Double trouble

MEET THE EXPERT

DR BEN SYKES is associate professor in equine internal medicine at Massey University in New Zealand and has been a vet for more than 22 years. He has worked with a wide range of horses, focusing on racehorses, breeding stock and sport horses. He is especially interested in clinical research and his research has focused on gastrointestinal diseases.

PREVIOUSLY, EQUINE GASTRIC Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS) was seen as a singular condition mostly affecting racehorses and other high performance horses. Recently it has been recognised that as well as the more commonly identified squamous ulceration, we now know of another gastric condition — glandular ulceration — that is diagnosed and treated separately. Although the prevalence of ulcers in racehorses remains high (between 80% and 100% of horses in training), vets and researchers are now increasingly seeing