Diet for old pony with Cushings

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Olderrider

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Madam was diagnosed last year with Cushings - and rather a high score too! Not laminitic, no hairy coat, in fact no obvious problems at all. So - medication and special diet recommended. Problem? Herself just refuses to eat anything that's recommended as suitable for her. Minus a few teeth so hay feeding is a problem, tends to be on the light side so needs extra to keep condition on. At one time she would eat speedi-beet to help her fibre intake, but now that's treated with disdain, so it's soaked conditioning cubes, hi-fibre cubes and chaff. Problem is, it's costing a fortune! Any tips to keep costs at an affordable level through the winter?
 
My 30 yr Old Shetland isn't PPID (Cushings) but has missing teeth and can't eat hay and I feed him soaked grass nuts at £10 a bag and and high fibre/HP cubes at approx £6 a bag. For condition I feed micronised linseed and T.E.N.S daily balancer.
It is costly when you can't feed hay. My little Shetland costs me as much to feed him per week as it costs to keep my cob on DIY lol.
Mine just makes a big mess when I add chaff so I stopped doing that and just feed as above. I find he prefers the fibre nuts left unsoaked but mixed in the soaked grass nuts to add a bit of texture otherwise he just slops it everywhere. Mine went off sugar beet...I think it's pretty bland , even with other stuff in it. Grass nuts seem really tasty.
 
D&H have just bought out a new feed for Cushoid sufferers called cushcare. My friend has trialled it with good results. Why don't you contact them and ask for a free sample?
 
I have tried a sample which she ate. However she started to eat the Rowan Barbary Solution Mash also Allen and Page Fast Fibre, Veteran Vitality and their Cushings trial mash - let me buy a bag (not cheap) and then said "No thanks" so I'm not too keen on trying yet another special feed. I'm interested about the grass nuts as I thought they might be too rich. And yes, she costs me more than my cob to keep too. I do give her micronised linseed as well.
 
Is she on medication for the cushings? I've heard that it can make them a bit fussy and lose their appetite.

I had a pony on loan for my son who was diagnosed with cushings (678!). I couldn't get her to eat anything......I even got a whole load of buckets with different foods in it and she chose just one to pick at. :(
 
Peregrine Falcon said:
Is she on medication for the cushings? I've heard that it can make them a bit fussy and lose their appetite.

I had a pony on loan for my son who was diagnosed with cushings (678!). I couldn't get her to eat anything......I even got a whole load of buckets with different foods in it and she chose just one to pick at. :(
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Ah - that's interesting to hear! Her score was not quite so bad at 423, but quite a shock for a pony with no symptoms. I'm quite tempted to just let her eat what she wants - recommended or not - as she lost quite a lot of weight when she was on the Cushings trial and stopped eating. Or stop the medication? She was fine before and she is 29 now.
 
Olderrider said:
Ah - that's interesting to hear! Her score was not quite so bad at 423, but quite a shock for a pony with no symptoms. I'm quite tempted to just let her eat what she wants - recommended or not - as she lost quite a lot of weight when she was on the Cushings trial and stopped eating. Or stop the medication? She was fine before and she is 29 now.
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I had similar issues with a 33 year old cushings pony, he wouldn't eat "suitable" feeds and dropped weight, so I put him on totally unsuitable feeds which he ate, my view and that of my vet was that he was not going to have much longer left so better he enjoyed his time, kept his weight on and lived happily rather than lose weight and potentially live a bit longer being miserable. It may not be ideal but at the end of the day if they lose too much weight they will struggle to keep going anyway.
 
be positive said:
I had similar issues with a 33 year old cushings pony, he wouldn't eat "suitable" feeds and dropped weight, so I put him on totally unsuitable feeds which he ate, my view and that of my vet was that he was not going to have much longer left so better he enjoyed his time, kept his weight on and lived happily rather than lose weight and potentially live a bit longer being miserable. It may not be ideal but at the end of the day if they lose too much weight they will struggle to keep going anyway.
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And that's my feeling too!
 
