Cushings - advice

[Magic_Merlin]

Hi
My 18 year old pony was diagnosed with laminitis back in June (first time he has had it). Was on box rest and now restricted grazing. Pony is back in work (driving), sound and is much happier. We recently changed vets and they came out to give pony a health check/teeth etc. Happy with weight etc - on the light side but vet/farrier say this is for the best. She ran a blood test to check for cushings while she was here (free test) and have just had the results that he is borderline. Apparently should be less than 49 and he is 51.8. So my question is what to do now...vet has given a couple of options including putting on tablets now (lifetime), more tests (insulin etc) at hospital or leave him for a few months and retest.

Anyone elses ponies/horses borderline? and if so what did you do?

Vet went through symptoms and other than the lami he is not showing any of the other common ones. Not drinking excessively, definitely not lacking energy and doesn't have curly coat (although winter coat came early).

Thanks for reading

 

[Oberon]

Join this Yahoo group - you will get excellent advice from them.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/EquineCushings/

My old boy is at 172 on 2.5mg a day

I wish my vet at the time had thought on to test us a couple of years ago when it was just starting (hindsight). Now I'm struggling to get it under control .

If you don't want to go for meds yet, you have the option of dietary control, J-herb and agnus castus - but the Yahoo group will advise you better about that .

 

[Hutch02]

Hi MagicMerlin

My boy was diagnosed six weeks ago, was only 24 over normal range but enough to cause an acute attack of lami at the beginning of August. He had rotation of all four pedal bones and is only 13. He had no other symptoms. Has been on presend for 6 weeks and levels are back within normal range. For me the decision to treat with presend was made because I could not afford for him to have amother lami attack, the drugs may not prevent a future attack but with careful monitoring through bloods and a lami diet the risk is greatly reduced. Good luck with whatever route you choose.

 

[splashgirl45]

my mare was diagnosed in aug 10 with a reading of 172, she started on prascend and ive gradually had to increase the dose to 2.1/2 and her levels are now just over 51 and the vet is happy with that so we are keeping her on the same no of tablets....my mare has never had laminitis but as yours has had laminitis previously it may be a good idea to start a low dose of medication..and then re blood test to check that it is working...the tablets dont cure cushings they just control the symptoms unfortunately there is no cure so i am just keeping fingers crossed for a happy healthy life for my horse.......good luck

 

[legaldancer]

My laminitic pony has just been diagnosed. She's a chronic laminitic but hasn't had an accute attack to my knowledge since 2001. We have owned her for 2.5 years, and we follow a laminitic diet which allows grass but not excessive. She is actually a poor doer, and doesn't hold weight easily.

She was slow to shed her coat this year and you could still just see her trace clip in July. She doesn't appear to have any of the other symptoms, but has rotation from a previous attack of laminitis.

We had her tested in June and she was "borderline high" at 30/31 when the level should have been 29 or below. The vet suggested re-testing in autumn which we have just done, taking advantage of the free blood test voucher.

She has just been diagnosed as cushingoid as her ACTH level was 75/76 and it should have been around 47. (The latter figure is seasonally adjusted)

The vet has put her on one prascend tablet a day.( she is 13.3hh)

She has only been on the tablets for a week, so no change so far, but she's a cracking pony and deserves everything we can do for her. As she has such bad rotation from the past, we cannot risk her having another accute attack of lami and although she is very susceptible I want to try and slow down the progression of this disease. She's approximately 22 by the way.