Spicy and the Ouchy Tummy

It was a gorgeous Wednesday in October, and I had taken off from work. The leaves were changing and the sky was brilliant blue. Someone, somewhere was playing hookie to hike or take naps or whatever else normal people do with the PTO they've managed to save until the end of the year.

I had a horrible moment of clarity that I am not normal as I crouched with a vet around an iPad, viewing the contents of an Oldenburg's stomach, dry heaving because his stomach had a couple of wriggly bots and the vet was having trouble telling the difference between them and the ulcer lesions.

No, I didn't play hookie to go apple picking. I went to a gastroscopy clinic.

I cannot be the only person who would get excited over this. My dressage trainer pinged me earlier in October that she was hosting a gastroscopy clinic with a local vet practice. It was only $75 including sedation to get a peek in your horse's stomach. Seeing as it's normally $300-500 to get a glimpse of your horse's inside butthole (aka the pyloric region), I was absolutely not going to pass it up.

This is not Spicy's pyloric area. His didn't have any irritation!

Spicy definitely had ulcers. A year ago he got 60 days of my vet's own personal compound of omeprazole. In April he started on the U7. Both these things helped, but unless you've developed x-ray vision the only way to know for sure your horse has ulcers is to look in their stomach. Cessation of ulcer symptoms are not enough proof. If I wanted to be 100% sure Spicy was ulcer free, we had to go in.

Boehringer Ingelheim cleverly partners with local vet practices to host ulcer clinics. There's an education component, low cost scoping, and they conveniently bring the GastroGuard for you to purchase at a discount right there at the clinic. It's really a genius strategy; what better marketing than a live camera showing your horse's angry, red, irritated stomach causing you grief and the medicine is right there to get him on his way to being better? They even helped fill out the paperwork for the rebate for you.

I learned a lot from this clinic. The vet carefully explained everything we were seeing in the real time equine clinic participants. He showed how ensuring your horse has forage will prevent acid from splashing around inside their stomach during riding and other activities. Preventative measures in management including diet and timely administering of Ulcerguard for traveling were also discussed.

This is an actual stomach from a Thoroughbred!
It was way smaller than I expected.

We also looked at a lot of horse stomachs. All grades were represented, from pristine perfect stomachs to those riddled with lesions.

Spicy was the only horse there that didn't have a chain over his nose, and he was so well behaved.
Even though I'm pretty sure he hated me.

Spicy's ulcers were worse than I thought they'd be. The vet was extremely optimistic about his recovery and ability to be ulcer-free once he had finally kicked them. Spicy's biggest issue surrounds trailering. He won't eat away from home, and tends to spend the entire trailer ride staring out the window awaiting his impending death. The vet and I discussed ways to entice him to eat in the trailer, as well as how to appropriately use Ulcerguard.

A shitty picture of a picture but, you get it.

I'm disappointed Spicy still has tummy issues, but it makes me even more grateful that I had the opportunity to take him to the clinic. It also makes me feel optimistic - some of his behavioral issues could very well be due to ulcers bothering him still. We'll see what kind of horse I have after Thanksgiving, but so far I've noticed a difference in his spookiness. Fingers crossed he continues to improve!