Queenbee
Well-Known Member
Hi all, finally we have a bit of an answer on ebony although as the title suggests... It's not simple... She never is! GRRR!
Well, she's been on gastroguard for a week now, and I haven't seen a major change in her as I hoped I would. On the one hand, before starting gastroguard she was pulling loads of funny faces when eating her feed, this stopped completely with the onset of the treatment, but, that's pretty much it, she still gets tucked up and whilst her energy levels were up last week they went down hill again on Sunday evening, by Monday she was dragging her back end quite dramatically when walking downhill so she has been coming in firstly because of the rain but also so she can lie down properly and rest. We got the bloods back today for the surpression test to test for cushings. Her cortisol levels in the test on day one were high, the quirk is that the second test showed that her body had managed to lower them!!! The labs still reckon that judging by the level of cortisol in the baseline blood sample she has cushings buy have reccomended the ACTH test!!! This will be done tomorrow. On the one hand I'm a bit miffed as I was told the labs didn't do this because it required freezing the blood down, apparently they do, and they are going to send a special carrier down just for madams blood sample! On the other hand had we not done the surpression test we wouldn't know about the quirky nature of the results. Chatting to my vet we were discussing the possibility of anything else tht could cause high cortisol levels in a horse but NOT impair its ability to regulate... But perhaps compromise it?! Answers on a postcard if you know of anything! Anyway, we're still not Ruling out ulcers completely and she's going on one more week as planned but cushings is more likely. Also has anyone come across cushings in a horse with similar results to ebonys?
Many thanks for your continued ideas and support x
Well, she's been on gastroguard for a week now, and I haven't seen a major change in her as I hoped I would. On the one hand, before starting gastroguard she was pulling loads of funny faces when eating her feed, this stopped completely with the onset of the treatment, but, that's pretty much it, she still gets tucked up and whilst her energy levels were up last week they went down hill again on Sunday evening, by Monday she was dragging her back end quite dramatically when walking downhill so she has been coming in firstly because of the rain but also so she can lie down properly and rest. We got the bloods back today for the surpression test to test for cushings. Her cortisol levels in the test on day one were high, the quirk is that the second test showed that her body had managed to lower them!!! The labs still reckon that judging by the level of cortisol in the baseline blood sample she has cushings buy have reccomended the ACTH test!!! This will be done tomorrow. On the one hand I'm a bit miffed as I was told the labs didn't do this because it required freezing the blood down, apparently they do, and they are going to send a special carrier down just for madams blood sample! On the other hand had we not done the surpression test we wouldn't know about the quirky nature of the results. Chatting to my vet we were discussing the possibility of anything else tht could cause high cortisol levels in a horse but NOT impair its ability to regulate... But perhaps compromise it?! Answers on a postcard if you know of anything! Anyway, we're still not Ruling out ulcers completely and she's going on one more week as planned but cushings is more likely. Also has anyone come across cushings in a horse with similar results to ebonys?
Many thanks for your continued ideas and support x
thank you, I'll join this evening once I get back from putting them to bed!