Illness & Injury

Hydrate for a Healthy Horse

By Jess Hallas-Kilcoyne - For all the time that we spend deliberating about what type of hay to feed, or whether to add this supplement or that, the majority of horse owners tend not to spend a great deal of time thinking about the most important nutrient of all – water. Water helps maintain the healthy functioning of all the organs and systems in your horse’s body. Among many other things, it is essential to aiding digestion, regulating body temperature, eliminating toxins from the body, and lubricating the joints.

clinical signs of equine gastric ulcers, how to check horse for gastric ulcers

If your veterinarian has recommended a gastroscopy, sometimes called a “stomach scoping,” he or she probably thinks your horse has equine stomach ulcers, which aren’t uncommon in horses. In fact, 62 percent of horses have them to some degree.1 The good news is they can be treated – and prevented in the future.

Trots, Equine Undifferentiated Diarrhea, Luis Arroyo, horse Diarrhea, Ontario Veterinary College Teaching Hospital, equine gastrointestinal parasites, Clostridial organisms, Equine diarrhea prevention, equine loose feces, equine gastrointestinal tract

Diarrhea is the hallmark clinical sign of equine colitis (inflammation of the colon), a condition which can occur in horses of any breed, gender, and age. Horses are particularly susceptible to acute, severe, and sometimes fatal diarrheal illness because of their large colon and caecum. Considerable progress has been made in the last decade in understanding what used to be called “colitis X.” However, many cases of colitis have no known cause. Therefore, in a large proportion of equine cases, the cause of the diarrhea cannot be established. These cases are usually classified as undifferentiated, undetermined, or idiopathic colitis, which is a diagnosis of exclusion made once other known causes of colitis have been ruled out.

how to treat equine colonic ulcers, clinical signs of equine colonic ulcers, identifying colonic ulcers in horses

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in awareness among horse owners of the detrimental effects associated with Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS). Despite this additional attention paid to the equine digestive system, it remains focused primarily on the horse’s foregut, often ignoring disorders of the hindgut, such as colonic ulcers.

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