We are able to utilise this fantastic piece of equipment to view the upper and lower respiratory tract of horses with the 1.5m endoscope able to view the bifurcation of the lungs. Imaging the guttural pouches and upper airways is now much more rewarding when everyone can see what is going on. This piece of equipment also allows us to guide treatment in a much more user friendly and accurate manner. The 1.5m scope can also be used to look into the bladder and the uterus and has been used by the small animal team to look into large dogs stomachs and view the upper small interesting.

Our Gastroscopy clinics have again proved popular. Our 3m video endoscope is able to view the entire stomach of larger horses and reach the upper small intestine of our smaller equine friends. It is imperative that horses are adequately fasted prior to their gastroscopy and withheld from water shortly prior to the procedure to allow good visualization. We have found a large number of horses with clinical signs that have various grades of gastric ulceration from the squamous mucosa to the pyloric glandular mucosa. Treatment with antiulcer medication has seen a dramatic improvement in the horses clinical signs and a lift in their performance. It is not uncommon for gastric ulceration to be related to grumpy/sour behaviour and once these have been treated we find with further investigation that there are underlying lameness or pain issues going on. In some cases getting to the bottom of the horse’s poor performance or attitude is a process of elimination. The clinical signs of gastric ulceration can be vague and non-specific and include:

• Weight loss
• Ill thrift/failure to thrive 
• Low grade colic
• Poor appetite
• Grumpy behaviour
• Diarrhoea/stressy nature
• Girthiness 
• Poor performance 

If you suspect that your horse is suffering from gastric ulcerations, please do not hesitate to contact us at VetSouth Equine and we can talk you through the process of having your horse scoped for gastric ulcers.  

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