Equine stomach ulcers - Part II In Part I of this article we learned that hard feed drastically reduces the amount of acid buffering saliva, and high amounts of starch and molasses increase production of stomach acid. Whereas in old times a meal of 400g corn or barley with 500g oats per 100kg horse weight were seen as the maximum feed amount for a heavy horse, nowadays these limits changed to 400g oats and just 250g corn or barley. This means that for a 500kg horse 1.25kg corn or barley and 2kg oats per meal would be regarded as the maximum amounts per feed. Feeding for high performance horses today often goes way above these limits - especially in race horses which in general are fed a small amount prior to training, a medium sized feed for lunch and the bulk of the feed in the evening, which explains the high numbers of stomach ulcers in race horses. However, feeding is not the only culprit when it comes to stomach ulcers. Stress too, as mentioned before, increases production of stomach acid, reduces blood circulation in the stomach lining and reduces activity of the digestive organs. Stress of any sort does have a major effect on the whole organism – and I do not just speak about competition stress of high performance horses! This affects pleasure and trail riding horses just as well, very often due to the way they live. They might be forced to live with other horses whose company they’d rather avoid, they might be ridden with an unsuitable saddle or might have too many stimuli with changing schedules and locations every day – the horse is a creature of habit and too many changes and adventures can easily affect the stomach. Especially pleasure and trail riders love to expose their horse to many different situations, locations, terrains…. And their horses are confronted with new situations every day. Horses want to know what to expect, so repeating routines like “lounging today, dressage tomorrow, jumping the day after and then a trail ride, lounging, dressage, jumping, trail ride” are a cross training pattern horses can become used to. They know what to expect and hence stress levels are reduced. The same applies to feeding routine. Even though living in a rich green paddock you will often see horses just standing and waiting for their hard feed about the time this is due. In anticipation production of stomach acids will increase and have serious impact on the stomach lining if the feed doesn’t come or comes late. Try to establish certain feeding times and try to stick to them as much as possible - a horse waiting for feed in vain is not just having a cute habit, the acid is “chewing” on its stomach lining! «Flight or fight?» It is obvious that the reply this question put to a horse is almost always “flight”. The autonomic nervous system cannot be driven by will, hence it will work independently from thinking processes. The autonomic nervous system in general drives organ function, so it is clear that irritation of the autonomic nervous system will have an impact upon the stomach and the whole digestive system - which is the second most important factor in the genesis of stomach ulcers. Additionally, in order to successfully get away as a flight animal, a well-functioning muscular system is mandatory, hence in situations of stress blood circulation of the digestive system will be reduced which saves energy and hence optimizes muscular function. Long-term this effect is neither natural nor useful – in nature it is a short term event, at some stage the flight animal will either have escaped or be eaten. So another part of the nervous system acts upon bringing these reactions back to normal – and as soon as this happens, blood circulation in the stomach will increase again and so will production of acid rich stomach juice. This combination of reactions to stress is harmful. Too much stomach acid eats up the protective lining of the stomach walls, etches the tissue, some local injury is created…. and a new ulcer is in the making However, continuous regular training can have negative impacts on the stomach as well. » Stomach and continuous production of stomach juices in equines are designed to function in a life out in the wide open, continuous slow movement in the “safe” environment of the herd, search for grass, walking and covering about 20km per day. In the event of danger, the decision to run, wait or fight is made by the alpha mare and the flight itself rarely exceeds a few hundred meters. Very different to the training and exercise plan of our modern domesticated horse! Depending on riding discipline and work, long periods of trotting or cantering are the go. In principle with increasing forward movement digestive processes and blood supply to the digestive organs are reduced in horses. Abdominal muscles push the stomach up so that stomach juice is pushed up from the gland containing part of the stomach into the non-gland one where it can damage the unprotected stomach lining which wasn’t designed to battle acids – how much damage can be done depends on the question of how much and what is in the stomach and whether it has acid buffering properties and for how long strenuous exercise is performed and whether it is interrupted by breaks and walking. Conclusion: When it comes to riding, regular, stress free and well planned training sessions and frequent breaks with walking are the most useful measures to reduce risk of ulcers in our equine partners. To be continued…. From SonpVet
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 13:43:20 +0000
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