Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome

is possible that the physiologic stress associated with illness causes ulcer development.
Diagnosis
While a horses history and a description of clinical signs are important in diagnosing gastric lesions including ulcers veterinarians rely on an endoscopic examination gastroscopy to make a definitive diagnosis. Prior to the examination the horse is usually fasted for eight to ten hours and denied access to water for one hour. The procedure itself for which the horse is sedated consists of passing a threemetre flexible videogastroscope through the nasal passage of the horse into the stomach same as passing a nasogastric tube.
The stomach is insufflated with air and distended until the glandular and nonglandular regions can be observed. A systematic approach for assessing the stomach and duodenum first portion the intestine exiting the stomach is used. When the gastroscopic examination is completed the air from the stomach is removed using a suction pump. Most practitioners use a grading system that was developed by the Equine Gastric Ulcer Council to classify the gastric lesions in the nonglandular portion of the stomach the system ranges from Grade 0 normal to Grade 4 severe ulceration.
Clinical Signs
Clinical signs of EGUS often vary according to cause location and severity of the gastric ulceration and age and general wellness of the horse.
Adult horses The most common clinical signs of gastric ulcers include lowgrade colic poor body condition and decreased performance but these can vary some adult horses with endoscopic evidence of gastric ulcers may show no signs or very subtle symptoms. Most gastric lesions in adult horses are found in the nonglandular squamous mucosa especially adjacent to the margo plicatus but lesions in the glandular region around the pylorus opening from the stomach into the duodenum of the small intestine are not uncommon.
Neonatal foals With gastric ulceration neonatal foals may suffer from colic and diarrhea grind their teeth or salivate continuously have little or no appetite and tend to lie on their backs. Since very few foals with endoscopic evidence of gastric lesions show symptoms if any of these clinical signs are observed chances are the ulceration is severe. As in adult horses the majority of gastric lesions in young foals are found in the nonglandular squamous mucosa. However physiologic stress associated with illness has been linked to gastric ulcers in neonatal foals and these lesions are typically found in the glandular epithelium.
Treatment
Since excess acid exposure is the main reason behind squamous mucosal