Talk to me about Cushings

HaffiesRock

HaffiesRock

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A lady on my yard has just had her horse diagnosed with Cushings, and she is very upset. Horse in question is 22 years old and is a 16.3 Irish Draft type. She had lost an awful amount of weight recently so the vet blood tested and she had a result of 170 which the vet said was high. The horse has been prescribed 1 tablet a day of pracend and the owner told to add haylage to her daily ration.

I told the owner I would find out more as she is too upset to ask the vet.

She also owns 2 other horses who are full siblings to the cushings horse. They are 20 and 21 and not showing signs. She will be getting them tested when the vet comes out again as their Dam was put to sleep last year aged 27 with severe cushings related problems. Does it run in families? I have no idea?

1 tablet for such a large horse doesn't seem a lot? Do they retest and them adjust the dose accordingly? When do they retest? The only other experience I have had with cushings was a friends 11hh pony who got half a tablet a day.

Am I right in thinking the pracend can cause depression when started? The horse is now off its food and looking very sad. When should the tablets start having an affect?

Sorry for the all the questions, I want to speak to my friend tonight, armed with some more advice.

Thanks
 
If you want to help this person in the short term you would be better asking her to ring her vet and authorising him to speak to you about her horse. Then you and the vet will be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Otherwise you will get an awful lot of twaddle from well-meaning but uninformed people on here.
 
Our old veteran 24 y/o Welsh Mountain mare has both Cushings & EMS.

Equine Cushing’s Disease, which is also known as Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID), is a chronic, progressive condition and is unfortunately one of the most common endocrine (hormone) disorder of older horses.
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Nowadays, horses and ponies live longer than ever before, meaning that Cushings is becoming an increasingly prevalent disease as it mainly affects older horses. Any breed or type of horse or pony may develop Cushing’s Disease, although it does seem to affect ponies more frequently than horses. Some estimates suggest that more than 15 percent of horses and ponies above 15 years of age are affected.

I think the main aspect in the treatment of Cushings, is excellent general health care.
They will generally have thick coats, even in the summer, causing them to sweat. She may need regular clipping, our mare has to have a full clip in the summer as she can't shed her coat.

The lady should see an improvement in her coat and a reduction in drinking and urination, usually seen within 3 weeks of starting medication, but it can be longer.

I know you said the mare has lost weight, but it is also key with Cushings that she is not allowed to become overweight and her body condition should be monitored closely. Having said that, she also shouldn't drop weight either. Laminitis can also develop as a result to Cushings, and that should be noted if she has ever suffered from it.

I see no reason why she can't enjoy her life like any normal horse, she'll just have to have more careful management than others. Our Cushings 24 year old mare still enjoys a very active life, jumping, going on pleasure rides and shows with my little sister.


Re. the Prascend, 1 tablet isn't much, but it very much depends on the severity of the case. Our little mare, who is only 12hh is on 2 tablets, which is as much as the vet sees safe to give her, and that keeps her Cushings at bay. If I were the lady, I would speak to my vet, as I'm only telling you a bit of what I know, and every Cushings case is different.
 
Regular blood tests will identify whether the dose is right. In my experience every 3 months at first then every 6 months. It can apparently cause depression which is why a lower dose to start is common. As EE says, high quality care is very important. I have owned two and made sure they were managed as for laminitics although only one had ever had laminitis. I would also mention that Prascend/pergolide made a huge difference to the first one and kept her healthy for many years. The second hasn't responded and due to other issues in combination is being pts. Her last ACTH was 525, even medicated.
I have not seen depression in either horse due to Prascend and indeed it stopped the depression in the first one.
Thick coats, if that is a symptom of your friend's, are better clipped off and rugged. They seem to feel much better.
I remain unconvinced about trying the herbal "alternatives" when I have seen the benefit of pergolide. It is a progressive disease but controlling it can work for a long time.
 
My mares recently been diagnosed despite being only 10, just one of those things sadly. Her levels weren't as high only 71.6 and was retested 6 weeks after starting on half a tablet of prascend a day and levels were 23 so perfect. Not gonna lie, those 6 weeks were awful. She was off her feed and was even refusing to eat haylage at one point but she's back to herself now - eating me out of house and home and putting on weight again and looks tons better although she's lacking muscle as i haven't worked her much since she was diagnosed as didn't want her to drop any more weight.
She's happy again and has her spark back which is the most important thing as she was very down/depressed before.

