Gastric Ulcers in Horses: Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS)
  by Robert N. Oglesby DVM

Equine gastric ulceration in being increasingly recognized as a cause of poor performance in adult horses and serious gastrointestinal disease of foals. Up to 93% of race horses get stomach ulcers, regardless of age. Almost 60% of other performance horses have stomach ulcers. Up to 57% of foals have stomach ulcers, particularly during the first several months of life. Increasingly we are recognizing that even the activities of pleasure horses can promote ulcer formation.

Most horses and foals with ulcers show no signs of illness but in the last few decades a constellation of symptoms commonly associated with horses in training has been associated with the presence of ulcers and has come to be called "Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome" (EGUS). Traditionally these horses have been experiencing what has been called "training let down" and these symptoms center around a horse in training that begins to do poorly for no easily observed reason.

There are Other Causes of Ulcers

This article will focus on the type ulcers that occur in adult horses in training and describes clinical signs, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of adult horses with EGUS.

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