Cushings Test Result for 20 year old ISH

C

Christmas Crumpet

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 August 2007
Messages
4,035
Visit site
Just got our test result back and it was 40. The vet explained that this is slightly above normal for this time of year but if he wasn't showing any signs of having Cushings then we didn't need to do anything about it.

Please can someone explain the levels to me - i.e what is normal, abnormal etc.
 
hi Carolineb Thanks for the levels info as i have also been looking for these.
I am now really worried as my horse was diagnosed with cushings a month ago with levels of 418 , i have read peoples post who have issues with horses of 200 .
He was started on the prascend a month ago as soon as we diagnosed , but there seems to have been no effect he is declining all the time :( each week there is somthing new . This is heart breaking as i only really got the vet out as he had a swollen sheath and has had history of tumors on his sheath as he was happy out hacking schooling and competing up untill september and looked great. i did notice he has been hanging onto his coat slightley longer but most older horses tend to do this and he is 23 .
Thanks again for info !
 
Hi Carolineb, my mare was tested last year and came back at 45 - the vet said the same to me as they have to you.... we tested again this year and she has come bk at 60 so stared her on Prascend 1/4 tablet a day for 8 days then 1/2 a tablet after that... dont panic but ensure you test again next year or sooner if you have worries xx
 
looby loo said:
hi Carolineb Thanks for the levels info as i have also been looking for these.
I am now really worried as my horse was diagnosed with cushings a month ago with levels of 418 , i have read peoples post who have issues with horses of 200 .
He was started on the prascend a month ago as soon as we diagnosed , but there seems to have been no effect he is declining all the time :( each week there is somthing new . This is heart breaking as i only really got the vet out as he had a swollen sheath and has had history of tumors on his sheath as he was happy out hacking schooling and competing up untill september and looked great. i did notice he has been hanging onto his coat slightley longer but most older horses tend to do this and he is 23 .
Thanks again for info !
Click to expand...

Many drugs take at least 3 weeks to reach a useful level in the horse's body so don't be too worried just yet, plus Pracend can give some horses a dose of depression and inappetite for a while. Unfortunately the tasty treats they love which might perk them up are always sugary so banned :( Why don't you ring the vet and discuss your worries? Then arrange a retest as it could be that the dose is just too low. A level of 418 is pretty bad so he has a lot of ground to make up.
 
Yeah i did have vet back out thursday just gone as he has declined and further issues appeared. He advised it wasnt worth testing again so soon as it wouldnt have made much of a difference as of yet ? he said another month would be more worth while and in the mean time spend my money on the medication, he also didnt advise to up dose as he was so down in the dumps . The swelling he had in his sheath has now spread to his stomach and is dropping closer to the front end each day , the vet advised that he may have a recurring tumor inside his sheath higher up blocking lymphatic drainage as we have tried him on antibiotics and no joy so ruled out infection. He advised me to keep him out as much as possible and hopefully the swelling would drain naturally.But this is not as easy as it sounds as he doesnt want to be out he is just standing at the gate he is also now not able to stretch to the groung for his feed or water have had to raise both on feed bins, so grazing is also out of the equation . So i really dont know what to do for the best the vets advise on this was to give hime bute and keep the necessities raised . it is heart breaking watching him like this :(
 
carolineb said:
From what I can gather, 50+ is a positive Cushings result. Beneath that is fine?
Click to expand...

unfortunately not. As someone said check out the laminitis site for more accurate info.
My first horse tested at 39. (<29) a month later he was dead. My second tested as 11 (<29). Vet decided he was OK. Luckily I had researched cushings in detail after I lost the first one and realised he had just about every symptom of cushings. Treatement with prascend confirmed my diagnosis.

The test result is simply a numbers game. It doesn't work that way. You need to look at symptoms as well and in very great detail. Most people have no idea of the symptoms. Hairiness and laminitis are some of the final symptoms. There are a lot more before that.

