Some good cushings vibes please..

ATrueClassAct

ATrueClassAct

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Today I got my horses bloods back and she has been diagnosed with cushings. She is 22. The vet wants to start her on one tablet daily in the morning and then if shes doing well in 4/6 weeks time take it down to possibly half a tablet. She seems very well in herself, very perky, still forward going and loving being ridden. Was being turned out for like 7 hours a day before the tests and *touch wood* no signs of lammy. However I will now obviously restrict her grazing. She is fed high fi lite, 16+ mix, soya oil and glucosamine.
I just want to hear some..support cushings stories and I've been told to believe it isnt at all doom and gloom. Its a disease which can be managed quite easily aslong as I take care.
Any good cushings vibes around?
 
I've never had to manage one with it, but I'd like to wish you all the best & many more years together x.

By the way I'd look at the starch & sugar levels of the mix, it may be higher than she should have.
 
I will do. I mentioned what she was on to the vet and he didnt seem worried. I'm lucky she's not got any symptoms yet and we've caught it in it's early stages. Thanks for the support <3
 
Yes! Don't panic!!! It can be easily managed- you just need to be vigilant! I have recent experience of 2 - one with lammi the other without. The Lammi one just needed to be muzzled in the grass growing times with restricted grazing otherwise. Not a problem. The other just grows a massive coat and needs regular clipping but is otherwise fine. So - don't worry! it's not the end of the world!
 
hi my 18 year old mare was diagnosed with cushings in march. She started on 1 tablet of pergolide a day and it has made a dramatic difference to her. She was very very hairy and was drinking 4 big buckets which are nearly twice the size of a normal water bucket a day she was very very thin and lost all her muscle tone and top line she was a very sorry state. I seriously thought we were gonna lose her pretty soon but since she was diagnosed and started the tablets what a difference. Within 2 days the drinking had dramatically slowed now she is back to her usual half a bucket over night. I clipped her to get rid of the bulk of the hair which in 2 sessions took a marathon 6 hours!!! but her coat which has now grown back in is normal, she has put on weight and now she is feeling much better i have started lunging her a few times a week and she is gaining her topline and muscle again. We havent had any bother (touchwood) with laminitis yet but she has had a persistent abscess which is proving very difficult to get rid of. As far as i am concerned tho the cushings is well under control and we may try reducing her dose again later in summer (she started on 1 1/2 tablets but went off her food as the dose was too strong so cut back to 1 and getting good control on that) I hope your mare responds as well x
 
Our pony was diagnosed with Cushings about 5 years ago, after several lami attacks, she was showing some classic symptoms, e.g. fat pads over eyes, loss of muscle tone. She has been maintained on pergolide since then and has done really well. Had a bit of a blip over last winter with a couple of lami episodes and also foot abscesses. Bloods showed her ACTH levels were quite high so she was increased to 2 tablets a day, and touch wood is doing really well and is looking better this year condition wise than she has in a long time. The only down side is that after probably giving me prescriptions for pergolide for longer than she should, my vet has now said she has to have prascend, and today picked up the first box of 160 for £150.:eek: The cheapest I could find online was £147 so with the cost of prescription, postage etc it was cheaper to get it from the vets, but bless her she is going to be costing me nearly £2 a day for medication.:(
If your mare has no symptoms yet I would think you have a good chance of keeping her problem free for a good few years.
 
Well the only thing was she had a extremely mild case of lammy in november last year, it was that mild we didn't know if it was lammy or colic until her bloods came back and confirmed it. The only other syptom is that above her eyes isnt hollow and she's still got abit of winter coat but she's happily shedding all over me and although she's naturally a slim horse she is actually gaining some weight recently and looks loads better with it. We've recently changed vets due to a bad wrong diagnosis from our original ones and now with this new vet, a very reputable one in Cheshire, he just wanted to test her because of last November in case it could happen again. Bloods have come back at a 110 level where as normal horses are 30 I think he said, I wasn't quite sure what he meant...so my vets opinion was to start the treatment. Thanks for the advice and stories everyone. Ive spent all day crying since I got the results. I love my girl so much I couldnt think of life ever without her.
 
