Tag Archive for: ulcers

An equine glandular ulcer

Is There an Effect of Diet on Glandular Ulcers?

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Review of Effect of diet composition on glandular gastric disease in horses

My ears pricked when I received an email alert about a study that had just been published “Effect of diet composition on glandular gastric disease in horses”. That’s because up until recently, we’d thought that glandular disease risk factors were management and stress related, and diet didn’t really play a role. Of course, I needed to know more, with mounting evidence that diet may indeed play a role in glandular ulcers in some horses.

This particular study looked at the effect on glandular scores of substituting half of the grain concentrates in the diet with alfalfa pellets. Those which remained on the full rate of grain concentrate in their diets were called the Control group and those receiving half grain concentrate and half alfalfa were called the Alfalfa group. Trainers were instructed to feed their horses the same diet for 4 weeks prior to the study commencing (Day 0) – the before diet was the same as the Control diet.

Summary of findings

  • When comparing the Control and Alfalfa diet groups, no difference in the number of horses with glandular ulcers were found between the two groups.
  • Within the Control group, the number of horses with a glandular score ≥2 increased over the study period.
  • In the Control group, horses that had a glandular scores 2-4 at the beginning, did not show any improvement over the study period.
  • In the Alfalfa group, 5 out of 6 horses that had glandular scores 2-4 at the beginning of the study, showed improvement in their glandular scores (improved from ≥2 to 0-1).

This is where things took an unexpected and interesting turn. The researchers compared the non-ulcerated horse group (glandular scores 0-1) with ulcerated horse group (glandular scores ≥2) at Day 0. They found that simple sugar intake of the diet these horses were on before Day 0 was significantly different between these two groups. I know what you’re thinking…high sugars blah blah blah…but no! When comparing many variables including diet, the non-ulcerated group had a significantly higher daily intake of simple sugars in their before Day 0 diets, compared with the ulcerated group.

The researchers thought that higher daily intake of simple sugars which supports certain strains of Lactobacillus may have a protective effect in the stomach. Lactobacilli adhere to the gastric mucosa, forming biofilms and outcompeting pathogenic bacteria. This has been explored in rat models and supports the theory proposed by the authors.

Looking at the effect of substituting half the concentrate grain ration with alfalfa pellets, a positive effect was seen, with fewer horses with GGD at Day 42. The authors propose that this may be the results of a reduced amount of starch available to starch-utilising bacteria in the stomach. These starch-utilising bacteria produce fermentation products which change the pH of the stomach content, which cause other short chain fatty acids such as butyric acid to be more harmful, resulting in mucosal damage. The authors also add that alfalfa pellets offer a buffering effect within the stomach and can contribute to maintaining a higher pH despite acid secretions of strong fermentations associated with grain meals.

Key takeaways of the diet’s affect on glandular ulcers

    1. Some Lactobacillus strains may have a protective effect in the stomach, reducing glandular disease and accelerating healing of existing glandular lesions.
    2. Reducing starch in diets is beneficial to reducing the fermentation products in the gastric contents, which otherwise when combined with very acidic environment cause damage to the glandular mucosa.
    3. Inclusion of alfalfa (lucerne) pellets with grain concentrate can provide a buffering effect within the stomach to maintain a higher pH, reducing harmful effects of short chain fatty acids on gastric mucosa.

Many interesting findings! If you’d like to know the nitty gritty details or read the full article, it is available open access at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jvim.16747

 

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Ulcer Medication + Bute: Is it safe?!

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Is using omeprazole for the prevention of gastric ulcers while treating horses with phenylbutazone (bute) best practice?

Recent research indicates perhaps not.

Prescribing ulcer medication and alongside bute for horses has become common to reduce the negative impact the pain medication is thought to have on gut health and development of gastric and colonic ulcers.

A recent study, published in the Equine Veterinary Journal by the team at Louisiana State University set out to evaluate the effect of omeprazole on phenylbutazone-induced gastric ulcers, including squamous and glandular ulcers.

