Grazing my cushings mare

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UKa

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I am at a loss at how to best graze my mare with cushings. She tends to be underweight and never has had lami but since being diagnosed in the spring she has been kept in a small paddock within her irigiginal field that she was sharing with a friend so that her grass intake was limited and she has been fed hay and suitable feeds.
As of lately she does not tolerate being on her own although next to her friend anymore and gets herself in a real state so I worry about her.
Tonight she has gone in with her friend as I did not know what else to do but worried she could get lami as that bit is quite large so lots of potential grass to eat.
I am not sure how to manage her best we were doing ok all summer but somehow this time of year she gets stressed out it happened last year too when I tried to keep her separated as she needs lots of extra feeding.
Any suggestions other than using a muzzle?
I can separate her and she is stressed/ unhappy or just let her in with her friend and hope for the best? She is on 1 x Prascend and will be retested early Dec...
 
The only cushings pony I have dealt with had never had laminitis, he was not a particularly good doer and once on medication lost weight and needed decent grass to keep weight on, he was in his late 20's at the time of diagnosis so the view was taken that quality of life was more important than quantity, if he had got laminitis then he probably would have been pts if it meant box rest for any length of time as he would have been very unhappy, he lived until he was 36 when he became weak on his legs and was pts, he never got laminitis despite having access to unrestricted grass and a totally unsuitable diet of sugary feed, he would not eat anything that was considered suitable despite every effort made to get him on the "correct" feeds.

I think if yours is getting stressed by being alone that is unfair on her, she is just as likely to get laminitis from being stressed as she is from eating grass, my view is that you do all you can and ensure they have a decent quality of life, that is more important than the length however hard it may be for the owner, as she is not laminitic she may be fine and certainly happier if you let her be with her friend, the grass is losing it's quality now so she should be relatively safe, moving round a bigger area will be good for her, you may well find she does not put on weight.
 
I would definitely try the muzzle route..mine had considerable weight loss and muscle tone loss, he was in a separate paddock, with quite short grass, on the correct diet and soaked hay plus the pills ( 2 and a half daily) and he wasnt putting on any condition, fast forward to a new yard, where i tried a muzzle, made the hole slightly bigger and threw him out with the other 3 horses on knee high grass, his energy levels have improved, he is muscling up again and has gained weight ( though not too much but has a nice covering) still lean but looking a whole lot better for it, so i would suggest trying this method, you may be pleasantly surprised ( i hope )!!He is happier in himself too.
 
I treat my cushings mare as almost normal.... in the winter she has soaked hay when in at night and a very small feed of light chaff and formula4feet, is out on ok grazing all day. she is out 24/7 in the summer and just has formula4feet with a handful of light chaff and no hay. she would be unhappy stabled and I don't see the point of making her life difficult by using a muzzle. quality of life is most important as far as I am concerned and if she gets laminitis I will PTS knowing she has had a happy life. she was diagnosed in 2011 and is still fine on this regime...
 
We treat ours almost normally too - for natives. If the PPID levels are being kept under control correctly then the risk of laminitis shouldn't be increased. Ours are oldies and in winter get soaked low sugar feed as well as their hay.
 
My Cushings horse (16hh 24 yo TBxWB) is on 1 Prascend per day, and he grazes as normal, with the exception of the spring grass when he wears a Greenguard grazing muzzle. He is out in a huge field with two or three other horses. He gets low sugar hard food together with plenty of hay.

There seems to be different schools of thought ref grazing for Cushings horses. My vets opinion is that as long as the Prascend is keeping the Cushings under control that restricting the grazing (within reason) should not be necessary except in the spring and at other times when there is a flush of new growth, and she is ok with the grazing my horse is getting. I really struggled to keep weight on him when he was on restricted turnout and he is so much happier in the shared field he's now in.

Why don't you have a chat with your vet as he/she will know what your horses ACTH levels are, and will be able to recommend appropriate grazing regime for your horse.
 
I have an underweight cushings pony who has never had lami. The vet recently told me to get more weight on her but make changes slowly so her gut has time to adjust.

She has had to be kept separately as she needs a lot more food than her usual field mates despite being smaller and retired. She is far happier having more food than she was having company but too thin. She only gets direct company for an hour or so each day at the moment. (She can touch the others over the fence the rest of the time though).

The vet was of the view that she was unlikely to get lami as a result of cushings if she had never had it. He said this in the sense that getting weight on and keeping her happy was more important than worrying about lami.

She has had huge problems with recurrent abcesses but getting more food into her has meant she has not had one for a few weeks now and I think the extra food has made her slightly less vulnerable to these.
 
There is a FB page for Cushings. Quite a few of those treat their horses as they normally would. I am having the same dilemma with my horse who is also Insulin Resistant.

The vet told me there's not much goodness in the grass in winter and I should be OK to treat him as normal - I am hoping that December to February he can be turned out as normal and only have grazing restricted when frosty.

The rest of the year I will try using a track round the edge of the field and as a last resort, a muzzle.
 
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I think you must treat each horse as an individual..muzzling does not make a horses life difficult..in some cases it saves a horses life....my horses muzzle will come off soon until march time when he will have hay in the field ( as there is usually not much else to eat) then muzzle on when the spring grass comes through again.. I would like to prevent my horse from getting lami, A so he isnt in any form of pain and B so i can still ride him.... So do what is right for HER , if it suits great, if not, change.
 
Thanks everyone, it is nice to get some encouraging thoughts on here in times of dilemma! I will try and speak with my vet soon to ask. I think that once she is coming in over night - soon - she will just go out as normal during the day. I am not totally averse to the muzzle but worried that it restricts her food intake otherwise as she is so skinny. Having her separate has meant I could feed her full feeds and hay which is not possible if turned out with another as she eats forever and I haven't the time to wait around for an hour or more until she is done if I also want to use her as my riding horse which is what her purpose really is :-/ I know the grass should be less nutritious over winter but I have heard a lot about cushings horses getting lami in the autumn/winter and my yard owners had a very bad case with their cushings mare she had a 50/50 survival chance so I think I am paranoid through that. I would not want my girl to go through such pain so paranoid about preventing it but she not happy now alone so that's where dilemma started. Thanks very much again.
 
If you have her PPID under control with Prascend, and she has grown a new hoof capsule since her last lammi attack, I doubt grass would have the same effect as it did before. Have you had her tested for IR? That would be more of a risk factor and you might need to pay attention to the stage of the grass and the sugars in it - stressed short grass has more sugars than long grass. My horse is PPID but negative for IR and on vet and farrier recommendation I am getting him back out on grass, by stages, on a track so he moves around.
And stress is a factor for lammi so if she is stressing for her field mate, that might be a bigger risk than grass.
 
Hi, thanl you. She bever had lami - touch wood - some have said if she has not had it before she is not that likely to get under prascend. Have heard about IR testing my vets never said there is a difference and just advised to treat as high risk. But yes stress can't be good either. Wondering if I try her separated during day and together at night for now until she comes in at night.
 
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