Prascend - Cushings - Side effects - How long do we ride it out for?

[meleeka]

Mine only got her appetite back when i stopped putting the tablet in her feed. I syringe it now, last thing before I leave, but it took a good couple of months of doing that before she accepted her bucket feed again.

You could try cutting the dosage back for a few days, or i’ve heard splitting the dose morning and night can help.

Same here. It took about a month from me not putting in feed for mine to eat properly again. I ended up putting a minute amount of Sixteen Plus in her feed, probably a table spoon full and that seemed to kick start her eating. She still won’t eat the food she was on when the tablet was in her feed, so is now on Veteran Lite.

For a pony that’s always been awful with wormers, she’s gotten used to it really well. I don’t need a headcollar and it’s quick and easy.

 

[splashgirl45]

my cushings horse was fine until about 2 years after starting prascend , she had the tablet in a hollowed out carrot as if i put anything different in her feed she wouldnt go near it,even an ordinary supplement. after the 2 years she wouldnt eat anything other than grass, she wouldnt even eat the hay she'd been having all winter. she lost loads of weight and i thought i was going to have to make THAT decision. i got lots of samples from different feed companies, different hay etc. after a lot of trial and error i gave her baileys light chaff and lo cal balancer and added fast fibre to make up for the lack of hay. she turned the corner and started eating everything even the hay and i managed to keep her for another 3 years till she was 25...

 

[Jim bob]

I was told about the meds making them down etc. Before my boy went on them. So I think I halved his meds for... a week to two weeks. Possibly longer the built it up. He didn't really show any side effects doing it that way.

 

[CalamityJane80]

I was told about the meds making them down etc. Before my boy went on them. So I think I halved his meds for... a week to two weeks. Possibly longer the built it up. He didn't really show any side effects doing it that way.

Yeah its really hard to watch, they just look so damn depressed. and you spent most days wondering "Is this as good as it gets now?" Some days I walked in the paddock and I swear he acted like he didn't know me - and that hurt loads.

But changing his feed helped loads. He still hates me putting the supplements in it, but his love of molasses ends up winning and he eats it all.

 

[CalamityJane80]

my cushings horse was fine until about 2 years after starting prascend , she had the tablet in a hollowed out carrot as if i put anything different in her feed she wouldnt go near it,even an ordinary supplement. after the 2 years she wouldnt eat anything other than grass, she wouldnt even eat the hay she'd been having all winter. she lost loads of weight and i thought i was going to have to make THAT decision. i got lots of samples from different feed companies, different hay etc. after a lot of trial and error i gave her baileys light chaff and lo cal balancer and added fast fibre to make up for the lack of hay. she turned the corner and started eating everything even the hay and i managed to keep her for another 3 years till she was 25...

Yeah the lad gets his tablet in a folded up piece of bread, I rip a bit off and hide the tablet in it, and no sooner has he put that in his mouth i give him the rest of it to hide the taste. Hasn't refused a tablet yet. I have done the hollowed out carrot trick with the same success. Funnily enough, he takes the tablet without argument. Its his actually yummy, tasty non medicated food he now struggles with! Get a horse, they said!

 

[CalamityJane80]

Girth's a bit tight... so's the horses hahaah

 

[Gloi]

I

Yeah the lad gets his tablet in a folded up piece of bread, I rip a bit off and hide the tablet in it, and no sooner has he put that in his mouth i give him the rest of it to hide the taste. Hasn't refused a tablet yet. I have done the hollowed out carrot trick with the same success. Funnily enough, he takes the tablet without argument. Its his actually yummy, tasty non medicated food he now struggles with! Get a horse, they said!

I always used a scrap of bread for ours too and never had any bother ?

 

[brighteyes]

Girth's a bit tight... so's the horses hahaah

How do you find him for overheating? I have to clip one of mine every 6 weeks or he can't cool down after exercise.
So glad he has come good.

 

[CalamityJane80]

How do you find him for overheating? I have to clip one of mine every 6 weeks or he can't cool down after exercise.
So glad he has come good.

Funny you mention that. I've been considering having him clipped over the last week. He still has weird little sweats, just standing in the paddock and doing nothing. And, as you say - even light exercise makes him sweat. Its mid winter here, so his coat is in winter mode, and its kept the sweating to a managable level. He isn't "dripping" like it would be in summer - but its just not fun for him, and you can't wash a horse every day after exercise and expect them to dry in a timely fashion with that much hair when the daytime temp is getting above 12 degrees c at the moment. . Not to mention it being too cold to hose.

I've been researching different styles and trying to make a decision as to which one I should do. I've also been trying to figure out who to get to do it. There is a lady here who clips horses, and does an excellent job, but I don't like her horsemanship, she's very heavy handed with the horses, even when they're just shifting position, she misinterprets it as them playing up, and i don't want to let her anywhere near a horse who's 25yo and never been clipped.

I think i'm just going to have to buy my own and do it myself :/

 

[brighteyes]

Here, any old clip is perfectly fine. I clip for comfort and find his anhidrosis and respirational distress after exercise is completely alleviated. One vet from my practice had never even heard of anhidrosis! It took my a while to connect it to the Cushing's as he'd exhibited this from age about 15, a good few years before clinical diagnosis.

 

[CalamityJane80]

I personally suffer from Hyperhydrosis, I legit take medication to give me anhidrosis - strange world :/
And it appears the old boy has the same problem in old age. As i said, mid winter here, top temp today was 16 degrees celcius, and i had to take all his rugs off (we've had 3 days rain) because he was sweating. additionally, even with no rugs on at all, he sweats on his left hand shoulder / neck, every afternoon, at about 4:30, just about every day. its so bizzare.

Can't wait to get him all trimmed up!

 

[CalamityJane80]

so its Spring in Australia and we are in full shedding. He's gone a very deep liver chestnut and looks amazing. Coat still a little bit long, but its not summer yet. Just spring, so still a little way to go.
The old boy has stacked on weight and is on a diet, currently getting a quarter scoop of microbeet, half scoop of ezisport and a quarter scoop of ezi performance. The ezi performance i literal racehorse feed. We feed it instead of molasses, He utterly LOVES it, and i'm able to put all his supplements in his feed without complaint.

HOWEVER. He has figured out that I hide prascend in his licorice and now refuses to eat it. So i'm back to slices of bread and carrots with the cores cut out

He's back in work, Had 3 rides last week. We've had a bout of head shakers, however I think i've discovered the major trigger for him is heat. Not UV or flies. IF i take his fly mask off, he stops head shaking. so he's wearing a full halter with fringe tassles - and we've had 2 days of no head shaking!

 

[spookypony]

I have two on Prascend, and I've been really lucky: both are still on 1/2 tablet after several years, and both take it no problem, just in a wee ball of their usual base feed (Dengie Alfa-Beet). I was really worried the Ballerina Mare would lose her appetite, because her greed is legendary and so much a part of her personality, but she had no "veil" symptoms at all: her blood levels just regulated from over 200 to about 20 within 6 weeks of starting. The Spooky Pony was a different story: he had almost the opposite of the "veil"; he went super-hyper-reactive, to the point of being dangerous, for a period of several weeks, before settling down to his usual suspicious self. I read a study that tracked initial side effects in something like 200 horses or so, and this type of "opposite" reaction was a somewhat rare, but still significant segment of the population. The SP has been on Prascend for 5 1/2 years now, and the BM for 3 years; both have excellent blood levels still.