I really wouldn't worry, ime it is very manageable with a good vet (wonder if we have the same ones, mine is in Cheshire too;)). Our girls bloods were up over 100 when she was first tested, and then at the beginning of this year after several years of being low they were around 80. After 6 weeks on the higher dose she retested at 28. :)
 
*cough* Ag--- equine? Haha. Well I'm glad I've received some good vibes, ive stopped panicking. The drugs are quite expensive aren't they? Do yours last you a while though. I'm getting a part time job to help my parents fund her, though she's not an expensive pony to keep as of now. Full DiY haha
 
No not the same one. :) It wasn't too bad when she was on 1 a day and we were using pergolide £50 odd a box of 100 which lasted for 100 days. Just collected a box of prascend today, £150 for 160 and as she is on 2 a day we're talking 80 days. :( Luckily she is kept at home, and just has hifi and hay but the new tablets are going to eat up the money a bit.
 
I suppose that's not too bad. Mines at a yard but full DIY and it's pretty cheap considering what we get for the price. I wouldn't want to move her though since she seems very happy in the little routine she's had for 7 years now. Unfortunately family aren't horsey at all but they always have my mares best interest at heart, step mums gonna ring the vet herself tomorrow so she can get a good understanding of what's going on. Can they still be ridden the same cushings horses? I think mine would go insane if she had to be retired..
 
At the risk of being told off I joined the Equin cushings yahoo group.I do get loads of info from them and have got lots of tips .For instance to give the pergolide last feed because all sorts of levels can make the pergolide more effective.I also use Viovet to get the prascend ( same as pergolide)They are an on line vet you need a prescription but the tablets cost me 80p each last time I bought them
 
I had a pony with Cushing's and as has been said--- don't panic! It was very manageable with the help of Pergolide (half a tablet a day for our girl) and she perked up in no time. Fortunately we didn't have any laminitis. As for the price of the Pergolide--- my husband is a pharmacist and was able to buy it for about £7 for 30 tablets at the time. When we first started on it, we were quoted £120 per month.:eek: It might be worth trotting around the local pharmacies to see if any of them will help out. The vet can give you the prescription and provided it has gone through the 'cascade' system, there shouldn't be a problem getting it. Good luck with your horse.
 
Yasmine, as I understand it now an equine equivalent is available vets are not allowed to use the cascade system. I agree it was great when you could just go to the chemist for pergolide.
Thanks for the tip re Viovet SueT, that didn't come up on my search. They would have worked out a couple of pounds cheaper after paying for prescription so may use them in future.
 
Yes that's true but if the vet says the animal is better on the human equivalent I believe they can argue the case. I stand to be corrected but this was the situation when we were using pergolide. It could be that there is more choice now!
 
Thanks so much guys. She seemed fine today, vets starting her on Monday and she should respond. The good news in that since she's still being ridden it might help her with her riding life, but if she was retired she wouldn't even need the meds. So hopefully that's a good indication! Thanks again guys, you've really helped me sort my muddled head out haha
 
Yasmin80 said:
Yes that's true but if the vet says the animal is better on the human equivalent I believe they can argue the case. I stand to be corrected but this was the situation when we were using pergolide. It could be that there is more choice now!
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Unfortunately Prascend is identical in every way to pergolide (besides price tag and packaging), so there is no way a case could be made.
 
Our 27 yr old went down with lami and we tested bloods and found he had cushings. After only 5 days of pergolide he picked up massively and has been back to his usual self ever since. He had a few "wobbly" moments to begin with where he would go sort of drunk but only for a few minutes and after a week or so this stopped. He's going to be 28 this year and is full of life.

Best of luck and well done for catching it before it caused any big probs like lami.
 
That's such great news! I was worried this would be the end...I was in tears none stop yesterday. Can horses with cushings live long lives if they are cared for and managed properly? Although she's not on the medication yet she seemed so full of life today! I'm going to check again with my vet on Monday about her feed but the glucosamine seems to be
Doing wonders for her joints and she's always been on veteran mix for the past 2 years.
 