Their major findings were:

  • Horses treated with a combination of phenylbutazone in combination with omeprazole had more intestinal complications, many of them severe, some resulting in death or horses having to be euthanised.
  • Omeprazole treatment was effective in preventing the worsening of phenylbutazone induced glandular ulcers.
  • Sudden changes in management should be avoided during treatment with phenylbutazone and in combination with omeprazole.

The take home message?

The use of these two drugs together needs to be carefully considered as it is not universally safe to do so. If you can avoid using both at the same time and use other ways of supporting gut health while horses are on bute, then you probably should.

If you love the details like we do, keep reading!

The Study: combining ulcer medication and bute in horses

Twenty-two horses from the universities teaching herd were enrolled in the study based on inclusion criteria of >3 years old, with squamous and glandular ulcer scores less than 2 and no signs of systemic disease.

Horses were acclimatised 2-3 days prior to initial gastroscope. Prior to this, the horses were fed a diet containing pasture, mixed grass hay and 1kg of pelleted feed (starch max. 17%).

During the study period, horses were individually stalled and fed a diet consisting of mixed grass hay and 1kg grain-based feed (starch max. 33%). Grain based feed was changed from 1kg Purina Omolene 100 to 0.5kg Omolene and 0.5kg Purina Strategy (starch max. 10%) daily after the first cohort due to observations of colic signs.

Horses were allocated into one of three groups (randomised block design based on initial glandular score) and treated for 7-14 days with one of three treatments:

Treatment 1. phenylbutazone paste 4.4mg/kg orally every 12 hours

Treatment 2. phenylbutazone paste 4.4mg/kg orally every 12 hours + omeprazole 4mg/kg orally every 24 hours

Treatment 3. placebo (control) of corn syrup 10ml orally every 12 hours.

There were four cohorts due to stall availability.

Horses were fed two biscuits of hay at 4pm in the evening alongside feed and no hay was present at time of medication administration in the morning. Omeprazole was administered first the following morning, followed by phenylbutazone 30 minutes later, followed by hay and feed.

On day 0, 7 and 14, following 16-18 hours fast, gastroscope was performed by an investigator blinded to treatment. Signs of colic and diarrhoea were observed and recorded throughout the study period.

Gastric fluid and blood was collected on day 0 and day 14 (unless withdrawn earlier). Horses were withdrawn from the study if adverse effects (colic, lethargy, diarrhoea) were identified that required medical intervention or if glandular or squamous ulcers grade 4 was observed.

Due to adverse effects seen in treatment groups in the first cohorts, the last study cohort underwent treatment for 7 days only.

The Results

The results from this study are quite complex due to the complications within treatment groups and as a result, horses being withdrawn from the study but here are the main findings.

Gastric Ulcers

No effect of treatment on squamous ulcers was seen. Glandular ulcers increased by one score in the phenylbutazone group compared with no significant change in the phenylbutazone + omeprazole group.

Interestingly, no obvious change in glandular ulcer scores was seen in the control group however a trend towards increasing squamous ulcer scores which may indicate the role diet and management may play in squamous ulcer formation.

This was also seen in the phenylbutazone group but not in the phenylbutazone + omeprazole group. One horse in the control group appeared not to cope with changes in management with increase of glandular and squamous ulcer scores from 1 to 4 in just 7 days.

Intestinal Complications

Intestinal complication was observed in both treatment groups. These included two out of a total of seven in the phenylbutazone group (including large colon impaction and small colon impaction).

And six out of eight in the phenylbutazone + omeprazole group (including large colon impaction, small colon impaction, colic of undetermined cause, diarrhoea, colitis and secondary sepsis resulting in death and ulcerative colitis with septic peritonitis leading to euthanasia).

No horses in the control group developed complications.

Study Limitations

The authors acknowledge that a high dose of phenylbutazone was used (4.4mg/kg twice daily) however justified that this dose is occasionally used in clinical practice. Lower doses of phenylbutazone (2.2mg/kg twice daily) are generally recommended.

