Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome: Prevention, Management, and Recent Treatment Advances

Equine gastric ulcer syndrome is a common condition affecting up to 50-90% of performance and racing horses. The presenting clinical signs can be straight forward in some horses, while others present with vague histories of reduced performance or a lack-lustre demeanour. Likewise, some respond readily to treatment and management changes while others continue to have lesions despite multiple courses of seemingly appropriate medications. Management of EGUS includes not just therapeutic interventions, but also an analysis of the daily husbandry, feeding and dietary practices as these may all play a role in development and recurrence of EGUS. Unfortunately, there is no one simple treatment to cure EGUS and as a result, there are a plethora of therapeutic interventions available for prevention and management, but not all of them are created equally. The good news is that in the last decade there has been a lot of work to find new treatments for those refractory cases, and while we still do not have the answer for all of them, there are more options available for treatment, management and prevention of EGUS than there used to be. This presentation aims to discuss some of the key management practices that can be used both for prevention and as part of treatment of EGUS, as well as touching on some of the newer therapeutic treatment options that have become available in the past 5-10 years.

1. Recognise the risk factors associated with EGUS and how these may differ case by case.
2. Understand the importance of educating owners on management programs for to help reduce the occurrence and recurrence of EGUS.
3. Understand the different medications available for treatment of EGUS, including a brief recap on recent literature pertaining to the newer therapies available.

Dr. Sarah Gough is a boarded internal medicine specialist through the European College of Equine Internal Medicine. Sarah has previously worked both in Australia and the UK at the prestigious Rainbow Equine Hospital. For the past 5 years, Sarah has been back in Australia at Hunter Equine Centre in Scone, where she is the Clinical Lead as well as internal medicine specialist in the hospital and intensive care unit. Sarah’s main areas of interest are neonatal medicine, ophthalmology, cardiology and workup of poor performance cases including dynamic endoscopy, exercising ECGs, equine gastric ulcer syndrome, and managing muscle disorders. However, during her time both at Rainbow Equine Hospital and more recently at Hunter Equine Centre Sarah has been actively involved in clinical evaluation of some of the newer gastric ulcer medications.