cushings/ grazing..

tango'smum

tango'smum

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tango has cushings treating him with agnus castus, everyone is changing to winter grazing, in at night now.. i am really worried about laminitis..normally hes out at night... really dont know what to do..? also should he be on prascend or shall i just carry on with the agnus castus? hes happy and well..although his acth levels have gone up.. vet said the a/c was rubbish and to get him on prascend..??
 
his levels have gone from 205 to 245... vet said it was up to me i could leave him untreated, i dont really want to do that, he seems to be doing really well on the agnus castus... but like i said he's levels have gone up, although the vet tested 3-4 weeks into treatment, so i dont think it was long enough.
 
those levels sound really high to me, my mares was 171 and after 6 weeks of 1 prascend daily went down to 98 so going in the right direction. yours is going up even though you are using the herbal supplement(which is not proved to be effective) so i would be worried that he could get laminitis as this time of year is worse for cushings horses. how can he be doing really well if the levels are so high? and do you not trust your vet? i absolutely trust my vet and feel that she has given me good advice so i am following it..
 
splashgirl45 said:
those levels sound really high to me, my mares was 171 and after 6 weeks of 1 prascend daily went down to 98 so going in the right direction. yours is going up even though you are using the herbal supplement(which is not proved to be effective) so i would be worried that he could get laminitis as this time of year is worse for cushings horses. how can he be doing really well if the levels are so high? and do you not trust your vet? i absolutely trust my vet and feel that she has given me good advice so i am following it..
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Agree absolutely. AC generally only works in the short term, and if the levels are going up, it's obviously not working any more. I would get on the Prascend a.s.a.p. as it is approaching danger time for cushings sufferers, they can deteriorate very quickly and go down almost overnight with lami.
 
245 is very very high and you should be seeing most, if not all, of the sad symptoms that come with Cushings. He may appear to be happy and well but believe me, there are changes going on inside his body that may not be reversible unless you act fast. Symptoms include coat shedding problems, loss of appetite, weight loss, abdominal swelling, sagging back, excessive sweating, inability to regulate body temperature, confusion, skin infections that don't clear up, infestations that don't clear up, liver problems, breathing problems, pretty much you name it! Problems with the pituitary gland cause the symptoms of Cushings because the pituitary gland is known as the "master gland" since it controls so much of what happens in the body. My veteran Sunny's ACTH level was 200 and the vets told me that was very high so 245 needs urgent action. Your horse needs to be on Prascend, yesterday! Your vets may need to juggle the dosage for a week or two, especially as it's autumn. Sunny started on 1mg but after only 3 days it was clear he was getting worse so it was upped to 2mg. I missed the early signs of Cushings in Sunny due to ignorance of the disease (I only knew about the long, curly coat, which Sunny has never grown!) and consequently his symptoms (+ his age) are proving harder to resolve. Act now!
 
My 19yo retired gelding had a level of 78 when he was diagnosed with cushings. He has been on Prascend now for nearly 6 weeks.

He is so much happier on the tablets and much easier to manage to date - no laminitus and no abcesses for 6 weeks, hurray! Like the OP I would like to keep him out over the Winter, but am a little bit scared. I have been advised by an equine nutritionist not to even think about it unless his levels are down to 36ish. So fingers crossed hey!

As a matter of interest, my plans are to make him a tiny field around his field shelter, so that if I have to keep him in overnight I can just confine him to base camp while the ground is frostly and then let him out into the bigger field later - He will still be able to see his chums at Base Camp so hopefully will be as happy as he can be in the circumstances. This will solve his other problem - his legs, etc, fill up if he is confined to the stable, so I need to keep him moving.

It is such a minefield working out how to give him a good live and I really don't want to see him suffer with the lami anymore, but to date the Prascend really does seem to be improving both our qualities of life!
 
Canteron, why can't you leave your Cushings horse out overnight any more? At my yard, all the horses are in during the day (summer 9am to 2pm, winter 8am to 4pm) and out the rest of the time. We're lucky because the grass will last pretty much although of course the nutrition levels drop dramatically in the winter. All the horses are on this regime, rugged up according to weather, age, breed etc. They all thrive on it. I have absolutely no intention of altering Sunny's routine and am at a loss to know why I should if his Cushings is properly balanced with Prascend?
 
vet said his levels should be 47... hes 20 ish yrs old, we have moved to winter grazing, i am going to put him on already grazed field for an hour in the mornings...
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
Canteron, why can't you leave your Cushings horse out overnight any more? At my yard, all the horses are in during the day (summer 9am to 2pm, winter 8am to 4pm) and out the rest of the time. We're lucky because the grass will last pretty much although of course the nutrition levels drop dramatically in the winter. All the horses are on this regime, rugged up according to weather, age, breed etc. They all thrive on it. I have absolutely no intention of altering Sunny's routine and am at a loss to know why I should if his Cushings is properly balanced with Prascend?
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Box of Frogs, this is good to hear. Although he has never suffered from laminitus after frost before, we had such a horrible Summer (lami, abcesses) before he was diagnosed with Cushings that I feel he may be more susceptible.

He has however lost quite a lot of his crest and fat pads over the Summer so I am hopeful his ATCH(?) levels have dropped considerably but will wait until I get the latest test results before deciding that I dare let him out overnight. Its not so much the winter grass in itself but I won't risk frosty grass unless I know his ATCH levels have come down considerably!
 
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