Sudden changes (2-3 days adaption) in dietary and housing management were also confounding factors however not dissimilar to clinical practice where horses may be brought in off pasture and hospitalised or stalled due to an injury.

Previous studies have shown changes in diet alter intestinal microbiome in horses and both dietary and housing management changes have been associated with colic. Therefore, this may have predisposed horses in the treatment groups to intestinal complications.

BUT it was not the determining factor as no complications were observed in the control group.

Summary

Care must be taken when using omeprazole alongside phenylbutazone for the treatment of horses.

The exact cause of complications in treatment groups is unclear however the authors of this study suggest changes to microbial populations in the gut, altered gut motility and intestinal inflammation may have all contributed.

Talk to your veterinarian about any concerns prior to starting these medications, particularly if you are using both at once.

Importantly, try to minimise changes in management practices at the same time especially if you are introducing grain-based feed.

If your horse requires pain relief in the form of phenylbutazone, investigate alternatives to omeprazole that support gut health through other actions e.g. marine source calcium to buffer gastric acid, pectin or lecithin to protect the stomach lining and supplying the amino acids, glutamine and threonine, which help repair and protect the gut mucosa.

Plus be sure to reduce stress as stress is one of the biggest predisposing factors for glandular ulceration.

And if you really, REALLY like the details, here is the full article:

Ricord M, Andrews FM, Yñiguez FJM, et al. Impact of concurrent treatment with omeprazole on phenylbutazone-induced equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS). Equine Vet J. 2021;53:356–363. https://doi.org/10.1111/evj.13323

 

 

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Is long term use of gastric ulcer drugs increasing your horse’s risk of ulcers?

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RAHS and long-term use of gastric ulcer drugs in horses

In humans, rebound acid hypersecretion (RAHS) is when gastric acid production actually INCREASES above normal levels when long-term treatment with proton pump inhibitors like omeprazole (the most common drug used to treat ulcers in horses) stops.

RAHS is known to occur in humans using drugs like omeprazole to suppress gastric acid secretion for extended periods of time (8 weeks+). The mechanism is understood to be:

  1. Elevated gastric pH stimulates compensatory gastrin hormone release.
  2. Elevated gastrin causes changes to the enterochromaffin-like cells and increased levels of chromogranin A (CgA).
  3. These changes leads to increased capacity to stimulate gastric acid secretion.
  4. Gastric acid suppressing drug is removed.
  5. Excess gastric acid is produced.

It is important to remember that a human’s and horse’s pattern of gastric acid secretion is different, so we can’t just assume that what happens in one will also happen in the other. But with the number of horses we see who are continually needing treatment for gastric ulcers, we do wonder if RAHS is occurring in horses.

If it is, what does this mean for your horse?

Well, if your horse has gastric ulcers and you can use omeprazole short term (4 weeks) to treat them, there may not be any implications as in humans it seems to be long-term treatment that causes RAHS.

BUT, if you are continually treating your horse for gastric ulcers, without success (i.e. you have one of those horses that no sooner are the ulcers healed then they are back again) or you have an OTTB that had been on long term ulcer treatment while in training (which is unfortunately common) you may need to take RAHS into consideration.

In humans, they have studied a slow withdrawal of the drug to try to stop RAHS occurring. But even with tapering the drug use off over 3 weeks, RAHS still occurred. Still, it is worth discussing this tapering with your veterinarian for any horse that may be at risk.

What will most likely help is making sure the horse goes onto a diet and feed regime post treatment that will help naturally keep your horse’s stomach pH high AND stop the acid from being able to splash and reach the upper regions of the stomach.

A diet high in forage (hay or pasture) with at least some component of alfalfa (Lucerne) will be your best option. Having hay or pasture constantly available and keeping periods of time without feed short (less than 2 hours) will also help.

