cushings disease in a five year old?

[charlie76]

I have a young horse in the yard who a little concerned about. He was poor when he arrived and although he is better six months on, with the work he is doing his top line is non existent. He has a ribby appearance with a pot belly. He also has an unusually thick and coarse coat for his type. He drinks an awful lot, much more than any horse on the yard and has a few warty, ulcer type things that come and go.
He is on amazing grazing, ad lib quality hay and is feed twice a day on sugar beet, hi fi, nuts, calm and condition.
I will be getting vet but thought I would pick brains.

 

[Whisp]

It's not impossible... However I'd be concerned there was something else going on. Are there any other symptoms? Is he putting weight on or does he look poor?

ETA do you have buttercups in your fields? They can cause blistery marks (usually on the muzzle but I've seen them on legs and stomachs).

 

[ihatework]

Well my 7yo has literally just been diagnosed with full blown cushings!!!
He has shown sketchy loss of performance over the summer period since a 4/5 yo.
So I don't think it's impossible, although rare.

 

[fatpiggy]

Sounds like you are feeding more than one mouth - full of the nasty wigglers. I'd get a worm count and bloods done.

 

[charliejet]

I agree with bloods and worm counts, also blood test for worms as well but wouldnt do any harm to add in the free Cushings test when the Vet is drawing blood anyway.

I have a 7 year old horse with it and looking back she had it age 6, so it is possible.

Also early cases are hard to diagnose and often test negative so a negative test does not rule it out. If all other bloods came back clear and your Vet thought there were clinical signs then dont rule it out. Good luck.