Just take every day as it comes and don't make any long term plans at the moment until horse is settled with the dose/levels are right.
 
There is a useful group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/475349259169277/?fref=ts she can ask her questions of - the main things to bear in mind are the suppressed appetite when they first have pergolide (Prascend) and the usual accompanying Insulin Resistance which means they need a low sugar/starch (cereal) diet. Also seasonal rises which again are temporary and don't mean the horse is deteriorating.
The appetite thing is usually worrying but it doesn't last too long, just try not to be tempted to offer too many sugary molassed things to entice them. My old mare is 35 now and was diagnosed 6 years ago - still going strong on the PPID front, but getting stiff and slow so that might be the final problem rather tna the Cushings.
 
I have a Shetland mare, 23, who has cushings and is insulin resistant. She is on 1 Prascend daily. She did become very depressed when she started the medication and was off her food. She wouldn't take any titbits either as she was suspicious that the tablet would be in it. She would even open a sandwich and take the tablet out! I've got to say its a long, hard slog and very expensive to get them right but I have my old pony back now and you wouldn't know she had it. I dissolve the tablet in natural yogurt and syringe it into her mouth, she quite likes it. I bet she wouldn't if she knew the tablet was in it!
 
Thank you everyone. I fully appreciate that every horse is different and she should speak to the vet, but she wants more real life experiences.

Thanks again.
 
My 29 yr old is on 4 a day at 94p a tablet it's flipping expensive. Since she's been diagnosed she is much more sickly

She used to be a warm hardy girl. Only medical issue was the odd colic

Now she has had ring worm really badly took months to clear it all

She currently has an infection in 2 legs and is on anti bs

I hate seeing her like this.
 
Do look at the Facebook group linked above.... it's run by some very, very knowledgeable people who will do their best to help and advise you.
This is their information site
http://www.thelaminitissite.org/ppid.html

It is advised ,when starting prescend, that you do so gradually to help avoid the 'veil' which can make them depressed ....so you could, on your vets say so, try reducing the dose and increasing it gradually.
Tell your friend to ask away on the Facebook group....Or to have a good read of the site. It's all there and is well researched and honest advice .
 
I haven't had personal experience with this. And nor have I seen any scientific research. But I have heard reports that Rosehips help the condition....Maybe worth a try?
 
My horse has cushings - she wasn't showing any signs but we decided to get her tested as she was older. She is a very food orientated horse so when she stopped eating and got depressed I got worried! I couldn't just keep going with her being so depressed and not eating so I spoke to the vet and actually rang the manufacturer of prascend. The advice from the manufacturer, if your horse is depressed and/or not eating, is to stop giving them prascend altogether for a few days (we actually gave her a couple of weeks off - it was Xmas!) and then re-start them on a lower dose. We did this and started back on half a tablet and we didn't get any of the side effects again. She is now on a higher dose (2 tablets) but when we increase the dosage we get 250ml tablets of peroglide and give her that for a week or two, before increasing it to the full half tablet.

Of course, my horse wasn't showing any signs of cushings so taking her off the medication was ok for us but you had probably better check that out with the vet if the horse has signs of cushings.

Apart from that we just keep an very close eye on her weight and have her on a cereal free, low starch, sugar diet. In the beginning she was retested every 3 months but now we are testing every 6 months.
 
My horse was diagnosed with Cushings about 10 years ago when she was 17 and she is still going strong at 27. In the 10 years she has had 2 incidents of Laminitis both of which she recovered from. She is still regularly gently hacked and seems quite happy and alert in herself. She has been on Pergolide 250micro grams and then Prascend 1mg for the last 10 years.
 
Our loan pony has it,she is 24 and is on 1 tablet a day.She used to suffer terribly with laminitis,but [touch wood] hasn't had any since starting on the Pergolide.We watch her weight carefully as they need to be kept on the slim side,but you would never know there was a thing wrong with her.She spent Wednesday at a PC x country rally,bombing around the field without much in the way of brakes or steering.
 
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