Paul Nicholls and stomach ulcers

[kasparov]

I notice Dodging Bullets was treated for ulcers in the summer, joining Al Ferof and Silviniaco Conti in showing improved performance post treatment. It looks like ulcer treatment is the new breathing operation, but as far as I know it’s not common, nor discussed much.Is Nicholls ahead of the game or are his horses unusually prone to ulcers?

[grey dolphin]

I’ve heard of quite a few horses suffering with stomach ulcers; it can be a reason why some keep getting into the bottom of obstacles, as they don’t like standing off.

[befair]

Have they the same cause as in humans i.e an infection by helicobacter pylori?

[apracing]

Very common and not caused by that human infection. Here’s some info extracted from a scientific paper:

Every equine practitioner appreciates the delicate
nature of the equine gut. Problems related to the
small intestine and large intestine are well understood
and routinely treated. What may be
surprising to many is how often the stomach is
affected. Specifically, the incidence of gastric
ulcers is extremely high, particularly in performance
horses.

Many studies since the mid 1980’s have documented
that gastric ulcers are commonplace in
racehorses. An early postmortem study in Hong
Kong (Hammond et al, 1986) of 195 Thoroughbred
racehorses showed that 80% of the horses in active
training had ulcers.

The high incidence of ulcers seen in performance horses
is a man-made problem resulting from the way that we
feed and manage these horses, since ulcers are extremely
rare in horses maintained solely on pasture. Horses
evolved as wandering grazers with digestive tracts
designed for continual consumption of forage. Meals of
grain or extended periods of fasting lead to excess gastric
acid output without adequate saliva production.

[befair]

Thanks for that. Are they treated with the same drugs as for humans e.g omeprazole, ranitidine?

[apracing]

From my own experience as an owner, the best treatment for ulcers is a couple of months rest where the horse spends as much time as possible out at grass and the high protein required for racing is removed from the diet.

It’s the combination of confinement, exercise and diet that aggravates the problem.

[obiwankenobi]

I notice Dodging Bullets was treated for ulcers in the summer, joining Al Ferof and Silviniaco Conti in showing improved performance post treatment. It looks like ulcer treatment is the new breathing operation, but as far as I know it’s not common, nor discussed much.Is Nicholls ahead of the game or are his horses unusually prone to ulcers?

Behind the game if he has only just started scoping for these.

[kasparov]

Thanks all for enlightening me. Still seems strange that Silviniaco Conti ran in the Gold Cup with ulcers and Nicholls only found out later, as it looks like the ulcers explain the below form run that cost him the Gold Cup last year. Surely if it was a known potential problem he would have been tested say a month before the race as a precaution.

[moehat]

The ill fated Granit Jack had had stomach ulcers if I remember right.

[highflyer1]

Horses in training over the winter months will all develop ulcers, to a greater or lesser extent, for the reasons given earlier. A horse of mine disappointed badly at Doncaster on Friday, never travelling or jumping. We had a gastric scope done this morning and he has ulcers at level 3 (level 4 being the worst). He’ll now go on a month’s course of Gastrogarde (expensive!) and be ready to race again in the Spring. The vet advised that we should scope him for ulcers each year in mid-season.

Excessive stomach acid will cause painful heartburn when a horse gallops and jumps, and could often be the explanation for an unexpectedly below-par performance.

[Author]

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