The more you can make your horse chew, the more he will salivate. And the more he salivates, the more buffered his stomach fluid will be. The more buffered it is, the higher its pH and the less likely it will be to cause ulcers. Supplements designed to elevate gastric pH may also be useful in the short term, post treatment.

And the big one, never ever ride your horse on an empty stomach! Fill him up with hay before you ride!!

For more on feeding to prevent ulcers, read our posts Avoiding Gastric Ulcers and Starch And Ulcers: What’s The Deal?

 

 

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Starch & Ulcers: What’s The Deal?

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The connection between starch and ulcers in horses

You may have heard it recommended that horses with ulcers should be fed a ‘grain-free’, low starch diet. It is believed that any starch may make ulcers worse. Or stop them from healing when the horse is being medicated to resolve ulcers. But is there any scientific basis for what has now become a popular recommendation? Let’s take a look!

Starch is fermented to volatile fatty acids (VFAs)

Like the rest of the horse’s gut, the stomach is full of bacteria. When grains AND forage enter the stomach, they are partially fermented. During fermentation, the bacteria produce volatile fatty acids. These VFAs are the same as what is produced in the hindgut during fermentation there. So they are not harmful to the horse. In fact they are beneficial.

Thing is though, in the stomach, they get mixed with the hydrochloric acid from the stomach and become ‘nonionized’. In this state, they can enter the epithelial cells of the upper part of the stomach, causing them to become inflamed, and swell, and ultimately make the stomach wall lining more prone to ulceration. This is what they understand to happen in pigs.

So everything you feed a horse will be partially fermented in the stomach. We do know however, that when we feed a grain based, high starch ingredients, higher levels of VFAs are produced. But does it increase the risk of gastric ulcers? Not necessarily.

Lucerne + grain = less ulcers than grass hay

In a study where horses were fed either lucerne + grain OR grass hay only, there was significantly higher levels of VFA in the stomach contents of horses fed lucerne + grain. BUT, the horses on this diet had less severe and fewer gastric ulcers than the horses fed the grass hay only diet. Despite the higher level of VFAs, horses on the lucerne + grain diet had a higher pH (less acidic) for 5 hours after feeding when compared to the grass hay only diet 1.

The researchers in this study suggest the high protein, high calcium characteristics of both the lucerne hay and the ‘grain’ (unfortunately, they do not specify what the grain was except to say it contained over 7 g/kg of calcium and was almost 15% protein, so it must have been a fortified commercial feed) created a buffering effect in the stomach and were able to keep the pH higher.

So here, the starch did increase VFA levels, but the diet containing the grain was also effective at keeping gastric pH higher. Combined, there was a protective effect against ulcers.

In a second study2, researchers found that of horses fed lucerne plus a commercial pelleted feed, 8% developed ulcers. Compared to 75% who developed ulcers when they were fed the same pellet, but with grass hay. In this same study, horses that started with existing ulcers all improved their ulcers scores by more than 2 when fed lucerne + pellet. But on the grass hay, only 2 out of 12 horses showed healing to the same degree. So it does appear lucerne is protective. And that feeding grain/starch doesn’t automatically mean a horse will be prone to ulcers.

What about high fibre versus low fibre?

We tend to think that a high fibre diet is always going to be better than a low fibre diet for minimising gastric ulcers. And there are varied reports in the literature. Research from the UK3 reported that a low fibre, high concentrate (32% starch pellet) diet had a lower number and severity of lesions versus a high fibre, low concentrate diet. Odd right!

The fibre fed during this study was ryegrass haylage. A trend is starting to appear with grass forage and a higher risk of ulcers! What we don’t know is why? Researchers in Denmark reported that horses with straw as their only source of forage had a higher risk of ulcers4 which may give some clues. Perhaps there are nutrients required for maintaining gut wall integrity that grass hays and straw are unable to provide.

The important point here is to realise that just feeding lots of forage is not enough to protect a horse from ulcers. And to recognise that adding grain to diets is not a risk factor in itself. It comes down to which forages are fed and how much grain/starch is fed AND how feeding is managed.

