Cushing’s mare no longer tolerating Prascend

Nearly six months after coming off Prascend altogether and 🤞 23yo senior mare is still doing well.

She’s flown through her 6 monthly chiro vet check this morning, which included walk and trot in straight lines on the hard then walk, trot and canter on the lunge in the arena. Correct strike off first time both ways. Chiro vet says she looks fabulous. She needed work on a tight area near her SI, but that was only apparent on palpation. Will bring her next chiro vet forward to 3 months time to check her SI area again.

She was distinctly cheeky this morning with a real mischievous glint in her eye, which is lovely to see.

So we don’t know much longer we’ve got with her, but she’s grand for now.

Her on Saturday.

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Finding the grass under the snow on 20/11/24

 
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I'd recommend the stim test over the standard test, every day. It's far more accurate.

We had a cushing pony who we introduced to pracsend very slowly. He did great on it for many years, until he didn't.

The meds slow the progression and I knew it wasn't a cure, so I decided to take him off the meds and leave him to live a happy few months without.

He was 33 and went a few months later with the sun on his back and a mouthful of treats.
 
I’ve heard elsewhere that one of the chemicals needed for the TRH stim test is currently unavailable due to some production or licensing problem. So no stim tests atm.

ETA

Stim test

Has anyone has any luck with their vets getting the TRH Stim test in stock? Mine havent been able to get it in stock for nearly a year and its the only reliable test for him we sort of have to guess the ACTH one
forums.horseandhound.co.uk forums.horseandhound.co.uk
 
I have been bracing myself for M’s latest ACTH results from bloods taken on Wednesday, her first results since coming off Prascend completely. Although she is definitely brighter off the Prascend, I feared that her ACTH levels would have rocketed.

They’re not bad at all, phew. She’s come in at 36.0, with the reference range being 34.0, so she is barely over. 13 months ago, when she was on 1.5 Prascend tablets/day, she came in at 23.0.

In 2019 she was on 2 tablets a day to control her levels.

I’m keeping her off Prascend permanently, she can’t handle it anymore.

The other mare, who at 18yo has been on 1 tablet/day since 2017 and tolerates Prascend well has cruised in again well under at 18.2. With vet’s approval I’m going to drop my other mare down to 0.5 tablet/day and retest her in 6 weeks - I want her on the lowest effective dose. I need to be prepared to put her back on 1 tablet a day during the autumn rise.
 
Tiddlypom said:
I’m keeping her off Prascend permanently, she can’t handle it anymore.
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A good update from today, and I totally lied when when I posted the above back in December!

I thought s0d it and trialled her cautiously on just 1/4 tab for six weeks, then upped it to her current dose of 1/2 tablet per day. NB, it’s much easier to split Pergoquin tablets into quarters without a cutter than Prascend. She coped much better than I feared when reintroduced to Prascend/Pergoquin and it’s done her good, but I won’t up the dose any further. She was once on 2 tablets/day.

She’s doing well at age 24yo, and on her most recent blood pull at the end of March her ACTH had dropped back to the lower end of the grey range at 20.6 (grey range 19 - 34).

One of the senior vets came out today for routine jabs and commented on how well she looks. She’s easy to manage except for keeping on top of thrush and seedy toe with regular foot care - I trim her myself. If you think you can see some clay traces around her feet you can - that’s today’s application of Red Horse Field Paste, most but not all of which ended up on her 🤣.

She still has all her own teeth, too, though they are getting quite worn now. The vet dentist saw her last week. She’s carrying a bit too much condition now despite me getting her to the end of winter deliberately on the leaner side 😬.

She’s bright, cheerful and happy, which is the main thing.

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She looks wonderful TP! So shiny and no where near her years!

I think never make a strict plan re these things, sometimes I up or down my two ponies dose. I try and keep them both as low as possible and find that they do fairly well like that. They both had a full dose tonight as it’s rained but they have been on a smaller dose through all this dry weather with no grass and just hay in the field, it seems to do them well to almost risk it now and again and get it out of their systems maybe, or at least minimise!
 
Tiddlypom said:
Senior mare, now 23yo, was diagnosed with Cushing’s over 10 years ago, and has been on daily Prascend ever since.

Recently she had become a little dull in a similar way to the Prascend veil that affected her every time her dose was titrated up. The vet says that some horses become sensitised to and can no longer tolerate Prascend, even if they have been ok on it in the past, and recommended cutting her dose back.

Now I’ve had to take her off even the half tablet a day that she was left on, though at one time she been on 2 tablets a day.

She seems grand and bright for now, but time will tell. If she can’t cope either with Prascend or without it, then that will be decision made - I’ll be watching her closely. It’s quality of life over quantity for me, but as she’s doing so well I’m cautiously hopeful.

Anyone else had to take a Cushing’s horse off Prascend?
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I took my horse off it. I tried for nearly 2 yrs on / off / on / off / on but he got so depressed & wouldn’t eat feed or hay. Just seemed miserable all the time, even refused his extra strong mints. He’s a thoroughbred X & very much throws to the lighter Tb stamp so needs to keep eating to keep weight on. I stopped even trying with Prascend. He’s 26 now & been off it 3 yrs & is back to his old self. I’d rather have a happy horse for a shorter time than a miserable depressed one for a longer time.
 
Mari said:
I took my horse off it. I tried for nearly 2 yrs on / off / on / off / on but he got so depressed & wouldn’t eat feed or hay. Just seemed miserable all the time, even refused his extra strong mints. He’s a thoroughbred X & very much throws to the lighter Tb stamp so needs to keep eating to keep weight on. I stopped even trying with Prascend. He’s 26 now & been off it 3 yrs & is back to his old self. I’d rather have a happy horse for a shorter time than a miserable depressed one for a longer time.
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Glad to hear that he’s back to his old self now 🙂

It’s an art as much as a science managing these oldies with issues, isn’t it. The main thing is - ‘Are they happy?’, rather than just prolonging life for the sake of it.
 
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