Cushings

[gypsydales]

Had the vet today to see Ebony as she has had a touch of Laminitus again even tho shes on restricted grazing etc. Ive been a bit worried about her for a couple of months as she has lost condition rather quickly and hasnt lost all her winter coat still. She looks rather moth eaten when usually she glows at this time of year. Shes 19 years old now but I think she looks older. Anyway the vet agreed with me that the Laminitus is probably being caused by Cushings Disease and she wants to take a blood sample and Xray her front feet.



As you can see she is not fat in fact I think shes too skinny. She is a Welsh section D so should be chunky.



Im just feeling a bit down as its aweful to see your horse not looking its best even tho the vet says we can put her on a course of drugs to combat the Disease. Has anyone else had experience with this? What was the outcome? How did the horse cope? I would be grateful for any feed back.....Sheila

[southerner]

My horse looks EXACTLY like that - identical!! Vet already tested and he was clear of cushings, I am assuming its not losing coat properly due to the weird weather. He also had an iron overload and treatment last november, but otherwise is very healthy. He is a dales x

[Deleted]

i work for a large horse sanctuary and they have many older horses with cushings, they are put on the drug Prednisone. i don't know much about it but i know horses with cushings drink and urinate alot more than normal. is yours doing this as it could be a sign? they also get weird fat deposits on there bodies. i don't know much more than that sorry
beth

[Fi]

Hi Sheila - my Sam (22 yr old Welsh D-type) has Cushings. I could talk for hours about it..................please pm me if you want to. The blood sample will check for the hormone ACTH levels, a high result (above 35 according to my vet) is an indicator (Sam was at 155 when first tested). He was diagnosed over 2 years ago. He is on the drug pergolide (now called Prednisone I think as it's only recently been taken on as a horse drug). He has 2 tablets a day, usually the dose will start at about half a tablet and it can work wonders. 2 other horses on my yard with it take the drug and are now completely normal again.

Symptoms include the hairy coat (sometimes curly) and reluctance to shed, peeing more, drinking more, redistribution of muscle and fat (most noticeable that the dips above the eyes fill up), lethargy, loss of top line, pot bellied appearance, lactation in mares. And of course recurrent lami. Your Ebony looks like a classic case, but the blood test will confirm it.

The drug should offset the lami, but I now treat/feed Sam as though it's a constant risk (reduced grazing etc etc). The drug must taste horrible, we have to disguise it in feed/apples/carrots etc to get them to take it. By trial and error we've found that Scweppes peppermint cordial will mask it enough in some feed for them to take it!

One tip - introduce it slowly, 1/4 a tablet at a time and build the dose up to whatever the vet says over seveal days. They can have whats called the prgolide veil where they go off their feed. This happened to Sam quite badly, but not the other 2.

When Sam first went on it, he started shedding hair and went partly bald! He now has a coat most horses would be proud of in winter, so needs clipping for comfort in hot weather.

There are a couple of yahoo groups that I found quite useful - The Metablic Horse and an Eqine Cushings Disease one run by Dr Eleanor Kellon in the states who is a bit of a world expert.

It was horrible when Sam was first confirmed with it, he was the first I'd known with it, I felt like it was a death sentence and I cried for weeks! It's not as bad as that, the drugs can help loads and hopefully Ebony will have years left. She should be able to carry on as normal (normal for an oap anyway!). Of the three horses on the yard, 2 are fine with it, Sam's not so good but I think that's becasue the diagnosis was a long time coming (long story) and I've struggled to get his muscle back, but he's well enough in himself and that's the most important thing to me.

[harveydales]

Interesting what Southerner says about her horse looking similar. I've noticed an awful lot of horses and ponies not shedding their coats as normal this year and it suppose it must be down to the odd weather we've experienced. All of mine came through the winter much thinner than normal (I'm not complaining!) and all still have a fair aount of winter coat.

That said, as Ebony has had a touch of laminitis and your vet suspects Cushings, it is worth having the blood test. My cob Quest had Cushings and lived for a number of years quite happily on Pergolide tablets to keep symptoms at bay. His initial symptoms were lami, excesive drinking and weeing and his coat and condition did look rather like Ebony's. However he was perfectly happy and well in himself while on the tablets. I did have to manage him very carefully re lami. Sadly he died a couple of years ago with a major colic attack, totally unrelated to the Cushings.

Take a look at The Metabolic Horse yahoo site. There is a lot of information on managing horses with Cushings.

[gypsydales]

WOW! Thankyou so much for your comments!! I knew I could rely on Dalesfans to come up with informative, sensible answers. Thanks Fi for your reassurance, I will certainly look at the sites mentioned by all. I did feel yesterday that Ebonys future looked a bit grim but am feeling quite positive now....will let you all know how she does.

[harleydales]

The only one of mine who has shed properly this year is Lady, the others have all hung on to their winter coats on their bodies, though they have shed from their necks. They look very odd!

Dr Elleanor is fantastic, she does a lot of stuff with EPSM/PSSM horses too - they lose muscle and can show some similar symptoms to Cushings.

[harry11]

Get her on Laminaze or cushineze by NAF and if it is cushings then give tablets like vet says.

Would say too that if not really footy i would personnally not have an x-ray yet.
Depends how bad. Always cautious of vets wanting money.

Keep grazing down as you know.

[NFK Dumpling]

I'm sorry to hear about Ebony but pleased to hear that other Dales haven't shed their coats properly - Musk hasn't either and I was wondering if he was lacking in some sort of vitamin or trace element.

James has been diagnosed with EMS but he has lost his winter woollies!

[The Moo]

I'm also glad to hear other ponies haven't finished losing their winter coats, Moo lost hers completely a while ago (strangely enough is similar to James on the EMS front - not officially diagnosed but pretty obvious) yet Ed still has some of his left.

[mrsp]

Just found this topic.Coltie looked just like that in Sept 2010...now at the age of 29 and on his cushings pills he is charging round the stubble flat out with derranged jockey and looks fantastic!!

[lucydales]

Choc (23yo TBxID mare) doing well on pergolide (now called "Prascend" and licenced for horse with the accompanying price hike!). Putting her back with the fat hairies has done wonders for her out line, though I do have to feed her twice a day!

I hide the perg tabs in molasses, (will try the scheweps peppermint) have had huge problems getting her to eat them, they must taste horrible! I feed one night and one in the morning so only have to hide one at a time, vet was ok wiith that.

I keep meaning to try agnas castas (sp??!) but havent yet.

Good luck.

[knight]

My Topaz has been on pergolide for her cushings for years and has done quite well on it for many years, so definitely don't dispair. She had horrible laminitis bouts that have been well controlled with the pergolide, but I agree it can be work to get her to eat it. My best success has been powdered peppermint flavored pergolide powder from the compounding pharmacy. And if you'd seen her run from me just for fun this evening you wouldn't know there was a thing ever wrong with her feet, she ran circles around Knight. Good luck with Ebony.

[southerner]

Have you had a result from the vet yet? Hope its good news!

[gypsydales]

Have had Ebony tested for Cushings and it came back positive. She is on 1mg of Pergolide which cost £115 for 100 tablets from the vet. We will try to buy them elsewhere as this seems very expensive. Have started giving her them just this week and up to now she is taking them with her feed and doesnt suspect anything !! Have read through your messages and will be keeping a close eye on her for symptoms. I just hope it sorts out the Laminitus as it fills me full of dread just thinking about it. Thanks for all your informative posts, they really do help.x