How much starch is OK?

The studies reported above show that grain can be fed without causing ulceration. So starch is not a simple ‘Cause & Effect’ with gastric ulcers. Or in other words, when it is fed in a certain way, it can be fed without causing ulcers. And can even be fed in a way to allow ulcers to heal. But is there a limit to how much starch you can feed a horse with ulcers?

The answer is YES! In a large study, 201 Danish horses from 23 different non-racing stables were scoped for ulcers. 53% of horses were reported as having an ulcer score of more than 2, with most of these occurring in the upper part of their stomach4.

Two risk factors related to the amount of starch fed were reported in this study;

  1. Feeding more than 2 grams of starch per kg of bodyweight per day (equivalent to 2 – 3 kg of a complete feed/day for a 500 kg horse, depending on the feeds starch content) doubled the risk of ulcers; and
  2. Feeding more than 1 gram of starch per kg of bodyweight per meal (roughly equivalent to 1 – 1.5 kg of a commercial complete feed per meal for a 500 kg horse, depending on the starch content of the feed) increased risk by more than three times.

So some starch it seems is perfectly OK. But there is a limit to how much should be fed ‘per day’ and ‘per meal’.

Feeding grain based feeds carefully is a huge consideration in managing the risk of ulcers. If your horse needs more energy than can be provided by the amounts of grain based feeds specified above, you should look at feeding oils or high energy fibres to meet the rest of your horse’s calorie requirements.

Does starch cause ulcers in horses?

Too much starch increases the risk of ulcers. But when fed in a well put together diet, research has shown that diets containing grains resulted in less ulcers than grass hay only diets. So starch, itself, doesn’t appear to cause ulcers.

My horse is prone to ulcers. What should I do?

Good question! Here are my top tips on feeding a horse prone to ulcers:

  1. Feed lucerne hay – lucerne has been shown to buffer the stomach well and is protective against ulcers. It even seems to help them heal.
  2. Feed lucerne as chaff or haylage with your grain based feeds – this seems to help negate the possible negative effect of starch when it is fermented in the stomach.
  3. Feed lucerne hay before you ride – working horses on a full stomach is CRITICAL for preventing ulcers. The fibre stops the acid splashing around and the saliva created while chewing the hay helps to buffer the acid in the stomach. Using lucerne has the extra positive benefit with the buffering effect from the lucerne itself.
  4. Feed lots of forage – the more forage in the diet the better. It makes a horse chew longer, create more saliva and keeps the stomach full of fibre to help stop acid from the lower part of the stomach splashing up onto the top part and creating ulcers.
  5. Don’t allow more than 5 hours between meals – the longer the intervals between meals, the higher the risk of ulcers5. So make sure your horse is eating at least every 5 hours. For horses particularly prone to ulcers, keeping time without food as short as possible (no more than 2 hours) is advisable.
  6. If you feed grain based feeds, keep the amounts small – don’t exceed 1 gram of starch per kg of bodyweight per meal. The amount of pellet/sweetfeed/cube/grain you can feed per meal depends on the starch content of the feed. The table below shows you maximum amounts that can be fed per meal of a feed, based on its starch content, for a 500 kg horse. If you are unsure of your feeds starch content, don’t exceed 1.5 kg of feed/meal (for a 500 kg horse).

 

Starch Content (%) Maximum Amount/Meal for a 500kg Horse (kg)
20 2.5
30 1.7
40 1.25
50 1

 

  1. Make sure horses ALWAYS have access to water – water deprivation has long been known to increase risk of ulcers. So allowing constant access to water is important to reduce the risk of ulcers.

Should I go grain-free?

While the studies above show us that feeding grains, in diets that also contain lucerne can result in ulcers resolving, if you are more comfortable going grain-free then it is certainly an option. Using high quality, grain-free products that are high in protein and fortified with calcium are likely going to work well for a horse prone to ulcers. As far as I can see there are no studies to confirm this… something for future research to work on!

