Anyone know what to do?

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Bri2013

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I have a new forrest pony he is 15 years i have had him all his life and a few years ago he started to have 1 day a year that he would just drip with sweat all over his body (only for 1 day) and he does it every year now. He also started going lame on all his feet, but he has never had laminitis! All year round he is lame, i have had the vets out but they aren't very good up here and they didn't know what it was. any suggestions welcome.
 
To be on the safe side I would treat him as if he has laminitis (I would think this is your most likely diagnosis) has he been tested for Cushings?
 
Does he drink a lot? And is he on a diet containing sugars/cereals/starches? Sounds as though it could be Insulin Resistance, did your vets not suggest a glucose urine dip strip test? You can buy the strips from any chemist, get a clean container (sterile if poss or at least rinsed out with hot water) take a sample when he is peeing and dip the strip as per the instructions with them. If he has a high glucose level in his urine, you should be able to manage it by reducing any sugars and cereals in his diet. Put him on a sugar/starch free diet (unmollassed beet pulp, grass nuts etc - read labels) and retest after a month or so. It's quite easy to manage once you know what you are dealing with.
 
When you say he doesn't have Cushing's, did the vets give you a copy of the blood results or at least tell you the actual figure he came in at compared with the reference range of the lab used?

If not, do ask for a copy of the report.

Also, check whether his result was fairly borderline (within a few units of being a positive result). Cushing's is progressive, and so it's quite possible for a pony to be starting with Cushing's but still come in as supposedly "normal" on the blood result.

Liphook do a lot of the ACTH testing for Cushing's. They produced a newsletter earlier this year saying there's a real grey area in interpreting results. If your pony falls in this grey area, and is showing chronic laminitis then it's probably worth trying him on a pergolide trial for a couple of months and seeing what difference it makes.

Are there any very obvious horizontal event lines on his hooves? This is what my borderline cushing's mare started to develop, and they have grown out since being on pergolide. Her diet was consistent (same hay for 6 months, same management regime), so the only thing which could account for the lines in her case was a metabolic issue.

Here's a link to the Liphook newsletter mentioning the grey area: http://liphookequinehospital.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/LEH-Newletter-February-2013.pdf See the second page for ACTH (Cushing's) stuff.

Sarah
 
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