Equine gastric ulcer syndrome and the challenges facing clinicians

Abstract

Equine gastric ulcer syndrome is the most common disease of the equine stomach. This article gives an overview of the syndrome and reviews the available literature to answer questions clinicians face when treating and managing these cases in equine practice. Equine gastric ulcer syndrome has, in recent years, been further defined into two distinct syndromes: equine squamous gastric disease and equine glandular gastric disease. Primary equine squamous gastric disease is the most common form of the disease and results from prolonged exposure of the mucosa to gastric acid in an otherwise normal gastrointestinal tract. Secondary squamous gastric disease occurs as a result of delayed gastric emptying caused by inflammatory bowel disease, pyloric stenosis, severe glandular gastric disease or gastric impaction.