It is just important to remember that this is not essential. Grain based feeds can be used, as long as they are used carefully.

References

  1. Nadeau JA, Andrews FM, Mathew AG, et al. Evaluation of diet as a cause of gastric ulcers in horses. Am J Vet Res 2000;61:784-790.
  2. Lybbert T, Gibbs, P., Cohen, N., Scott, B., Sigler, D. Feeding Alfalfa Hay to Exercising Horses Reduces the Severity of Gastric Squamous Mucosal Ulceration. AAEP Proceedings 2007;53.
  3. Boswinkel M, Ellis A, Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan Mm. The influence of low versus high fibre haylage diets in combination with training or pasture rest on equine gastric ulceration syndrome (EGUS). Pferdeheilkunde 2007;23.
  4. Luthersson N, Nielsen KH, Harris P, et al. Risk factors associated with equine gastric ulceration syndrome (EGUS) in 201 horses in Denmark. Equine Vet J 2009;41:625-630.
  5. Luthersson N, Nielsen KH, Harris P, et al. Risk factors associated with equine gastric ulceration syndrome (EGUS) in 201 horses in Denmark. Equine Veterinary Journal 2009;41:625-630.

 

 

 

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Why You Shouldn’t Feed Free Choice Hay to a Horse on Ulcer Treatment

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Don’t give a horse on ulcer treatment free choice hay

You’re probably thinking… What?!?! We know! And we agree… this sounds CRAZY! And goes against everything you might think is going to help a horse with ulcers.

If you have had a horse you have treated, unsuccessfully, for ulcers, keep reading!

Because here is the thing… horses on free choice hay have poor absorption of omeprazole (the drug of choice in treating equine gastric ulcer syndrome; EGUS). And if they don’t absorb it, it simply will not do its job of suppressing acid production. And if it doesn’t suppress acid, ulcers won’t heal.

In a study by Sykes et al (2017) it was shown that 3 out of 6 horses on ad libitum hay diets had minimal if any acid suppression (i.e. medication was totally useless).

Sykes 2019 suggests instead that horses are medicated after an overnight fast. THEN, withhold feed for 60 to 90 minutes after administration. Then feed a large feed of forage, which will stimulate gastrin which then makes omeprazole more effective. After the horse has eaten the hay it can be fed any concentrate it may require in its diet.

So overnight fast, then dose, then wait an hour, then feed lots of hay or allow access to pasture.

The research into this seems conclusive hence why we’re reporting it here, even if it seems to go against the grain (no pun intended).

Once the horse has finished its course of ulcer treatment you should immediately revert back to free choice hay and minimise and periods of time off feed.

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Gastric Ulcer Medication for Horses and Their Effect on Digestion

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Question: Does gastric ulcer medication reduce nutrient digestion in horses?
Answer: Yes

Research shows that starch from grains that were exposed to equine stomach fluid before being digested by small intestinal enzymes was between 17% (extruded rice) and 104% (cracked triticale) more digested than starch that wasn’t exposed to the stomach fluid.

While the research can’t say how much of this increased starch digestion was due to the stomach acid and how much was due to the protein digesting enzymes that are present in the stomach fluid, the stomach fluid was having a definite positive influence on the digestion of starch.

It’s important to remember that the protein digesting enzymes in a horse’s stomach fluid rely on the stomach acid to activate them, so regardless of whether the improved digestion was due to the avid itself or the protein digesting enzymes, if you stop acid production using ulcer medications you will lose both the acid and the enzymes.

If you use gastric ulcer medications for horses like ranitidine and omneprazole to reduce gastric acid secretion, you are very likely reducing the digestion of at least some nutrients further down the gastrointestinal tract.

What should you do about this?

If your horse has ulcers, treating and getting rid of the ulcers as quickly and effectively as possible is by far the most important consideration. However, once the ulcers are gone, it is recommended to use good management practices to keep your horses chewing, their stomachs full and buffered with saliva, and their minds calm instead of constantly using medication to prevent ulcers. This way allows their gastrointestinal tract to function the way it was designed and allows the digestion process to be as effective as possible.

