Does the SUCCEED® Equine Fecal Blood Test™ diagnose ulcers?
No. The SUCCEED® Equine Fecal Blood Test™ is a diagnostic aid that detects fecal occult blood — trace amounts of blood in feces that may be invisible to the naked eye — as an indication of ulcers or other GI tract conditions. Veterinarians should combine the SUCCEED® test kit results with other diagnostic methods to arrive at a complete diagnosis.
If my horse has a positive test result, does that mean it has an ulcer?
It means your horse has trace amounts of blood in its feces which may result from an ulcer in the digestive tract. It may also result from parasites. When parasites create a blood source in the digestive tract, they can often leave an open pit or lesion in the mucosal lining, which is a form of ulcer. A positive test can result from any bleeding lesion anywhere in the GI tract. Because horses, especially in performance, are prone to gastric and colonic ulcers, ulcers may be the most likely culprit of any positive test result. However, positive test results should be combined with other diagnostic methods to develop a complete diagnosis.
What does it mean if a horse has a negative test A and positive test H?
Refer to the instructions to understand the meaning of a negative test A and positive test H result. A positive Test H (bleeding from any location in the GI tract) combined with a negative Test A (bleeding is NOT in the hindgut) means your horse has trace amounts of blood in its feces from a source cranial to the duodenal-jejunal junction, or the foregut (stomach, duodenum, esophagus, etc.). This may be a result of a bleeding gastric ulcer, for example.
What should I do if my horse has a negative test A and positive test H?
Refer to the instructions to understand the meaning of a negative test A and positive test H result. You may recommend additional diagnostics to ensure a complete diagnosis, before initiating a particular treatment.
What does it mean if my horse has both a positive test A and positive test H?
Refer to the instructions to understand the meaning of a positive test A and H. Because the horse has a positive Test A, which indicates albumin in the feces from a source caudal to the proximal small intestine (i.e., the hindgut), and a positive Test H, which indicates hemoglobin in the manure from a source anywhere along the GI tract, the horse likely has an issue in the hindgut, such as colonic ulcers. But it may also have a condition in the foregut. You may want to also utilize gastric endoscopy to confirm if foregut bleeding is also occurring.
What should I do if my horse has both a positive test A and positive test B?
Refer to the instructions to understand the meaning of a positive test A and H. You may recommend additional diagnostics to ensure a complete diagnosis, before initiating a particular treatment.
What if the line on the test cassette is faint?
The SUCCEED® test antibodies are highly sensitive, detecting minute amounts of blood in manure. Any complete line – faint or strong – still should be read as a positive result. Only a broken line, or the absence of any line, indicates a negative result.
Can protein from feed sources trigger a positive test result?
No. The blood protein components utilized as antigens in the SUCCEED® Equine Fecal Blood Test™ are highly specific to equine blood.
My foal occasionally eats the mare’s manure. Can I still test the foal?
Test the mare first. A positive FBT test result for the mare means trace amounts of blood have been detected in the mare’s feces. If this occurs, avoid testing the foal. If the foal ingests the feces (sometimes referred to as corprophagy) of a mare with a positive FBT result, the foal would then also likely register a positive FBT test result that may or may not be a false positive.
What if a horse has an ulcer that isn’t bleeding?
Generally speaking, you may detect a non-bleeding ulcer in the colon (resulting in a positive Test A result only), but are not likely to see a positive test result for a non-bleeding stomach ulcer with the SUCCEED® FBT. Refer to the instructions for complete details.
In all cases, professionals should take care to use multiple diagnostic indicators, such as gastric endoscopy, CBCs and gross observation, in conjunction with the SUCCEED® FBT for a complete and accurate diagnosis. For practitioners experiencing a positive Test A without a positive Test H, one of the differential diagnoses should include a protein-losing enteropathy, especially in the presence of hypoproteinemia/hypoalbuminemia on a CBC/chem profile.