The Cushings isn't the problem (except that the Prascend suppresses the appetite but it is a temporary thing, normally a couple of weeks max) but the insulin resistance that normally accompanies it. So that indicates a low sugar/starch (cereals) diet - my old dentally challenged cushingoid mare has a total hay replacer diet,one of the staples which gets her interest is grass pellets. She has 55% unmollassed beet pulp (Equibeet is a lot cheaper than the quick soak versions if you can get it), 35% grass pellets and 10% Fast Fibre, all soaked for 12 hours, plus a decent vit/mineral balancer.
She doesn't eat it immediately, but has to have her own accommodation so she can graze on it throughout the 24 hours. She generally gets through two big tub trugs full a day/night and micronized linseed helps her maintain her weight.
I have to syringe her meds, she is so unreliable about eating, it is the only way to ensure she gets them, but she is looking okay for 35, on the above regime.
 
It's most likely the Prascend causing this. I had a terrible time with my shetland pony. We tried every feed you can think of but she would go off it in a couple of days. It will pass but can take a while. Mine was months rather than weeks but she's ok now. She does still have the odd day when she doesn't eat it all but is fine the next day. My pony is also insulin resistant which often goes along side Cushing's. I control that with magnesium oxide and salt. Her feed consists of unmollassed beet pulp, grass nuts and micronized linseed. The grass nuts are cheap enough at £7.50 a bag so won't break the bank for you to try. Good luck its hard but worth it in the end.
 
I feed my Cushing horse with Bran, Hi-Fi Mollasses Free, Baileys Lo-Cal, Linseed , Formula4Feet and Coc Liver oil all heavily soaked in water. Put lots and lots of Lo-Cal pony nuts in as she seems to like the taste of them. I make up two massive rubber bowl full to keep her occupied at night. (ie. 6 full scoops of Hi-Fi Mollasses Free and one scoop of Lo-Cal all well soaked),
 
Mine are now on Cushcare from D&H, Hi-Fi Molasses Free and A&P Fast Fibre. They were on Baileys No, 4, Hi-Fi Molasses Free and A&P Fast Fibre. I'm hoping that the extra protein, linseed, agnus castus, cinnamon and other goodies in the Cushcare are going to provide that little bit extra that they weren't getting from the previous diet which wasn't really designed for oldies but was a bit of a bodge together to stay low sugar and starch whilst keeping the weight on. They also get hay in the field and are out 24/7.
 
A Spillers rep gave a me a good tip: Their HiFi cubes (sold in 20kg bags) are almost identical to their Layoff Cubes, which are aimed at the racing industry. The Layoff cubes are sold in 25kg bags and are more economical, plus have some extras that could be useful for a Cushings horse (yea-sacc, extra antioxidants). Of course, a different brand of HiFi cube might work out cheaper still...
I also liked to add soaked alfalfa pellets to my old mare's soaked buckets (up to 20-30%), which is cheaper than the HiFi cubes. I've always been a bit cautious about grass nuts as they can have higher sugar levels, depending on brand and crop. Her teeth were too poor to feed chaff, so the mainstay of her soaked diet was HiFi cubes.
 
My cushingoid pony was very poorly before Christmas and lost 15kgs in weight. 'Safe' feeds just weren't helping her get better/put on weight so for a while I just fed her whatever she would eat and had lots of calories.

She has put on some weight and we have now settled on Fibrebeet, Top Spec Cool Condition Cubes topped up soaked grass nuts. I also add veggie oil (she won't eat linseed), Iron Aid supplement and Equimins Advance Concentrate. Top Spec CC Cubes don't have any vits & mins so I needed a really good supplement and Equimins is regarded as the best on the market.

My old girl also has Dengie Hi Fi Senior as a partial hay replacer. It is a lot softer and shorter chopped than most chaffs and she can eat it despite missing several teeth! :)
 
Dodson and horrel cush care, low sugar and starch and mine who's now fussy about food loves it, combined with 24/7 hay it's put all his weight back on and he looks great, plus it's crumbly and you can add water to make it into a mash if you want
 
soulfull said:
anyone know how long a 20k bag of linseed will last if fed a cup full twice a day?
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It depends on size of your cup. For linseed 100ml measure = 45g.
I feed about 250 mL per day (half a half litre pot) which is 100g, 20kg is 20 000g so should last me 200 days, about 6-7 months.

OP, if interested in grass nuts, I think the Emerald Green grass nuts are quite good, low in sugar and not made of rye grass. Simple systems also make grass nuts.
 
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My mare is 30 and on 4 prascend a day. When she was upped to 4 she got very depressed and stopped eating hard feed. Luckily she would eat hay all day

She now happily eats fast fibre and was having molasses free hi Fi but I think she's allergic. So I've stopped feeding it and increased the fast fibre
 
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