As Micky said go and look at the laminitis site. It has a whole lot to do with cushings. If I had a reading of 40 I may not put the horse on prascend as yet it would depend on the symptoms but I would immediately change it's management to make sure it was the best possible to cope with a potential cushings horse.
 
looby loo said:
Yeah i did have vet back out thursday just gone as he has declined and further issues appeared. He advised it wasnt worth testing again so soon as it wouldnt have made much of a difference as of yet ? he said another month would be more worth while and in the mean time spend my money on the medication, he also didnt advise to up dose as he was so down in the dumps . The swelling he had in his sheath has now spread to his stomach and is dropping closer to the front end each day , the vet advised that he may have a recurring tumor inside his sheath higher up blocking lymphatic drainage as we have tried him on antibiotics and no joy so ruled out infection. He advised me to keep him out as much as possible and hopefully the swelling would drain naturally.But this is not as easy as it sounds as he doesnt want to be out he is just standing at the gate he is also now not able to stretch to the groung for his feed or water have had to raise both on feed bins, so grazing is also out of the equation . So i really dont know what to do for the best the vets advise on this was to give hime bute and keep the necessities raised . it is heart breaking watching him like this :(
Click to expand...

looby loo has your horse had a blood test to check his protein levels? Why can't he reach/stretch to the ground? My horses acth was retested 4 weeks after starting it and then the dose increased. He got worse before he got better and its taken nearly six months to see a difference in him although he still looks ribby now.
 
Thanks silverfire it does give me hope an I know I just have to be patient for it to kick in, yeah the vet done every test possible urine kidney/liver function protien bloods urine , everything came back normal apart from the lympocytes level an the cushings , I really don't know why he cant stretch an the vet didn't seem to either and then today he had a funny episode like a moment of absenceness and loss of body function , I have been reading how the pituatry gland can enlarge and somtimes press on nerves an things I am starting to think this could maybe be a reflection of his levels of 418 as I am sure the gland must be working so hard to produce levels line this has anybody ever witnessed nerve difunction in cushings horses ? Sorry for big essays !
 
looby loo said:
Thanks silverfire it does give me hope an I know I just have to be patient for it to kick in, yeah the vet done every test possible urine kidney/liver function protien bloods urine , everything came back normal apart from the lympocytes level an the cushings , I really don't know why he cant stretch an the vet didn't seem to either and then today he had a funny episode like a moment of absenceness and loss of body function , I have been reading how the pituatry gland can enlarge and somtimes press on nerves an things I am starting to think this could maybe be a reflection of his levels of 418 as I am sure the gland must be working so hard to produce levels line this has anybody ever witnessed nerve difunction in cushings horses ? Sorry for big essays !
Click to expand...

Are his lymphocytes raised? Is your vet a horse vet? (as in just does horses vet)
 
Yep he is just a horse vet an it was the head vet who came out , he had a tumor from his sheath removed in feb had to go in for a week an have his penis removed an bad flesh taken away an then it sown back on (in laymans terms), they suspect that is reason for lymphocytes raised an reason behind fluid that it has spread further so he has that going on too aswell as severe levels of acth , I am just praying that we can get him on track for some quality of life , how old was your horse who took 6months to even out ?
 
looby loo said:
Yeah i did have vet back out thursday just gone as he has declined and further issues appeared. He advised it wasnt worth testing again so soon as it wouldnt have made much of a difference as of yet ? he said another month would be more worth while and in the mean time spend my money on the medication, he also didnt advise to up dose as he was so down in the dumps . The swelling he had in his sheath has now spread to his stomach and is dropping closer to the front end each day , the vet advised that he may have a recurring tumor inside his sheath higher up blocking lymphatic drainage as we have tried him on antibiotics and no joy so ruled out infection. He advised me to keep him out as much as possible and hopefully the swelling would drain naturally.But this is not as easy as it sounds as he doesnt want to be out he is just standing at the gate he is also now not able to stretch to the groung for his feed or water have had to raise both on feed bins, so grazing is also out of the equation . So i really dont know what to do for the best the vets advise on this was to give hime bute and keep the necessities raised . it is heart breaking watching him like this :(
Click to expand...

I would not guess at chushing levels they are set by the labs and can vary a lot the labs set the levels as per time of year to what it should be ,many factors are taken into account to set theses
Levels.I would listen to your vet only .Let him tell you the level set by the lab and what your horses level is in comparison that is the only sure way,rather than guessing.
You could try walking him as many times a day as you can.get people to help you 10minwalks
20mins as many times a day as you can short walks get swelling down,get things moving.
You could also suggest biopsy swobs of sheath to see what you are dealing with.chushings is
not nice till you get it under control.you could also ask about
Vitamin b12 to see if that will help pick him up.I go of experiances
But always always ask your vet.
h
 
