Anyone's horse been treated with metformin for EMS?

Wagtail

Wagtail

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My horse is currently recovering from a bout of laminitis. Vet suspects EMS as she is on a strict diet but I am finding it hard to shift the fat pads. Vet wants to do an glucose test as my mare was only borderline EMS with the normal fasting blood test. But as she is still recvering from lami I am worried that the glucose would trigger a relapse.

So has anyone ever treated their horse with metformin without having the EMS diagnostics done first? Is this something vets would consider? I will be speaking with my vet tomorrow in any case but thought I'd see if anyone had done this before. Also, those that have used the drug, did it help with weight loss?

My plan is to get riding her again as soon as possible so that I can address the problem with exercise, but think she probably needs the drug until I can replace it with exercise.

Thanks
 
According to my vet the glucose way is the old way and my big lad was done with bloods, they also tested for chushings as they said the two were linked.

He was put on Perigold, but he was only with us 5 weeks and we lost him anyway.

He did go right off his food when he started the Perigold, but it only lasted 3 days

Good luck -
 
Yes it would be a blood test. She would be starved for 12 hours and then given a glucose feed and the bloods taken two hours later. Horses with EMS will still have high sugar levels left in their blood as they do not respond well to insulin. My mare was tested positive to Cushings last year and is on one prascend a day. She was tested again last week and the levels are normal, hence why the vet is suspecting EMS. When she had a test for this last year it was borderline, but apparently doing the glucose feed is more reliable than just fasting the horse and taking bloods.
 
Hello Wagtail, we had the same problem and one of the vets on here very kindly answered a similar post I made, and said metformin could be used without tests. Our vet said no harm in trying, so our pony was on metformin whilst we couldn't exercise him...and he lost 20kgs!...and has only put 1kg. back on. Our vet said if he does put weight back on in the winter if it snows and we can't exercise him so much, we can always try another course of metformin.
 
Wagtail - i know exactly how you feel - if you do and something happens you will never forgive yourself, if you dont do the test you will never forgive your self.

I cannot advise any further, as i am debating what to do with my youngsters wolf teeth and a guttural wash - and change my mind every few hours, ad that is due to her having to be sedated.

Discuss your concerns with the vet - and if they gloss over them consider speaking to a senior partner.

How old is your horse ?
 
Janesomerset said:
Hello Wagtail, we had the same problem and one of the vets on here very kindly answered a similar post I made, and said metformin could be used without tests. Our vet said no harm in trying, so our pony was on metformin whilst we couldn't exercise him...and he lost 20kgs!...and has only put 1kg. back on. Our vet said if he does put weight back on in the winter if it snows and we can't exercise him so much, we can always try another course of metformin.
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Thank you! That was what I was hoping. I will do my best to persuade the vet on Monday. I hate having to starve horses for tests. They don't understnd why I am feeding all the others and missing them out. Also, it does their stomachs no good at all.
 
Gingerwitch said:
Wagtail - i know exactly how you feel - if you do and something happens you will never forgive yourself, if you dont do the test you will never forgive your self.

I cannot advise any further, as i am debating what to do with my youngsters wolf teeth and a guttural wash - and change my mind every few hours, ad that is due to her having to be sedated.

Discuss your concerns with the vet - and if they gloss over them consider speaking to a senior partner.

How old is your horse ?
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Thanks, Gingerwitch. She's eighteen. I looked at her today and she seems to have got fatter! :( Poor thing is on tiny soaked haynets weighed to total 1.5% of her ideal weight, and only one hard feed a day to put her supplements and medications in, and she has a channel down her spine which collects dust :o. She was doing so well before the box rest and looked slim and stunning.
 
One of my ponies had the glucose test for EMS earlier this year. He has a long history of bouts of laminitis, despite being almost on the light side of good. He's been tested for EMS and cushings when he had laminitis in the past and his tests always came back normal. This time we tested he came back normal for cushings but the glucose test showed a big change. He started on metformin and within a month or so went from being totally crippled on 4 butes a day to sound on no bute at all.

