Laminitus possibly brought on by cushings...?

Girlracer

Girlracer

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Basically my lovely ginger 24yo horse has gone lame over the past few days. Vet thinks it is concussion laminitus but we have been advised to poltice and box rest him for a week with bute in feeds too.

Think is he is a tbx that struggles to keep weight on in the winter (he's the horse in my sig, bottom row). So it's likely to have either been brought on by exercise or cushings.

Quite frankly although i don't want too i think it could likely be cushings. So does anyone have any info they could give me on this?

I've had him 8years, it's so horrible to see him sad
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If it is cushings you can now get Pergolide by asking your vet for a private prescription which costs a huge amount less than getting it direct from your vet. Basically you can get it from a chemist as its a drug for Parkinsons in people.
Box rest and pain killers will help his feet and the inflamation.
My beloved mare had cushings and laminitis which came on after she had an infection after foaling, bless her heart she just couldn't fight infection anymore and eventually I had to make the ultimate decision.
The cushings is caused by a tumour on the pituitary gland which is situated in the brain so its tends to cock up things like hormones and such, having said that I know of a number of neds who have lived for a long time happy lives as they are on pergolide, sadly I didn't have this option as nature beat me too it. She's the first piccie in my sig, she was gorgeous.
Good luck and hope he feels better soon.
 
Is he showing any other symptoms of Cushings, e.g. thick coat, excessive drinking and weeing, pads of fat over eyes and on croup? Our pony used to have frequent bouts of laminitis, and eventually started to show Cushings symptoms and the tests proved positive. This was several years ago (she was only 15 when diagnosed), she has been on Pergolide since and is doing really well. She has only had a couple of very mild laminitis attacks. I certainly wouldn't be too upset if it is Cushings, but would agree that it is best to get a prescription from your vet and the drugs from a chemist, loads cheaper
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Let us know how your lad goes on.
 
Thanks for the replies. He does have a thick coat but as far as i can tell no different from any other horses. Haven't noticed excessive drinking etc. The vet mentioned it as he has a distinct muscle loss over his back and has gone quite pot-bellied. However he has been out of work all winter!

It's a bit early to say atm, i think the main problem was reading up on it on the internet, all kinds of horror stories!

Thanks for the tips etc
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My horse developed Cushings in his mid 20's. He had a serious laminitic attack in June 2004. We treated for the first week as though grass induced but when we had no improvement he went onto pergolide. It took around 6 weeks with him to see the benefit but it kept him comfortable for the last 4 1/2 years. My recent batch of 50 1mg tablets cost just over £20 from the local chemist with a prescription from the vet.
 
Tbh if you think its Cushings ask the vet to do a test to clarify, although not 100% they are helpful, the dexamethasone suppression test is the most useful, although not advisable whilst horse has lami, or can do ACTH test.

Although, sometimes, if you are that sure it is Cushing's its worth just trying to pergolide for a few months and seeing if you get a response....... some people do it that way...

if you want any more help or anything feel free to pm me
 
Thanks for your help, the vet was the one who thinks it could be cushings. We will see how the box rest/polticing works by the end of the weeks boxrest then go from there.

Makes me feel a bit better hearing more successful stories than the ones i read on the internet on tuesday!
 
If your horse DOES have cushings it is NOT the end of the world, pergolide works wonders, it does not rectify the problem, but does prevent the effects of it e.g. recurrent laminitis is either stopped or seriously minimised, hirsutism is majorly reduced (even though your horse has no other signs) and often it perks them up as they are feeling better in themselves! so YEY for pergolide!

Let us know how it goes
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If he does have Cushings you may like to have a look at the metabolic horse site on Yahoo. It has a lot of useful information on diet and management. From my own experiences a good farrier is worth his weight in gold
 
yup the yahoo group is great, but just remember that not EVERYONE is a vet, but everyone does have experience of it on there!

And ellieP is right about hte farrier! Cant swap a good one for anything!
 
I have a 22yr old TBx mare who had a laminitis attack last october. I had a dex suppression test done then ( fortunatley she didn't react!!!) but it was inconclusive. I've just had a ACTH test done & the results came back today, & she does have cushings.

She had none of the 'normal' symptoms, it was only the laminitis that made me test. I've just ordered my first lot of pergolide, so hopefully it will keep her happy for a while longer.
 
Pergolide works wonders! so good luck! And I am sorry your horse has this disease. However if she has only just shown symptoms at 22 means you are doing a good job with her! so...

Hope the pergolide helps!
 
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