Poor boy! Mine is 20 yrs old. He was tested end March because test was free and he had lost bit of weight and couldn't regain it. He had lost his winter coat as normal. His acth was 91.4 but as he wasn't showing any real symptoms of cushings he wasn't given prascend. Then April/May he grew a really thick coat and still hadn't regained the weight so end May he was put on 1 pracsend a day. Three weeks after starting it he got mild lami, was retested at 4 weeks and his acth was 57 so because of the lami increased dose to 1.5 tablets a day, tested again 4 weeks later and down to 23 or something like that. In June/July he was still growing his coat, he has never grown a thick coat before, it was really long and he went really old looking and he also got really bad thrush not helped by standing on wet hay so stopped soaking his hay as hes not metabolic. He also probably had liver fluke like my other horses. Clipped his coat off in August, finally sorted the thrush in Sept then he started leaving his feeds and was scoped with some ulceration which the bute he had for the lami and thrush probably made worse. He does look much better now, his coat has stayed quite thin, hes even moulting a bit and his face looks young again. Hes still bit ribby but eating well and today he was cantering round the field which is first time hes done that since May.
 
Silverfire said:
Poor boy! Mine is 20 yrs old. He was tested end March because test was free and he had lost bit of weight and couldn't regain it. He had lost his winter coat as normal. His acth was 91.4 but as he wasn't showing any real symptoms of cushings he wasn't given prascend. Then April/May he grew a really thick coat and still hadn't regained the weight so end May he was put on 1 pracsend a day. Three weeks after starting it he got mild lami, was retested at 4 weeks and his acth was 57 so because of the lami increased dose to 1.5 tablets a day, tested again 4 weeks later and down to 23 or something like that. In June/July he was still growing his coat, he has never grown a thick coat before, it was really long and he went really old looking and he also got really bad thrush not helped by standing on wet hay so stopped soaking his hay as hes not metabolic. He also probably had liver fluke like my other horses. Clipped his coat off in August, finally sorted the thrush in Sept then he started leaving his feeds and was scoped with some ulceration which the bute he had for the lami and thrush probably made worse. He does look much better now, his coat has stayed quite thin, hes even moulting a bit and his face looks young again. Hes still bit ribby but eating well and today he was cantering round the field which is first time hes done that since May.
Click to expand...
Wow how nice well done Listen chushings is not nice we know it will probably kill them.It gets worse before it starts to get better.But wow they can have quality
OF LIFE when people care . They can look how they did
and do what they did mine was on two and a half pergolide
thirty years old looked fabulous qualified for olympia .loved life .It can be bad
it can be good xx
 
Yeah I think perhaps quality of life was not a good choice of words but I just hadn't heard of anything of how they get worse before they get better I really glad I posted on here it really helps to hear success stories from people who have dealt with it instead of bad dealings, but I must say I have not read one post with a horse with levels above 270:( , I think it is hard with him having this growth and history of tumors along with the cushings because cant be sure how much of symtoms are down to which , and seeing him like this I cant ever imagine him getting bk to how he was but now knowing it can be possible gives me hope <3
 
looby loo said:
Yeah I think perhaps quality of life was not a good choice of words but I just hadn't heard of anything of how they get worse before they get better I really glad I posted on here it really helps to hear success stories from people who have dealt with it instead of bad dealings, but I must say I have not read one post with a horse with levels above 270:( , I think it is hard with him having this growth and history of tumors along with the cushings because cant be sure how much of symtoms are down to which , and seeing him like this I cant ever imagine him getting bk to how he was but now knowing it can be possible gives me hope <3
Click to expand...
mine had excellent quality of life certainly not at the begining loads of problems to sort out was awfull to watch.He also had bad sheath problems it was by no means easy or cheapHis intial reading was 300 but out of what level set by the lab i cant remember and it went down after starting treatment
He looked terriable but returned to looking and feeling his fabulous self. I worked so hard .I have just explained all this.I have also know many horses to do the same .I canot comment on yours
nor would i see your vet i have also known it to turn very nasty very quickly.
 
The area i come from and labs we have used may set the levels out of 29 and above have got it.
Then it maybe 250 and above have got it.As i used to compare each result .The vet explained to me the levels are set by the labs they can vary , depending on lab used what we do is get figue of lab say it may be 29 or 50 or 250 is normal for time of year then compare the horses reading.
So the only way i could compare two tests was if the labs had set the normal range figures the same as year before and used same lab.I had a reading of 300 from one lab.months later 28 of another .so vet explained to me.Hope makes sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top