Sunny and Cushings

Box_Of_Frogs

Box_Of_Frogs

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Thought I'd share some good news. My veteran Sunny was diagnosed with Cushings 4 weeks ago. It wasn't looking good as he's 27 yrs old and has other health problems too. His ACTH count (should have been 29.7 in autumn) was 200. Started him on 1mg per day of Pergolide but after just a few days I could see he was still deteriorating so upped the dose to 2mg. 2nd lot of bloods taken Monday to see how he was responding and amazingly they came back as 30.2 which is pretty much text book! He'll need testing every spring and autumn and I'll keep a close eye on him for changes but he's back to his old cheeky self again - so much so that I'm going to get his front shoes back on so we can go for the occasional teeny tiny hack. YAY!!!
 
That's brilliant, well done!

My mare had a count of 584 when she was originally diagnosed :eek: She was tested again a few weeks ago and was still 158 so we've upped her pills. Got to wait a couple more weeks to re-test to see if her levels have normalised...
 
Dear god Oldmare! 584! Sunny's count of 200 was making me ask serious questions about quality of life - I can't imagine how your mare must have been feeling. Jeez! AngieandBen, Sunny's first symptoms were so vague that I had chalked them up as "old age". The final straw came when over the course of just 5 days he was spotted lying in the middle of his field in pouring rain whilst all his field buddies were squished in the hedge for shelter and he stopped knowing what to do when all the horses were brought in in the morning. Normally Sunny would be trying to be the 1st in but he started just standing at the back until he was the only horse in the field and then he didn't seem to know what to do. Then he kept being unable to find his own stable (he comes in loose every day and boxes himself). Then he lost his appetite and began to lose weight. He was very depressed and almost as if he was forgetting how to be a horse. It was heartbreaking to see. With hindsight I can now see that the reason for the dermatitis round his remaining eye that wouldn't clear up was due to the suppressed immune system that Cushings also causes, along with my endless battle to rid him of feather mites. His coat had lost its usual summer dappling and sparkle but wasn't long and curly. One big problem was that he'd started to be unable to control his own body temperature and would get very stressed very easily. I know now that all that was due to Cushings and the amount of cortisol circulating in his body. He was drinking much more than normal and peeing for Britain, typical of Cushings as the horse's body tries to rid itself of excess cortisol. Redwings do a superb leaflet on Cushings that I think every owner should read - only now do I know that there are many symptoms that can indicate Cushings but not all horses get all of them. I shudder to think how many veteran horses have been pts because their owners put their increasing health problems down to "getting old" when Pergolide could have given them many more years of active, happy life.
 
Good to hear he is doing well now. Our little pony was fine for years on 1 mg a day, and then suddenly started showing lami symptoms and getting frequent abcesses. A blood test showed her levels had gone high again so vet increased dose to 2mg a day. The next blood test showed her levels had dropped to 28:D, hopefully she will be managed at this level and we may even be able to try reducing again at some point (the cost of the prascend is scary!).
Our vets practice is putting on a talk about Cushings later this month, should be interesting.
 
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