A Year In The Life Of A Cushings Pony

[Kellys Heroes]

A bit of a gushy, sloppy post!
What an absolute wonder drug Prascend is! And we owe everything to our lovely farrier who has worked his ass off for her and worked absolute magic.
My share mare came down with laminitis in summer 2010. Since then, she deteriorated and became unable to walk out of her stable - we have had ups and many downs and have come close to losing her many times - the vet recommended euthanasia (farrier determined it was Cushings). We decided judging on her determination and attitude that we couldn't justify having her put to sleep and we had to give her a chance - demanded Prascend. Vet then did bloods - highest end Cushings
Prascend and 2 weeks later she actually started to walk by herself...
From then on, we took it so slowly, literally a step at a time, letting her wander around the yard (she couldn't go very far, very fast!! )
Today, I had my first hack out on her in 14 months. We are still riding her with someone on the ground as she isn't very sure of us being back on her and everything seems so new!!

Sounds silly today, but her attitude has been so positive all the way, she never stopped shouting to us from the stable and her cheeky side shone through all the time.
I am so, so proud of her and I never thought I'd see her confidently walk over stones or cobbles on the yard again without her going down.
K x

Summer 2010 - padded feet

Winter 2010 - just able to potter outside her stable

Summer 2011 - special tiny turnout paddock!!

Naughty side coming out!!!!!

Starting to look better...

Feet feeling good!

Going for a walk - Nov 2011

And here we are today.....we 'hacked' out today for 10 minutes (honestly even to have her tacked up and be sat on her is amazing!)

 

[SuperCoblet]

Wow, what an improvement! Well done you!
She's beautiful btw

 

[TopTotty]

Really glad for you.....what a long journey! My mare refuses to take the pracsend and has just had lami this last couple of weeks....much better but not sound yet....
Good luck with your horse and all the best.

 

[Petalpoos]

What a lovely, happy story. Your grin says it all!

 

[Phoebe+Sophie]

What an amazing recovery! She certainly looks well!

 

[Kellys Heroes]

Oh, I nearly cry every time I get on her now!! At times I never thought we'd ride her again but at that point all we wanted was to see her well whether we rode again or not. I am so proud of her and yes, she is beautiful but I'm biased
Jeni, we give her her prascend concealed in the hole of 3 polos if its in feed she spits it out.
K x

 

[Kellys Heroes]

*proud bump*
K x

 

[SizzlerB]

What a lovely end to the story and long may her improvement continue. My mare was diagnosed in August. She too won't eat her tablet in her feed, I hand feed it to her amongst 5 or 6 nuts and she doesn't bat an eyelid!

 

[canteron]

I too had to fight my vet for a Cushings test don't get why they are so reluctant sometimes, I think its their professional pride?

Brilliant story, after 3 months on Prascend my horse now looks better than he has looked in years, it is a great drug.

 

[OWLIE185]

Well well done to you for getting her back to being ridden again. You really have done very well.
One thing which may help you (Always worm your horse each year for encysted small red worms as they can cause Laminitis - they are not detected in a worm count - only deteccted by blood tests).

 

[redmone]

Sooo sooooo happy for you!!

Well done! You should be really proud of her, but also of yourself for keeping the faith in her and looking after her so well.

Now all you have to do is stay on her

 

[Tammytoo]

So happy for you, we went through the same highs and lows, thought of PTS at one point, but the vital spark has always been there so we couldn't give up on her. Hope you bought your farrier an extra big mince pie for Xmas!

Prascend is a godsend, rather expensive but to me worth every penny to have a happy, bouncing rideable pony! She's been on it for 3 years now and we get her bloods checked every October to make sure she's on the correct dosage to see her through winter which is the worst time for lami in Cushings ponies.

Lovely pics. and sweet pony.

 

[Tonty Tont]

It's lovely to see her looking so well

I'm really happy for you, and hope she continues to improve

 

[Sophstar]

I too had to fight my vet for a Cushings test don't get why they are so reluctant sometimes, I think its their professional pride?

Brilliant story, after 3 months on Prascend my horse now looks better than he has looked in years, it is a great drug.

The majority of us share the same vet at our yard and he is the complete opposite. A fellow livery suffered with severe laminitis and was on box rest for 4 months and my little pony had a very mild 3 day spell of it and simply talking to the vet on the phone, the first thing he said was 'he needs a blood test for cushings.' He is a strong believer in the majority of laminitic episodes being the result of an underlying problem. Friend's pony ended up being diabetic and my boy has cushings..so I am deeply grateful for having a very good vet!

Congrats to your girl...looking great!

My boy gets his tablet in an apple slice (then he figured out it didn't taste quite right and he was a little reluctant) so now moved on to carving a hole in a piece of carrot and putting a tiny splodge of black treacle to make the tablet stick so he can't seperate it out Easy peasy

 

[ruby1512]

Another thumbs up for prascent here my boy had a bout of lami last April, the first thing my vet did was blood tests, it turned out that he was insulin resistant and he has Cushings, he's 12 years old ( so he's on 24 Metformin a day and one Prascent, but he's improved a great deal, he's a pig so scoffs all his tablets crushed and mixed in with his food which is a relief, theres not much that puts him off his grub lol lol