I didn't want to step on "Icrazyaboutu's" thread on Bart. I am so very very sorry things turned out this way

I do want to share my own experience in the hopes this might help someone else.

In 53 years of horse ownership, I have only experienced mild colics 3 or 4 times.

I almost lost my heart horse of 22 years (the horse in my avatar who is now coming 25) to a major colic in March.

It was a blessing the vet was able to get here within the hour and that was at 7:00 PM.

He did the following:

1. Tubed with mineral oil, probiotics and I don't know what else.
2. Gave Duke a shot of some kind of pain killer.
3. Had his high school age son hold an IV drip in Duke's neck.
4. Acupunctured Duke above the coronet band to help with pain.
5. Instructed me to give Duke a double dose of Banamine at 10:00 PM.
5.1 It was ok to let Duke lay down "deer style" but laying flat out was a no-no.
6. Called me at 10:30 that night & again at 7:00 AM to check on Duke.

I could have easily lost a horse who had never had so much as a tummy twinge in his entire 24 years.

Duke took nearly 10 days to snap out of that and still wasn't up to speed.

When the vet came for issues on a different horse, he noted Duke still didn't look himself and drew more blood for more tests.

That was in early May; before those tests results were back, Duke colicked again.

The emergency vet came out that morning. She stated Duke may very well be dealing with ulcers, specifically hind-gut ulcers, as opposed to gastric ulcers.

There is a new method of testing for hind gut ulcers that is very simple for the owner<---gather a stool sample.

Duke tested positive for hind gut ulcers.

Before the emergency vet left, she gave me a tube of EquiOtic and suggested I follow that with Succeed, another paste form of microbials.

Duke looks and acts like his old self for the first time in a long time. Succeed is $90/mo but he will stay on this stuff at least thru the summer.

That is because he has Equine Metabolic Syndrome which, evidently, has played more havoc with him than I realized. Duke has never been anything but a trail horse and is the alpha dominant in my herd of four.

Not a lot of outside stress to merit hind gut ulcers, so it has to be the EMS.

I said all that to say:

1. The treatment Duke received is what one should expect from their vet. I didn't know what to expect because I'd never dealt with this sort of thing. I am lucky lucky lucky to have such a first class vet in my county.

2. As I look back in that ever-popular "hind sight", I can see that Duke was gradually starting to not feel well. He kept trying to tell me but I wasn't smart enough to get it figured out.

Whether it's gastric stomach ulcers or hind-gut ulcers, they are much more common than many of us would think. Even if the horse doesn't really do a lot of stressful work. Sometimes what goes in the feed pan can bring on ulcers.

Pay attention to your horse. It's the subtle little things that raise half an eyebrow and then you quickly dismiss it that might be the things leading up to a major health event.

This is where it is important to have a good working relationship with a vet. Knowing when to call them and when not to, goes a long way in getting them to actually pay attention to you.

The next thing is to pray you do have a vet that knows precisely how to treat your horse for the emergency at hand.

I don't expect my vet to know a lot when it comes to the metabolic issues two of my horses are living with but I do expect him (or the ER vet) to know precisely what to do when there's a colic, a choke, or someone needs stitched.

I put this on the forum only to help raise awareness, based on my own limited but horrible experience, in the hopes it will help someone in some way.

Having a responsive vet is the next crucial piece of the puzzle which can be very difficult if one lives many miles from the nearest vet and that vet might know more about cows than horses

This is very helpful, thank you. And I'm glad that you had a good outcome. Cherish that.

Walkinthewalk. I am glad you had a good outcome but I am confused. Why did your vet take your horse off of EquiOtic when the daily feed packets and only about $65.00/month as compared to Succeed at $90.00.

If you go to both of their websites and read about what makes them both work, the difference is profound. Succeed is very healthy but only really has Oat Oil, and the outer cell wall of yeast and some other ingredients. Like I said, it is healthy but not the same as Equiotic. Equiotic's angle is that it is Equine sourced Lactobacillus reuteri which lives in the gut as opposed to just passing thorough.
I had the same problems on two horses you did, this is why I took the time to read the research. I would put the horse on Equiotic at $65.00.

It was the emergency vet that gave me the EquiOtic (only one tube) and then stated I might want to consider putting Duke on Succeed for awhile.


Based on how she made that statement, I thought EquiOtic was a prescription and would be more costly than the Succeed, so I did the "bobbing-dog-head" (because I've never had to deal with colic in such a serious way).


I did do some research and it doesn't look like EquiOtic needs a prescription. Correct? Not correct? I can get one from the vet if I have to.

I sure did notice the big difference in price but have been afraid to consider changing since Duke is doing so well on the Succeed. $30/mo difference is a whole bunch of money that I don't have. However, this is my heart horse of 22 years; I figured I'd have to just suck it up and plan on wearing my hair in a ponytail a lot longer than the summer months.


You are the second person to put EquiOtic above Succeed, not only in cost but effectiveness.


The other driving force was availability. We are fortunate to have a vet pharmacy in our county. He had Succeed on hand and had never heard of EquiOtic


Since the ER vet recommended Succeed, the vet pharmacy had it in stock, and I needed it "five minutes ago", that's what I went with.


Succeed happens to be the company that developed the fecal blood test for hind-gut ulcers, in case somebody's vet says it can't be done.


http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-dept/equine-large-animal-dept/preventing-ulcers-is-a-matter-of-timing.aspx and look at the yellow block on the right.

Your comments pretty much mirror those of a few others, so it looks like I need to head down the EquiOtic path rather than Succeed


I actually paid a little less for the Succeed at the vet pharmacy than I would have thru any of the typical horse catalogues that carry that stuff; hopefully I can convince him to order the EquiOtic, so I don't have to - lol


Thanks for the great input

If you goto Equiotic.com, you can order it direct. I got it because my vet works in Lexington, KY and he told me about the new technology. I know some of the largest TB farms have their foals on it. Good luck.