Health update

Quick update on Sunny. After becoming stuck on the fence last Saturday he is doing well overall. He did rip open his surgery site during that episode and then the next two subsequent sets of sutures only lasted about 12 hours each... So now it is "healing by 2nd intention", or in non-vet words open and healing like any other typical horse injury.  So far it is granulating in nicely and should be healed in a week or 2.  He is confined with Rogan to the dry lot for another few days until the granulation tissue fills in just a little bit more as we don't want to risk him re-traumatizing it again!

Today Sunny had his endoscopy appointment to check for ulcers and recheck osteopathy to address in tightness from being stuck. The endoscopy showed a few yellowish plaques along the pylorus area that indicate healing ulcers as well as grade 1/4 ulcers along the margo plicatus (the border between the non-glandular top portion and glandular bottom portion of the stomach).    This border is a very common place for ulcers as it is closer to the gastric juice and more likely to get 'splashed' with gastric acid.   Thankfully the ulcers were very minor which indicates we are doing okay with the current system and few small tweaks may get us where we need to be or perhaps this might be an 'acceptable' level of ulceration considering that he is actively ridden and competed (is there an acceptable level??).  The studies show that ulcers are exceedingly common in actively used horses and even found in pasture pets... so I am going to do my best to keep him comfortable but we are still going to ride, compete, etc.  The plan is to treat him with gastrogard and tweak his management to help prevent future ulceration.  Certainly, I am going to give the him the preventative dose of Gastrogard prior to rides. I am also going to be more aggressive about either making sure he eats alfalfa, alfalfa mash, or if he refuses to eat the alfalfa I plan to administer a buffer (such as Magnalax or ProCMC) prior to and during hard conditioning rides.  I am going to feed him alfalfa twice daily in addition to the current free choice grass hay. I may try Chaffehay alfalfa and see how he likes it when I am out of tractor supply alfalfa.  I also am going to continue minimizing his concentrate, just enough to taste good with his ration balancer.  He receives California Trace ration balancer supplement to balance out the high iron hay in my local area and provide minimum amounts of lysine, biotin, vitamin E, etc.  However, the California Trace doesn't provide adequate amounts of Vitamin E for an actively competing endurance horse, so until the spring grass comes-in the horses continue to receive 1000 - 2000 IU of Elevate Vitamin E daily.. [Vitamin E is present in large quantities in fresh grass but rapidly degrades in stored hay]  Per Dr. Garlinghouse and Patti Stedman's online advice I am also adding salt to the feed daily (in addition to a free choice salt block). The purpose of the salt (besides providing basic daily requirements) is to adapt the horse's taste to higher amounts of salt so they willingly eat salty mashes before and during trailing and endurance rides.  I am optimistic that things still look good for No Frills and we are headed for 55 miles!