Cushings and Pergolide

I

Izzy1

Active Member
Joined
4 February 2007
Messages
43
Visit site
I really need some advice! My 12 year old pony has been ill for most of the year. She started with a skin infection, swiftly followed by a chest infection, impaction colic and laminitis. She is very slim and we have always been very careful with her grazing. The vets were very puzzled by all of her symptoms and she was referred to a specialist and we treated the laminitis and she came sound again for a few weeks. Unfortunately she became lame again about seven weeks ago. She looked a little "footy" mostly on the right front so we brought her straight in (she was in at night anyway) and did the usual stuff(rest, deep bed, bute, soaked hay etc). After a few days and no improvement vet was called and in view of everything finally decided to cushings test her and it was positive! Hurray we thought!! Explains everything! Started her on pergolide 1mg (had for 3 weeks now) and got some imprint shoes put on about 10 days ago after xrays showed some fairly significant pedal bone rotation particularly on the right front. Hoped to see some improvement but today she is desperately lame. Doesn't want to come off the bed, is dropping condition, is really thin. She is really miserable (and I don't blame her) and I don't know where to go with it all. Has anyone else had the experience of not responding to pergolide? We have asked for another blood test to see what is happening. How long do we keep going with this? She has been in for seven weeks now and is absolutely no better and in fact the worst I have seen her today. I am beginning to lose hope but she is such a wonderful little pony I am wanting to get her better but am worried that she is not improving? What should I do?? Any advice very welcome please!!
 
Get youself onto the yahoo Cushings Group! They have some wonderful people on there who will be able to answer most if not all of your questions and more.

Most of them have ben there, done that with their horses. They will willingly offer any support you need. Yes they are based in the States but there are people from the UK there too.

EquineCushings@yahoogroups.com

*big hugs*
 
Thank you so much for that! I have just gone on to register and see if someone can help me. Really sad about her. My daughter who is only 7 is devastated as she is devoted to her pony and we are really all struggling to watch her suffer and so miserable. We want to try everything for her but you get to a point after months of her being in a stable with no company and no quality of life where you begin to question if you are doing the right thing for her. Thank you very much for your suggestion.
 
Huge hugs as we've been there only recently with my daughters pony. We started to see some very slight improvement at 10 days on Pergolide, but most people see small improvements after 3 weeks, I've been told. It could be that the dosage is not quite right. It's worth bearing in mind that they can get a 'pergolide veil' at 7-10 days of treatment where they seem really desperate and symptoms worsen -you probably need to discuss this with your vet as dosage is usually reduced and gradually increased. Also diet is crucial. The Cushings group on Yahoo are expert with the diet. It is american so you have to make adjustments for the feed differences. I think the key thing is to cut everything out of the diet apart from well soaked hay and unmollassed sugar beet but then you need to add vit/min supplements to make up for the losses. Try to take it day by day. I'd given up on my little mare, but there has been a very gradual improvement along with many ups and downs and she's now putting on weight on just hay. It's taken 5/6 weeks of Pergolideto get to this stage, though.
 
My pony had a bout of laminitis one winter and then another the following winter. The second bout was awful - he was in a stable with rubber matting and a deep shavings bed and couldn't walk across it to get to his water bucket. He was on danilon (wouldn't touch bute) and ACP. He was tested for Cushings and was positive. Xrays showed pedal bone rotation and he had imprints put on. There were times when I really thought we should give up, but after 10 weeks of box rest and the imprints, he started to improve and very gradually he got better. That was over 5 years ago and he has been on Pergolide ever since at 1mg per day. He was recently tested again and his levels were good. He is on a pretty strict feeding regime and I do have to be careful with him - but he has a happy life, so there is hope! I know he has been lucky and I really hope your pony is too.
 
Thank you all!! I will hold out some hope then. She has been in for nearly 8 weeks now so it seems that there may still be some way to go with her!! I will plod on and hope that she gets the chance to!!
 
Pergolide works by inhibiting the excess hormone release from the pituitary gland.
Therefore it does take a while for the effects to show (can take a month or two) as the effects of the hormone "rebalancing" occurs.
However, with the severe laminitis, it might be worth askin for an increase in the dose if you are that concerned (can wean the pony back down to a small dose after balance has been achieved and so hopefully stopped/reduced the lamintis sufficiently).

Its worth just rediscussing with your vet I think! Its worth sticking with the pergolide so long as you can keep the pony comfortable as it really is a "super drug"!!!
 
I would stick with the pergolide for now to give it a chance, but one of my ponies responded better to periactin, a different drug and one you can buy over the counter at any chemists. Obviously you don't want to swap yet and you need vet's advice too in case they don't recommend it for your pony, but worth a thought if pergolide doesn't work.

I have had several ponies with cushings and they each responded differently to different regimes. Managed to get one back to competition work after being very lame (took a year) and we used plastic shoes on him which worked a treat.

It is horrid and I sympathise as it's always harder when it involves a child - is he on any other pain killers, like bute and acp? Mine started on quite a cocktail but it helped a lot.
 
She has been on bute for the last 8 weeks and started off on ACP but stopped this after a few days on the vets advice. She has imprint shoes on the fronts. Was soaking her hay but have been unable to do this for past week or so as it kept freezing in the tub! She is obviously lying down a lot judging by the state of the bedding each time I go and skip out (usually at least 2-3 times a day). Drinking loads, starving hungry but dropping weight and there was no weight to lose in the first place so she is very thiin now. Put her in a warm rug. Started her on a bit of L-Mix and Happy hoof to try and keep her weight on and might swap over to the Blue bag of Horsehage which is 7% lower in sugar than hay but more nutritious. Not sure of the value of soaking hay sometimes - read around this loads and lots of opinions! Poor little thing. It's a hard to keep her weight up on what is essentially a diet for slimmers. I guess I can only wait to see if she improves but she is still extraordinarily lame after nearly 8 weeks in a stable. Previously she has shown improvement after a couple of weeks and been sound to go out after 5-6 weeks. I think she has been so ill for so long it is just probably going to take a long time and that is fine as long as she is stilll eating and has a twinkle in her eye!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top