For more info on feeding to prevent ulcers, read our article ‘Avoiding Gastric Ulcers’ here.

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The Link Between Regular Forage Meals and Gut Health

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From experienced horsemen to attendees at educational seminars, many equine enthusiasts don’t actually know how a horse’s gut works and why forage is so important for horse health.

Did you know that the equine stomach never stops secreting gastric acid? So even when your horse is not eating, it is filling the lower part of its stomach up with acidic gastric juices. While the stomach is full, this isn’t an issue as the dense mat of fibre in the gut will stop the acid from splashing around and burning the unprotected lining of the upper section of the stomach.

Problems start when horses are off feed for long periods of time and end up with a pool of acid and an empty stomach. Combine that with the movement of being ridden and you get acid splashing up and quite literally burning holes, causing ulcers, in the top part of the stomach.

What can you do to help prevent this?

  1. Don’t exercise horses on an empty stomach – Provide a small meal of alfalfa (lucerne) hay before and after exercise.
  2. Provide regular small meals and constant access to hay, especially during times of stress such as trailering
  3. Provide turnout and grazing time as often as possible

Help us to educate people on how a horse’s stomach works so they can understand why forage and horse health go hand-in-hand, plus some very simple things they can do to keep their horse’s stomach healthy. Share this article on Avoiding Gastric Ulcers with them and have them understand that a horse’s stomach should never be empty and that as much as is practical you should never work a horse on an empty stomach.

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Hindgut Ulcers

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There has been discussion about hindgut ulcers in recent years; do they exist, what impact are they likely to have on a horse, how should we treat them, how do we even know if they are there… lots of questions, not a lot of answers.

At a workshop on the topic of sub-acute rumen acidosis (SARA), part of that discussion was around the health of the rumen wall and the impact that SARA has on it. The rumen has the same function in ruminants as the hindgut in horses, namely to digest fiber by microbes.

Essentially if you make the rumen acidic (in the same way we can make a horse’s hind gut acidic when we feed raw grains like corn/maize), you start to damage the gut wall. Initially this will reduce the gut lining’s ability to absorb nutrients (which is a huge problem in itself). BUT, make it bad enough and ulcers will appear!

The photos here (from https://vet.uga.edu/…/digest…/week02/forestomach/rumen06.htm) show rumens that have been affected by acidosis. The first (black) shows ulcers in the lining. The second shows a healed ulcer and the long term damage done.

So, when you feed, think about how what you are feeding is going to affect your horse’s hindgut health. It is possibly the single most important thing to consider when feeding!

For more on feeding for hind gut health have a read of our article Keeping the Hindgut Healthy.

 

 

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Digestive Enzymes – What Do They Do for Your Horse?

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When a horse eats, much of its feed is made up of LARGE carbohydrate, fat and protein molecules. The horse can only absorb tiny little molecules from its gut (because if big stuff was able to cross from the gut into your horse’s body all sorts of bacteria, toxins and general muck would pass into the body and cause disease havoc!). This is where digestive enzymes come into the picture.

Why are digestive enzymes important for your horse?

Before absorption from the small intestine can occur, the big stuff must be chopped up into little stuff. And it is enzymes in your horse’s gut that do this chopping.

It is easiest to think of digestive enzymes as little pairs of scissors. Let’s look at starch as an example. Starch (found in cereal grains like barley and corn/maize) is made up of lots of glucose molecules, all joined together. The job of the starch digesting enzymes in your horse’s small intestine is to cut starch into single pieces of glucose. Then it is the glucose that your horse is able to absorb.

Each nutrient has its own specific set of digestive enzymes in your horse’s small intestine. So, there are specific enzymes to digest/chop up starch, protein and fats/oils.

To learn more about enzymes and your horse’s digestive system, read our article The Gastrointestinal Tract: The Key to Feeding Your Horse

 

 

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