Winter grazing for horse with cushing's

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UKa

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Hi,
Trying to get my head around winter grazing regime for me elderly TB mare who was diagnosed with Cushing earlier this year. As per vet advice and other research I have kept her on restricted grazing this summer and she mainly gets hay and she gets two feeds a day of suitable feeds. But now winter is approaching I wonder how to manage her then. She will be brought in at night out during the day, I understand that winter grass can get quite stressed ( through frost for example) also if I keep her in a restricted paddock this may turn very muddy. I am worried about resticting turnout altogether as she also ties up although I can exercise her most of the tie. how do people manage their Cushing horses over winter turnout wise? Do you keep them in on frosty days? Etc. thanks
 
I keep mine out as much as possible. Reason being that she only has half her teeth left and can't eat hay any more and is a very poor doer. Obviously, when she is in she gets big buckets of slop and another bucket of very soft chaff, but I worry that once she's finished it she effectively has nothing to eat until I can get there again.

My girl also gets stiff, sore joints in the Winter months so again, she is better off out. She goes out on grazing that has been rested since the end of the previous Winter so it's long and I find she copes fine with this and *touch wood* has not had a sniff of laminitis being managed this way.

It's very hard to advise what to do with your horse as they are all so different and what suits one won't suit another. I think you need to take in to account whether your horse currently has laminitis or has recently had laminitis and whether she is a poor doer or not. It may also be worth getting another ACTH level test done in October (during the seasonal rise) to see if the cushings is currently under control.
 
She will be best out on "foggage" (standing old grass) if you can manage it, it has more fibre and less sugar. The main stressor for grass in winter is frost, and the shorter the grass the more it is likely to have sugars in it. I presume she is on pergolide, is she IR as well? That's the bit which causes problems with sugars, if so just try and strip graze her on longer grass. Anecdotal evidence suggests cinnamon helps with insulin problems, but you need to be sure you are getting the correct one, avoid cassia cinnamon. Lots to read on the Laminitis Site http://www.thelaminitissite.org/c.html , look under Cold Weather
 
Hi, thanks for the thoughts I have not had her tested for IR but as she tied up in the past I have been assuming that some form of this is going on anyhow... Vets just said with PPID she would have to be treated as a high risk case for laminitis although she has never had it touch wood. We have the vet out tomorrow for jabs. Will ask them about it. Longer grass is a problem as everything we have has been pretty much grazed down over the summer. I have kept or in a small fenced of area that I move along/ add fresh grazing daily through the summer. Horse is on 1 x Prascend a day.
 
I have a 13.2hh pony who is half tb and has cushings. She was diagnosed nearly 3 years ago. She has never had lami and my big problem is keeping weight on. She is painfully thin at times.

She is fed spillers high fibre cubes year round and is fed the maximum amount. She does better in winter when she has lots of hay. I do not have to worry about her having lots of grass in the way I would with a lami pony but I am careful about her not having rich grass. Foggage is fine. I also give her a hoof supplement as poor hoof quality is definitely an issue. I think it is a case of getting as much fibre in as possible and as little rich stuff.

My vet says with a pony who has never had lami I probably will not have a problem. My farrier on the other hand says with a cushings pony it is only a matter of time. Her hooves are now terrible though. She is on prascend and has been since diagnosis. She was caught early.
 
My pony is in the grey area for cushings. He will he turned out in winter and there will be bales of Haylege provided as he is on a yard. Will this he ok for him?
 
My Cushings and ems pony has always been restricted, even before she was diagnosed. Coming into the winter I use the long standing grass by moving the fence each day . I reduced the hay slightly, I’m really tight during the summer months so she gets pretty ad-lib soaked hay then . It’s basically trying to see what works . My hay is tested so I know it’s pretty low so I don’t soak in winter .
 
ihatework said:
Honestly, I didn’t excessively manage my retired Cushings horse.
He had his prascend and lived out in a herd.
For me, his overall quality of life in retirement was more important than quantity.

When his Cushings progressed to the point I would have to intervene for his welfare, I pts.
Click to expand...

I was the same with mine, she was diagnosed at age 20 and she was on prascend, tested twice a year and kept pretty much as normal just was mindful to not feed lots of sugars , QOL was the most important thing for me and when we couldn’t control the levels and she became a bit pottery I PTS before she got laminitis as she would have been happy stuck in a stable
 
ihatework said:
Honestly, I didn’t excessively manage my retired Cushings horse.
He had his prascend and lived out in a herd.
For me, his overall quality of life in retirement was more important than quantity.

When his Cushings progressed to the point I would have to intervene for his welfare, I pts.
Click to expand...
It is a zombie thread, however still relevant really at this time of year. I agree with the above. My cushings pony will live the same as ever. I aim to keep him out over night and he comes in for the day. This avoids him being out on thawing grass which is the issue rather than frozen grass. He's fine if he's out overnight but would get sore if i turned out in the morning when the sun came out. So that's the only thing I do differently maybe. However it also just works better for me.
 
We have had 2 with Cushings. On Prascend they followed their normal routine with a high fibre diet, which worked quite well. Neither succumbed to laminitis but our grass is old, unimproved moorland-type pasture, cross-grazed with sheep.
 
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