For those with Cushings horses

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Persepolis

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My 17 y o thoroughbred gelding exrace horse has just been diagnosed with Cushings. He has gone down so suddenly since the weather changed I can't believe it. 2 months ago we were eventing and now he has dropped all his top line, grown a very woolly coat and is lamanitic. What I would like to know is how active a life the horse can live with this syndrome? He has been put on a daily 1mg dose of prascend to stablise his system.
 
Prascend worked wonders for our pony and she carried on being ridden for another few years before she was retired for unrelated problems at 20.

After 5 years she's now on 2 tabs a day and we have her bloods tested every October/November to ensure she is on the right dosage. This time of year is the time to be vigilant as the days get so short. Cut out all starch and sugars as you would for a laminitic, but feed as much fibre as he will take to keep the weight on. You should find that he will improve a lot once the Prascend gets into his system.

Good luck.
 
My 21yo CBxAnglo Arab (nicer than it sounds!) was diagnosed with EMS about 2 years ago. Vets had been doling out ₤80 metformin every month since. Another of our horses in hospital for 3 weeks recently and I was asking about the EMS. Metformin never meant to be a permanent drug - should have been retested etc. A tad annoyed with usual vets for not mentioning this (!) so got hospital to test him. Negative on EMS things but positive for PPID (Cushings).
So now on half a tab of Prascend/day. Only started this week so understand it can take many weeks to see any difference. TBH horse looks fine, no more woolly than usual, weight okay, but is always starving and wees for England, so am hoping that might improve.
 
Persepolis said:
My 17 y o thoroughbred gelding exrace horse has just been diagnosed with Cushings. He has gone down so suddenly since the weather changed I can't believe it. 2 months ago we were eventing and now he has dropped all his top line, grown a very woolly coat and is lamanitic. What I would like to know is how active a life the horse can live with this syndrome? He has been put on a daily 1mg dose of prascend to stablise his system.
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I can totally sympathise, just last August my 15 yo TBx was merrily jumping double clears and winning best condition classes, by the end of Sept he was so lethargic he could barely manage a trotting pole and had developed a respiratory infection that just would NOT shift. He tested positive for cushings and is now on 1 prascend pill a day, sadly we had to give him a 2 weeks break from it due to a bout of colic but he's now been back on it for a week and is picking up already. His appetite wasn't great for the first week or so on it the first time around, but second time he is still eating like normal and already seems happier as he'd become a bit grouchy about being groomed etc as well. It's still really early days for us as well but I'm hopeful we can get at least some of his old sparkle back. Good luck and try and stay positive, I know how hard it is! I wish there was a way of speeding things up but we've just got to wait and see what happens. x
 
after building up the prascend to 1 tablet over about 10 days or so mine has been on 1 tablet for nearly 3 weeks. He is 14 and tested negative twice but I was convinced he had cushings and have got him on a prascend trial. He was very lethargic and I was almost carrying him at a walk on our rides. In fact I had given up riding. Trot would have been out of the question.

After watching him flying around tonight I am getting somewhat concerned if he is going to have brakes at the end of this as there is no way I am going to stay on top if he gallops and bucks like he did in the field. :D I haven't seen him move around the field like that for a long time.

After resting him for a long time we started riding again this week just at a walk around the roads. There is improvement each day. He feels a lot stronger, there is more power behind and he is carrying himself much better. My aim is to road walk him for a month but I'm not sure if that will be his idea!!! I had a lot of muscle wastage problems/top line etc but even after this short time he looks better and you can see improvement. He is also so much happier, fun and looks like he did as a 4yo ie a naughty little pony. (haflinger)
good luck to everyone else in this position. I was lucky whilst getting my horse on it as my other horse was in horsehospital so he virtually got ignored as I had far more difficulties to worry about.
On reflection it was the best thing that could have happened as I didn't get chance to monitor him etc. If you can it is possibly better to ignore them for around 3 weeks and then look at them with a fresh set of eyes. Less depressing than hoping for tiny daily improvements. I hope you are all successful.
 
mine was diagnosed aug.2010 with levels of 172....started on 1 prascend but have had to increase and now on 2 1/2 daily and levels are just above what they should be, but stable...vet happy for her to stay on this dose and to be retested in the spring(unless i see any clinical signs)...she is 21 now and was back to her normal nutty self about 6 weeks after starting on prascend.. she is hacked 5 or 6 times a week for just over 1 hour daily and is very forward going(too much sometimes) and is more than happy to tank off with me!!!!! so yours will prob be ok once the prascend kicks in, but as far as i know you cant compete on prascend now..
 
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