ eternal credit, they have been doing their best for us. I have gone down the road of self-loathing and have now stopped, coming to the realization that this mindset will help no one.
So, what to do? We have begun treatment for both, with one course of Gastrogard® (Omeprazole), with a follow up scoping in twenty-eight days. The medication, which is usually given daily in the form of a month-long course of oral paste, is now also available in a once-weekly intra-muscular injection.
Credo also received a dose of Quest Plus®, to go after the bot larvae straightaway.
The good news is that if you’re comfortable vaccinating horses, it is less upsetting to all concerned to treat once weekly than daily, and at a significant cost savings. Oral meds run at about $1100 CDN for a month-long treatment, with the injectable about $775. The scoping was $500 per horse and must be run twice, before and after treatment. Word is still out as to whether the tried 'n' true oral meds are more, or less, effective than the new injectable.
Both versions of Omeprazole inhibit the body's actual production of stomach acid to allow healing, rather than coating the stomach in a protective layer.
Boehringer Ingelheim, the company that produces Gastrogard®, does offer a guarantee, whereby if the drug is not wholly effective, the second round is ‘on the house’. Unfortunately, there is no promise that the ulcers will not be recurring in years to come. It is now estimated that up to 90% of all performance horses have ulcers.
Going forward, as a safeguard, a preventive, I will continue to give both horses oral dosings of 50ml organic aloe vera gel, via oral syringe or in a feed pan, just to coat their tummies from acid, before riding. It’s a non-invasive and extremely affordable way that genuinely offers practical help and relief, as I myself learned with the human form of this complaint. The horses will take the stuff willingly, particularly the brand name George's, once they experience the relief from stomach ache.
What I would like to point out is this. Credo’s symptoms were entirely different from Pamela’s. He has been cranky, vexed with all of life and despite my care and knowledge, he's remained somewhat ‘cinchy’. The little gelding has swished dramatically with every. single. leg. aid and flatly refused to go freely forward, without feeling ‘sucked back’.
Pamela, on the other hand, has just wanted to outrun everything we ask of her. With Thoroughbreds, we must remember that they have been bred, for centuries, to power through any sort of hardship.
So, we’ve learned that no two horses will present identically. That the classic symptoms, the clues for ulcers, are not always apparent. If I can share anything for certain, it would be this.
We can suspect ulcers if ever we have an issue that does not ‘train out’. That’s about all I know for sure.
As always with horses, there are stories with happy endings, along with those that have us catching our breath with pain and sadness. We feel fortunate this time. I’m afraid that we have no end of opportunities to spend money upon our horses… but also, to learn from them.
Sadly, I also witnessed a horse who was scoped with positive findings and I’ve seen the utter heartbreak on the faces of the veterinary staff, as the owner decided against treatment. Our friends, the veterinarians, are not saying our horses are fundamentally unwell, just to take our money!
“We’re just going to sell her, anyway,” was the comment made by this owner.
So goes another hurting horse onto the market and no doubt, she has been recirculated many times already, for being cranky and unable to get to work. The awful truth is that a ‘quirky’ horse has a far better chance of being sold, of finding a new home, than the horse in recovery who has been diagnosed and correctly treated! How this truth will affect Credo’s future still remains to be seen.
The ‘difficult’ horses come to teach us so many lessons in life… and we must never forget this. I have gone through the gamut of emotions from bewilderment, frustration, guilt, sadness and now, hope. I am learning to think of such horses with nothing but heartfelt gratitude and love.
I have also told them that I am sorry.
***
Update: Immediately after her treatment protocol, Pamela was a new horse, relaxed and happy to please. She has remained so.
Credo took two courses of ulcer meds (the second was free of charge) though his bot larvae proved difficult to kill. Once we had done so, the little horse also became a dream to ride and to handle. The cinchiness was a thing of the past and Credo has found his forward!
The verdict? It was 100% worth the time and money for these two horses, who had not responded well to over-the-counter cures and feed additives.
