Gastroscopy is a commonly performed procedure and involves the passage of a camera attached to a long pipe into your horse’s stomach. We perform many gastroscopies primarily to assess for the presence of gastric ulceration. We will also sometimes use the gastroscope to help examine and manage cases of choke that are either recurrent or problematic.
We are able to perform gastroscopy both in clinic or at your yard, however there are a couple of requirements that you will need to ensure happen to allow full visualisation of your horse’s stomach. Please starve your horse completely for at least 16 hrs prior to examination and remove water 3 hours prior to scoping. For those horses that live out it is normally possible for you to drop them off at the clinic the night before to ensure they have been starved properly.
To perform gastroscopy your horse will receive sedation and the procedure normally last about fifteen minutes.
