Strip grazing for cushings

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UKa

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Those of you with cushings horse that strip graze. How large are your paddocks and how often and how much do you add grass/ move the fence ? I am new to this as horse only just diagnosed we havent had lami. Adjusting hard feed and giving hay too. I understand that very overgrazed grass can be bad too so don't want that to be a problem. Thanks g
 
Apache Warlord said:
is your horse overweight and looking in danger of laminitis? If not just treat as normal.
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^^^^ This. Cushings treated with Prascend isn't a problem unless it is accompanied by acute insulin resistance (IR) in which case a low sugar diet is indicated. That means minimal cereals (starch = sugar) and minimal high sugars grass. High sugars is very short or very stressed, and weight gain is an early sign that they are at risk.
 
Hi, thanks! She is the contrary - a poor doer, skinny TB and has not had laminitis before. A TB at my yard has severe laminitis before the tested for cushings and they are not letting her onto much grass at all so I have been very careful over the last few weeks since diagnosis but hoping that the prascend will do its job really so I can turn out as normal that would be best scenario!

Should add that she has had azoturia before so have been feeding low sugar low starch for years but have not had to adjust grazing.
 
My 27 year old TB has cushings and has been on prascend for 4 years, fortunately he's not had laminitis. I treat him just like my other horse in terms of turnout and access to grass but need to give him 2 x hard feeds (veteran vitality) with added oil to keep his weight on. However, if your horse has had laminitis I think you do need to be extra careful with the grass. I would be giving oil to get some extra calories into her if she's underweight.
 
I wouldn't worry too much. My welsh a has Cushings and two previous bouts of laminitis but going onto prascend has been a huge turning point. She's not shown so much as a warning sign since, where as before she would get pulses after a couple of hours without a muzzle.
She rarely even wears one now, its given her the ability to be treated as more or less a normal horse :) obviously i keep a very close eye and wouldn't just chuck her out on a rested field without a couple of muzzled days to be on the safe side. But that's purely paranoia on my part i think!
She's on a high oil/low sugar diet. But that's fairly normal for a welshie, but she needs the extra oils and fats as she's a very poor doer.
She's worn a muzzle for maybe 3 days so far this year ...
 
Cushings doesn't automatically mean laminitis. You need to test for insulin resistance for that to find out how likely it is that your horse may get laminitis (if at all).
 
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