Ridecamp: RE: [RC] Ulcer Research/USA Druggies?

>>Wait a minute. Are they saying, "90% of all performance horses have
ulcers" or is it, "90% of all horses tested" have them?<<

My take on the numbers is that they tested a reasonable number of horses in
various disciplines and then extrapolated to the general performance horse
population.  For example, they found about 50% of dressage horses tested had
an ulcer, but 90% of all racehorses tested had one.  They may not consider
dressage to be a performance event, and I certainly don't know how they
aggregated the different disciplines and ulcer rates to come up with their
90% number.  My general take-away from the research is that there's a
reasonable number of horses at risk for ulcer.

>>If my horse has never had an extended treatment of bute, never coliced, is
not confined, always has free choice hay, and doesn't seem to mind
trailering or camping at all...is he still 90% likely to have an ulcer?<<

In your case, the chance your horse has an ulcer is much lower than mine -
he's an ex-racehorse (high risk), was in stall for 5 years(high risk), fed a
high grain racehorse diet for 5 years(high risk), blew a tendon on the track
with several extended bute treatments (VERY high risk), tends to have
reduced gut sounds during events, disliked the stronger Enduramax elytes,
and is a moderately nervous horse anyway.  So in my case, the chances are
quite high he had an ulcer before I bought him and he's been "dealing" with
it ever since.  In your case, the chances are MUCH lower - but not zero -
that your horse has an ulcer.

If people are interested, do a search on Google.com using the keywords
"equine ulcer" and you'll return many pages of research.  This is not a new
research area.

Mike Sofen


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