Post-mortem findings of gastric ulcers in Swedish horses up to one year ofage: A retrospective study 1924-1996

Necropsy records from 702 horses, less than one year old that were subjecte d to necropsy between 1924 and 1996 were used to estimate the prevalence of gastric ulceration in younger horses and to evaluate some potential risk f actors that may contribute to the development of gastric ulceration. Inform ation concerning breed, gender, age, season of death, clinical signs of col ic, medical treatment, parasitism and documentation of diseases in differen t organs were recorded, as well as size, number and anatomical distribution of ulcers. Gastric ulcers were found in 96 of 702 young horses (14%) and g astritis in another 64 animals (9%). The cutaneous region adjacent to margo plicatus (51%), and the corpus region were commonly affected (46%). The in vestigation clearly demonstrates that gastric ulceration has affected young Swedish horses to a similar degree during most of the 20th century. A sign ificant (p less than or equal to 0.05) association between gastric ulcers a nd the signs of colic, parasitism and a concomitant intestinal, liver, and oesophageal involvement was found. No breed or sex predilection with gastri c ulcers was obtained. The risk of gastric ulcers was highest during the fa ll (odds ratio 3.52) and lowest during the summer (odds ratio 0.45). The se asonal variation could not be explained by concomitant findings of Gasterop hilus larvae. By using a multivariate logistic regression analysis, only se ason significantly influenced the risk of gastric ulceration.