I've heard mixed reports about life expectency. We suspect ours had it for a while but we had been managing it unbeknown to us as we had him on a low sugar and starch diet, and had pads on him as he had thin soles. We also clipped him all year round and always had done. So I guess they can potentially live a long time with Cushings, even without medication so hopefully with medication their life expectency is unaffected!
 
I think I'll stop worrying about that! I'll just try to take it as it comes, she seems so full of life and happy now. She's still loving being ridden and hopefully I'll be able to be a good owners to her and make it easy as possible for her.
 
my 20 odd year old was diagnosed a month ago. his level was really high, 160 i think the vet said.

He is on 1mg prascend each day and its like having my old pony back :) he's being re-tested in a few weeks time, just to check that eveything is as it should be.

He's fortunate that he has never had laminitis, but sadly, he doesn't stable nor will he be turned out alone, so if he does get it then a decision will have to be made for him.
 
I remember our vet saying that in general, Cushing's doesn't necessarily reduce life expectancy and it's often something else which does. In our girl's case ( 28 yrs old) it was a case of colic with bacterial complications. Nothing to do with the Cushing's. Take heart!:)
 
That's made me happier, so sorry bout your girl. Is the lammy quite easy to keep at bay and do the drugs do anything I help the laminitis? She's starting the treatment tomorrow and I'm just trying to get grips with preventing laminitis. Thats my main concern though she's not overweight at all and is ridden 5/6 times a week.
 
Our 17 y/o got diagnosed at Christmas with the highest levels of Cushings and was having regular severe attacks of lami, which caused pedal bone rotation and seizures brought on by stress (or so the vets think). The vet gave us 3 weeks for her to improve or PTS; the vet was quite pessimistic but at times, Kel still had that spark of life and it wasn't justifiable to have her PTS. She has been on and off ill for about 20 months now. She was pot bellied slightly, large fluffy coat (she tends to shed VERY early normally), drinking LOADS of water, lami constantly etc)
This is how she looked 6 months ago;
167846_498882628278_508808278_5896185_2068494_n1.jpg

The vets put her on 1mg Pergolide and we also started her on a supplement by James Hart called Cushy Life. She was on 4 Danilon a day at this point and unable to walk very far or turn round, incredibly sore.

However, this is her now;
272846_10150219626093279_508808278_7006356_7569980_o.jpg

6 months on, completely off bute apart from when she's shod, remedial shoeing (the farrier is gobsmacked with her improvement, says her pedal bone is going back to the right position now) and we have started 5 minute walks a day with her :) We're very hopeful to be riding again by next summer. We're pretty certain that the supplement is helping her coat she's moulting like a good'un and almost has a normal summer coat by now - after 1 hour minimum grooming every day!
She's becoming her normal self again and becoming incredibly naughty, with a massive feisty attitude to match!! We are incredibly pleased with our girl :)
The vet told us that horses are more likely to die WITH cushings, rather than BECAUSE of it. It sounds like your girl is doing really well though!
If you want to know anymore, feel free to PM and I can try to help :)
K x
 
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Thanks haha, she's a sweet old girl. Im not quite sure what improvements I'm going to be looking for but I'm sure the vet will explain tomorrow. I'll have to tell your amazing story to a lady down our barn Kellysheroes since she was looking up cushings out of curiosity and unfortunatly her 22 year old mare has all the symptoms including chronic lammy so she's gonna get her tested tomorrow. She's abit worried I think
 
thereaper said:
Thanks haha, she's a sweet old girl. Im not quite sure what improvements I'm going to be looking for but I'm sure the vet will explain tomorrow. I'll have to tell your amazing story to a lady down our barn Kellysheroes since she was looking up cushings out of curiosity and unfortunatly her 22 year old mare has all the symptoms including chronic lammy so she's gonna get her tested tomorrow. She's abit worried I think
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Re: improvements, you will definitely know! :) Kelly started to look brighter, got very vocal (which she'd lost a little bit during her illness), her coat got healthier and she became very naughty (again). We're just waiting on another blood test to check her levels have gone down but farriers and vets are gobsmacked :)
We panicked and panicked, but turns out the medication has really helped and it should let her have a long quality life.
K x
 
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