Pergolide doseage

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gaufron

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My 30yr old 14.2 pony has just been diagnosed with Cushings. he is on an increasing dose of Pergolide to go up to 3mgm daily. I have been reading various posts and this seems a much bigger dose than most horses. He has never has and still has no signs of laminitis, but he does have excesive thirst and is very hungry all the time as well slow shedding his coat. He is now out 24hrs on fairly good grass but I still have to give him extra feeds twice a day. He has always been able to have unlimited spring gass but I am worried that he is more susceptible to Laminitis. Has anyone else with a horse on this drug
at this sort of doseage?
 
I have got two horses that suffer from Cushings Disease and both of them are each on a 250 Microgram tablet of Pergolide per day. They are also both on restricted grazing (during the day) so as to keep their weight down. (Stabled at night). They also get one - two hour soaked hay at night. Also get one feed of Bran, Hi-Fi Lite, Lo-Cal, Formula 4 Feet, linseed and cod liver oail and dampened with water.
 
I have a 16 yr old 14.2hh pony diagnosed last July. He is on half of a 1mgm tablet daily (i.e. 0.5mgm daily). Had not had (and still hasnt, touch wood) laminitis, just excessive thirst and peeing and thick coat that was very slow to change. Now out all night on a large paddock - but well grazed off before he went on it so not too much grass for him to eat! Then in and worked during day, with some haylage mid day and two very small feeds of hi-fi lite with Baileys Outshine and TopSpec balancer. So ... from my experience, 3mgm sounds quite high dose but your pony is a lot older than mine!
 
You have to give them a loading dose to start with, then gradually reduce until the drug is just doing the job. Trial and error is the name of the game, and every case is different.
 
My 11.2 pony is on 1mg of pergolide a day. Your vet should take blood samples to monitor how the pergolide is controlling the cushings, and this should help you find the correct dose. I imagine the age of your pony means a higher dose may be necessary, but you may find the cushings is controlled before you reach 3 mg. My pony has problems with lami so is on restricted grazing.Has your vet suggested good grazing, it might be worth checking with them and if need be increasing the hard feed, hay rather than too much spring grass.
 
Thanks for yor reply. The problem is my pony has very poor teeth and can't eat hay. So has been on soaked alfafa/ grass pellets for the past year which has helped him maintain his weight through a very cold winter. he has never been a "good doer" or a bad one either. so the Cushings has just been another complication to his management.
 
gaufron said:
My 30yr old 14.2 pony has just been diagnosed with Cushings. he is on an increasing dose of Pergolide to go up to 3mgm daily. I have been reading various posts and this seems a much bigger dose than most horses. He has never has and still has no signs of laminitis, but he does have excesive thirst and is very hungry all the time as well slow shedding his coat. He is now out 24hrs on fairly good grass but I still have to give him extra feeds twice a day. He has always been able to have unlimited spring gass but I am worried that he is more susceptible to Laminitis. Has anyone else with a horse on this drug
at this sort of doseage?
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Please, please reduce his grass!! With all this sun and rain the grass is so rich at the moment, and it will only be a matter of time before he gets lami if you don't reduce it :(

My horse is not the greatest doer, and has never looked like a possible lami case (as my farrier and I were saying yesterday, when he was saying how fab her feet are), but I still daren't let her loose on the spring grass. She is in a small paddock and having hay and haylage instead.

To answer your initial question, my recently diagnosed cushings horse is 16.2 and has started her dose at 1mg per day. I wouldn't say she is an extreme case of it though. This is a picture of her yesterday, she has only been on the pergolide a few weeks so far:

10-05-10_1720.jpg
 
My 22 yr old Icelandic was diagnosed with Cushings 5 years ago, after having laminitis in the winter. He was blood tested and put on 1mg Pergolide per day. He is on a strict management routine of poor grazing, in at night and a starch-free diet. Unfortunately, he went down with very slight lami at the end of this winter and was re-tested and is now on 1.25mg per day. Touch wood, he is fine again. 3mg per day to start with seems excessive - my vets certainly never suggested a loading dose. A horse with Cushings should never be on good grazing - the risk of laminitis is just so high.
 
Could I just repeat what others have said as it is essential that you keep you horse on restricted grazing. Please take a look at the Laminitis Trust Web Site as Robert Eustace the vet who founded the Laminitis Trust specialises in Laminitis. He also developed Formula 4 Feet which is a good feed additive for horses that suffer or may suffer from Laminitis.
One other important thing is to ensure that you worm for encysted emerging small red worms as these can not be detected in a worm counts and can cause Laminitis.
 
Thanks to all who have told me to restrict the grazing. Luckily I live on a remote Welsh hillside where the grazing is never good. The problem I have is an old pony with doggy teeth, who can't eat hay but whose weight falls off if he isn't well fed. I am giving him lucern pellets with unmolased sugar beet & all winter(before we realised that he had cushings) he has had high energy grass pellets as well! So I am hopefull that our less than good grazing will be ok. I am gradualy increasing his pergolide and I hope to keep the doseage down to 2mgm daily for the summer. Fingers crossed
 
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