Cushings??

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dressagecrazy

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I know many of you will or have had or be currently treating a horse with Cushings, my 26yo TB has just been diagnosed.

Unlike many Cushings sufferers you really woudnt know he had it outwardly at all, but little things have been making me question like he's come down with WLD & then soon after very low grade lammi, i have had him out in the arena ever since & he picked up well.

While my vet was here doing routine Vaccs i got a blood test done.

My Very experienced vet really couldnt understand fully why i wanted him testing but agreed as he knows that often im right.

Well my horse has floored the vet & the results confirm he has Cushings he also has high Insulin levels, so keeping him T/O in the arena off grass is really the very best thing i could of done, thank god.

He is to start on 1 tablet a day of Prascend tomorrow.

So now i get to my many questions:D,

Did you suffer any loss of appitite with your horse soon after starting the drug?
How & what did you do to get them to keep having the tablet?

How long did the appitite loss last for?

Also how long was it roughly after starting Prascend or Pergolide that you noticed improvements?

Is there any other advice you can give me??

The horse is already very well managed & is only fed Topchop Lite & Baileys Lo-cal along with Haylage. He struggles to eat hay otherwise i would have him on Hay.
He's currently off all grass & will be for some time & he is an Ideal weight despite the Low grade Lammi which is as i susspected Cushings induced.

He is BF so i catch things early but we have been struggling with WLD for 2 months now he has never had it before, we are certain that once his Cushings is under control the WLD will go.

Thanks so much for reading & hopefully answering my questions.:):)
 
It was a long time ago but moms old horse had cushings. His coat went very curly, but he was never to my knowledge on and sort of meds for it. He lived to be a good 32 and we lost him to colic just before he turned 33. Although he went rather ribby he never lost his appetite, or his cheekyness, was still being hacked out happily.
 
My friend has had her pony on Pergolide for about 5 years now. Every now and then she has a lami scare, she has a coat like a yetti these days, but she is bright, happy and has a good appetite. She is allowed to graze, but uses a muzzle, her pony is only out during the day. I think when you have a horse that is already 26, you have to accept that each year is a bonus, as long as they are living a happy life.
 
I have a 32 yr old pony in the yard .Diagnosed last Sept. he is not laminitic, has fairly unrestricted grazing,access to haylage whenever stabled and a small feed .
He is very picky about feed so I found the best way to give meds. is in a piece of apple fed before feeding.He did lack appetite last winter only seeming to want grass, rather a problem during the snow.
He is now on half tablet every other day doing well,his condition in now stable,his coat much finer and he looks great for his age.
He is also in regular work and hopefully will do a few comps later this summer.
 
I think the loss of apetite is sometimes linked to taking the tablet as by all accounts horses dont appear to like the taste.

You can crush the tablets, but for getting things down, a small sandwich (i use marmite as low sugar and b vits in it :)) with stuff inside and goes down a treat.

My girly is a classic cushingoid pony...yet equally bizarrly as yours doesnt have it - just has still held her winter coat on legs and face, wees for england, goes nice and curly in winter and very prone to footyness/lami :rolleyes:

I hope it helps for your boy, sounds like he is in a good place with you :D
 
My twenty odd year old rescue gelding was diagnosed six weeks ago. He started prascend 1mg per day

He did go off his food for a few weeks, but I'm not sure if it was caused by the drug or the fact that the cushings wrecked his teeth and he was undergoing endodontic treatment.

I ended up literally chucking the tablets down his throat, but it worked.

He's now been eating again for about 6 weeks. he eats the tablet in his feed.

He had all the signs of cushings except lammy pretty much. He's only been on meds for 6 weeks and already he has lost the coat, put on a bit of weight (still a long way to go), he's got more energy, he's happy again. Its so lovely to see.

Good luck with your horse!
 
My 23 y o TBx was dx in June 2009. I did not believe it either but it was my vet that suspected after a summer of hell - mud fever, cracked heels, rain scald, urticaria and then, despite regular worming programme, his FEC was high. I called the vet as he had LGL in spring/summer 2008 and repeated again in 2009. He has been barefoot for five years now and tender footed each spring/summer since 2009. He started on Pergolide after dx and there was a loss of appetite but that had already started along with the depression and lethargy. He also had excess sheath secretions which has stopped since his ACTH levels are under control.
I got a lot of help from the Yahoo group Equine Cushings and Insulin Resistance, they have masses of information to learn about the condition I would recommend you becoming a member so you can access it all.
Loss of appetite when you begin treatment with pergolide can be avoided by beginning with a quarter of a tablet for three days and then increase to half for three days etc. If you're already having problems getting your horse to eat stop treatment for a day or so then proceed as EC/IR group advice.
I followed their advice on increasing dosage until ACTH is down to normal level so my boy ended up having 5 tablets in order to control the rise!!!:eek:
He has never suffered any adverse side effects and there are horses in the US on up to 10 mg daily:eek::eek: with no ill effects - and the threat of lami is removed once levels are normal.
Good luck, PM me if you want more support, I'm almost an expert now after three years of trying to get my boy's feet comfortable each spring. Take a look at my album of Matty, he's a Cushings horse in diguise also:D
 
Hi,
my share mare is 17 and she got diagnosed with Cushings at Christmas after many episodes of quite bad lami for no apparent reason. The vet eventually tested her and it turned out she has a quite severe form of Cushings. He gave us 3 weeks for her to improve or PTS.
She lost her appetite a little after going on Prascend (1mg a day) but we think it was just down to the fact we were obviously trying to poison her! :p
She has her tablet in 2 polos, hidden in the hole :)
She started to improve in about 2 weeks, and is now starting to have little walks daily and has come on in leaps and bounds, we are so pleased with her! :)
Here she is now;
272846_10150219626093279_508808278_7006356_7569980_o.jpg

Try not to panic too much; the tablets help immensely and lots of people can't even tell she's got Cushings now! We also have her on a suppliment called Cushy Life :)
Please PM me if you want any more details/experiences etc
K x
 
My NF was diagnosed early this year after a random mile Laminitis bout. Had him on Pergolide - but after 3 weeks he refused to eat anything at all - tried all kinds of ways/food to get the tablets down him - no luck, tried apples, mints, crushed into a marmite bread, blow piping down throat, syringing - which caused way too much stress, after much research i decided to put him on Cushylife and a few other herbs and he has completely transformed - went from a dull woolly coat to a sleek and shiny coat, shedding his hair normally, and has his energy levels back too. I am fully aware - after vet informing me that some respond to other treatments and others dont, it may last, it may not. I will cross that bridge when it comes to it, but for now he is a completely happy, healthy pony.
 
Thanks everyone for your great advice & answering my questions. I dont have any options left but to try the Medication unfortunately, im really hoping he gets on with it.
 
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