>>>> Karen, can you recap a little about ulcers... how to tell if your horse has them, symptoms, what to do, etc.
I assumed when I agreed to take Tivar that he would have back issues. His symptoms were a sour attitude, and a tendency to buck, although he'd never bucked hard enough to unseat a rider. I thought I'd see what I could do with him. Since I'd had Gracie and Loftur, I knew I had access to a vet who is great with back ailments, using either eastern or western medicine, or a combination of both. I had Tivar's teeth checked immediately, and they kind of needed floating, but not badly - you might say they were due, but not past due. The vet also did acupuncture on him, but where we see immediate and obvious results with Gracie after a session, it was like nothing had changed at all with Tivar...he'd had acupuncture before I was told, but the session here didn't help. His attitude was just as sour a couple of days later (they get at least one day off after acupuncture) as it had been. In fact, the vet told us that his back was amazingly pain-free - she said she rarely saw one as non-reactive on exam as his was. Tivar also had the most dramatic reaction to his nose being handled of any horse I can remember. He has great ground manners in general, but he almost knocked me down the first time I touched his muzzle. He'd do it no matter how gently we tried to approach him, even with some VERY patient handling. When the vet sedated him for the floating, she found the first clue: there were deep and old ulcers on each side of his mouth, right at the inside corners of his lip. Based on the scarring, she guessed that they had been there for many months, maybe longer. We decided since his symptoms were so vague, and that another symptom we immediately noticed was as sensitivity to his sides being touched, to take him next to the massage-acupressure guy who works with the vet a couple of hours away who helped Gracie and Loftur. When his sides were touched, by a human hand or by a stirrup, his reaction was VERY strong. He'd get an extremely pissy expression, refusing to go forward, and he'd even cow-kick up towards the foot in the stirrup. He also made a gesture to bite at the stirrup. I made an appointment with him at the clinic on a day the vet would be in, so he could do the massage and if necessary, call the vet in for a quick assessment for what to do next. So, the second opinion was essentially the same as the dental vet's opinion: his back wasn't bad at all, but everyone could easily see the pissy attitude. The massage guy told me he wasn't the typical horse that he works on, and that he suspected his problem might be internal...and considering that Tivar's symptoms only first appeared after his first 'tolt training" experience, and that they would magnify in any subsequent "training" environment, it suddenly seemed pretty plausible. Also, I'm pretty sure that Tivar's first bucking attempts came after he was ridden in a tight, Icelandic-style saddle that may have even had a damaged tree. When that vet, the one with the wonderful track record with Gracie and Loftur (and who has even been an Olympic team doctor) came over to see Tivar that day (the first time he'd seen him) he offered a couple of suggestions. His first thought was ulcers, since we'd already checked him for the other first-suspects. He told us that he could scope him for a positive diagnosis, but that scopes can't see what's in the deepest reaches, so even a negative scope wouldn't be conclusive. Or, he suggested, we could just save the cost of the scope and treat him with UlcerGard. My good friend is a vet, and after I got home and discussed it with her, she called the makers of UlcerGard. She was happy with the lack of negative side-effects...and she had the foresight to ask how big a horse would the normal dosage treat - and the answer was 1400 pounds. She asked about a 750-ish pound horse, and they advised half a dose. So, I went ahead and treated him, giving him the 3-4 weeks off, only doing some VERY light groundwork with him, and mostly grooming him or taking him for walks on the trail. The results were amazing. His attitude picked up immediately, and he stopped the cow kicking over the stirrups touching him. He was willing to go forward, eager to see the world. It was quite a dramatic change, as I'm sure some of you remember from my updates I regularly posted here during the period. Tivar also had many saddle-fittings over the years and the consensus was that he is best in a treeless saddle. We tried the Barefoot on him and it was fine, but eventually decided to try the Sensation on him. He was equally good in the Sensation. One other really odd thing: when he came to us, he had marked "divots" behind his withers - one reason I'm sure saddle fitters recommended him use treeless saddles. Just before he was to go to Janice, I noticed that, while the "divots" were still there, part of his natural conformation, they had filled in, noticeably in just a couple of months. When Tivar first came, he would even trot in a very ventroflexed frame sometimes, even in the pasture. After the treatment, and after he came to trust that we weren't going to "train" him, he relaxed, and didn't hold his head so tightly. I think his posture (from pain/tension) had caused the divots to be much more pronounced. Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED] No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.485 / Virus Database: 269.13.14/999 - Release Date: 9/10/2007 5:43 PM
