EMS Pony and LevoThyroxin

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BigRed

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My shetland has been diagnosed with EMS. He has laminitis, not badly, but he is clearly uncomfortable and is therefore stabled. His insulin levels were 58 at the first test and had reduced to 51, 6 weeks later. He is on 14 tablets of Metformin a day.

He has also had an ACTH test for cushings, which showed he was very borderline for Cushings, so we are trying him on prascend too.

He hates the metformin and it is very hard to get him to eat it. I am weighing all his hay (which is soaked) and he is only getting 1.5% of his bodyweight in hay a day.

Despite this, he is still not losing weight. His feet hurt too much for him to be exercised.

My vet says she wants to try him on a thyroxin treatment next - has anyone here tried this, was it effective ? what was the cost and the side effects.
 
Sorry I can't help with the Thyroxin treatment, but I can with getting the Metformin in!

I crush mine up in a coffee grinder and then add it to his dry speedibeet before I soak it - the tablets are absorbed by the speedibeet and he has no idea he is eating them :D
 
I grind my metformin too - in a pestel and mortar. I give it to him with a small amount of safe and sound, with sugar beet, but he still turns his nose up. It tastes very bitter - have you tried it ?
 
Hey my pony had the thyroid treatment but it did not make any difference to her unfortunately, she has perfolide and 10 metformIn daily. Your pOny may not lose much weight, the ems means my pony doesn't really, it is managed with the drugs though soxshe doesn't keep getting laminitis and can lead a reasonably normal life fir now. Good luck with urs, once the lami subsides andcu can exercise u may be able to get some of the weight off, mine is exercised every day which seems to help her.
 
Also forgot to add mine eats metformin with some sugarbeet and just chaff, they soften with the wetness and she eats them this way, perhaps worth a try?
 
What about clipping him out? Shetlands have fab coats which means he doesn't require calories to keep warm, he isn t moving so no calories needed there - so he really needs no calories at all.

Read up on thyroxin in humans that will give you a view of the implications of thyroid problems - not everyone believes horses have problems with thyroid though.
 
He has a blanket clip, including his head and he is not rugged... it doesn't make any difference to him. He gets fat on thin air.
 
My boy was diagnosed with both Cushings and EMS about six weeks ago. Currently on 1mg prascend and 66 x 500mg metformin daily :eek: I've pinched our coffee grinder and tried putting them in his food, but he's not interested in anything except hay and/or grass (thinks I'm poisoning him :rolleyes:) Only way I can get his metformin in him is to grind it, mix with a little plain yoghurt/fromage frais and use a syringe. I'm putting some peppermint essence with it ... seems to be working as I'm wearing less and taking less time each go! :D On the plus side, he's not laminitic and I've found a muzzle he tolerates well (no more rubbing). I've upped his workload and he's losing about 7kg every week or two according to weightape, but definitely a better shape already.
 
Dear OP
My pony has been diagnosed with EMS, Insulin level over 900!!!!!!!!. She has 18 metformin a day, 9 in the morning and 9 at night. She is VERY FUSSY about what she eats, so I soak mine in a little water for 12 hours, then wet the feed with that.
She eats it no problem at all.
hope that helps.
 
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