Cushings Advice

[Spangles]

Hello, if a younger horse is dignosed with Cushings/ PPID eg under 13 years, what would typically be the life expectancy compared to a much older horse developing cushings? Does it solely depend on severity of symptoms or is there a general window as I know it's probably progressive.

 

[splashgirl45]

I think it very much depends on each individual horse , some can be stable in 1 prascend daily and last for many happy years. Mine was a very aggressive version and I got up to 4 prascend a day and her levels were still rising above what they should have been.. she had a good 5 years and I lost her at 25.

 

[Spangles]

I think it very much depends on each individual horse , some can be stable in 1 prascend daily and last for many happy years. Mine was a very aggressive version and I got up to 4 prascend a day and her levels were still rising above what they should have been.. she had a good 5 years and I lost her at 25.

Thank you very much

 

[Tiddlypom]

It depends. My now 17yo mare was diagnosed after a routine screening test at age 11.

She went straight onto 1 prascend per day, and 6 years later that is sufficient to keep her symptom free and her ACTH levels comfortably within the normal range.

My vet says that if a horse needs more than 2 prascend tablets per day then there is something in addition to PPID going on.

If you've just had a horse diagnosed with PPID, good luck. It's not the best news, but some horses can be managed very well with it.

 

[meleeka]

Mine has been on Prescend for around 11 years now. I don’t know the answer to your question OP, but if levels come down to acceptable, I would have thought they have a similar life expectancy to normal horses. Obviously with horse there’s a high chance that one of the other 50 million things they could get wrong will finish them off first anyway.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Agree, I think if you can keep their levels under control they probably have the same expectancy as others.
I have a 30 yr old, I’m not sure when he was diagnosed but it was before I had him and I’ve had him 8/9 years.
I also years ago had a TB who had it ages 7/8

 

[TwyfordM]

My mare got diagnosed at 9 and she's now 18.
Been on prascend/bova paste for a while as she struggled even on small doses of the tablets.
Paste has kept her healthy and happy, she doesn't quite have the summer coat she used to and doesn't build muscle as easily but other than that she's happy, healthy.

Off the meds she's hard to manage, lami etc flares and she's just very quiet. On it, she's her usual nutter self