Starving them is cr@p but the only other option I had was pts so I had to try the test again first. He started on 12x 850mg metformin twice a day, he is now on 7 twice a day and sound. He is 16 and the vet says will be on metformin for the rest of his life. This episode was the 2nd time he was nearly pts because of laminitis but I am now very hopeful that he will be back showing next season.
 
TelH said:
One of my ponies had the glucose test for EMS earlier this year. He has a long history of bouts of laminitis, despite being almost on the light side of good. He's been tested for EMS and cushings when he had laminitis in the past and his tests always came back normal. This time we tested he came back normal for cushings but the glucose test showed a big change. He started on metformin and within a month or so went from being totally crippled on 4 butes a day to sound on no bute at all.

Starving them is cr@p but the only other option I had was pts so I had to try the test again first. He started on 12x 850mg metformin twice a day, he is now on 7 twice a day and sound. He is 16 and the vet says will be on metformin for the rest of his life. This episode was the 2nd time he was nearly pts because of laminitis but I am now very hopeful that he will be back showing next season.
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That is really good news about your boy. Laminitis is such a horrible condition and it really puts you through the mill, let alone the horse. Thank you for that, it is very encouraging.
 
My laminitic pony had a months course of metformin without tests, I wanted to just throw anything at him at the time as he was struggling to get rid of an abscess and this was causing issues in the opposite foot, it seemed to help kick start his system, his crest went down and he has fully recovered with no more laminitis and the weight has stayed off.
 
be positive said:
My laminitic pony had a months course of metformin without tests, I wanted to just throw anything at him at the time as he was struggling to get rid of an abscess and this was causing issues in the opposite foot, it seemed to help kick start his system, his crest went down and he has fully recovered with no more laminitis and the weight has stayed off.
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That's very encouraging, thank you. Will definitely be asking the vet to just put her on it. :)
 
We have an ems horse.

When I told vet after he said he was chubby was that he has always been that and we struggle to get weight off him so we tested for ems and cushings at the same time. Starved for 12 hours blood tested first thing then he could be fed.

His glucose was very high without food.
Started on the metformin and his weight dropped off. We are weaning him off of it but he had to go back on box rest as he had a huge abcess so we didn't want to take him off it while his exercise wasn't up.
Once he has gotten back into full work we while do more bloods and reduce.
 
Well I'm hoping that the vet will just let me try it, but if not, I will have to starve her for the test. But I'm still reluctant to do the glucose bit. Sounds like your horse was pretty bad to show up with such high glucose after being starved.
 
Tommy had a definite improvement when he started Metformin tablets. He was only on them for a couple of weeks, but, he became more stable from a weight/laminitis front and did seem to help him. Previously, the lami attack was just getting from bad to worse despite doing everything else.

Metformin was a last solution after searching EMS, as he did strike to be a possible type for it. We also had nothing to lose trying him in it as it wasn't looking good.

Of course in the end, everyone knows the Tommy ending on here [organ failure from amount of meds he needed to remain stable. It was kill or cure from the start at his size and how bad he had it], but, from the lami point of view, he did start getting better and having better results until then.
 
ChristmasSparkles said:
Tommy had a definite improvement when he started Metformin tablets. He was only on them for a couple of weeks, but, he became more stable from a weight/laminitis front and did seem to help him. Previously, the lami attack was just getting from bad to worse despite doing everything else.

Metformin was a last solution after searching EMS, as he did strike to be a possible type for it. We also had nothing to lose trying him in it as it wasn't looking good.

Of course in the end, everyone knows the Tommy ending on here [organ failure from amount of meds he needed to remain stable. It was kill or cure from the start at his size and how bad he had it], but, from the lami point of view, he did start getting better and having better results until then.
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That is really sad, poor Tommy. Was it mainly the bute that did it? Or was it because of the metformin and or prascend (if he was on it)?
 
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