My 36 yo mare was put on Pergolide today - what changes can I expect?

catembi

catembi

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Had Jenny's flu + tet done today by a new young vet instead of the practice owner. She suggested we try Jenny on Pergolide for a month & said she might be 'a new horse'.

What changes can I look forward to? Atm she's got the long coat, drinks lots, wees lots, eats more than my ISH but doesn't hold her weight (clear worm count; teeth done regularly & she's still got them all) & has quite bad muscle wastage.

Feel quite excited - Jenny is TBx & looked very TB when she was younger, but now she's so furry that she looks like a Native & you can't see the TB at all unless she's just been clipped.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/catembi/SP_A0010.jpg
 
Don't expect changes over night. All cases are different, but I would expect the drinking/weeing to change first, followed by a change to the coat quality. Any 36 year old is likely to not absorb nutrients as efficiently as a younger animal (I care for a 44 year old 12hh pony who has the same size bucket feeds as my 26 year old 15.1hh) so she may not improve much in that department. Why not take photos of her every 2 weeks which will give you a better of idea of how she changes. Slow changes are not easily visible to someone who sees her every day.
 
The changes may well be slow and appear gradually over a month or so. The first positive change my cushings horse had was that the fat deposits over his eyes started to disappear. His laminitic pain also improved but this took around six weeks. His drinking also reduced. The improved coat never really happened - he just wasn't quite such a woolly mammoth. We had some minor side effects in the initial couple of weeks in that he was extra quiet and his body seemed rather bloated and solid on a couple of occasions but this soon passed. If you decide to go with it long term may be worth checking the cost of a prescription from the vet for sourcing tablets from a local chemist. As an example my local chemist charges around £12 for 30 1mg tablets.
 
My Shetland prior to taking pergolide wouldn't drink but was weeing loads, he was constantly getting laminitis even though he was not on grass and he was forever getting impaction colic. Since taking pergolide he’s been great, drinking his water, eating feed, no sore hooves, and living a normal happy life!

PS his bed is significantly dryer too!
 
Is it likely to increase or decrease her chance of getting lami?? Her former sharer said increase, but I didn't think to ask the vet. Touch wood x 1,000, she's never had it yet, & we don't tend to have too much of an issue with spring grass as we've only got 2.5 acres & it's on sand, so drains far too well to get lush.
 
I would say decrease...from my experience but then im not a vet.

The reason we had the cushings blood tests was due to the pony constantly getting lami even when on box rest so the tablets were given to stop that so that he could lead a normal life.. Hes on restricted grazing just in case....

We had the pony for years and never ever had a problem with lami until the last couple of years.. in the end the vet tested for cushings and that was the cause more than the spring lush grash.

Hope your mare gets on ok!
 
Yes, I'd agree, it decreases the chance, because it helps to normalise the hormones so you don't have the insulin/sugar ratio problems (sorry, not very technical but you get what I mean).

My lami pony went on pergolide one spring and did so well he was able to come off it by the winter. I have not put him back on it yet because I am managing him more carefully.
 
It will decrease her chances of lami!

It should help reduce the hair coat, and help reduce all other cushings symptoms, but as stated this will not happen over night!

Hope it works for you!
 
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