I’m doing a PPE on an obese horse tomorrow. I’m just wondering what it will run me. We’re trailering to the clinic, so I won’t have to pay for a farm call.
Your costs will be regional on all your vet clinic does, but if they send the test for ACTH off, ours just did for our old Cushing’s horse, that test was $200 and it takes several days to get results.
Good luck that all comes out well and you can manage it easily if there is a problem.
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The last one I had done cost $240 and it took 8 days to get the results back (was sent out to Cornell). It was pulled on a Friday though so that may have slowed things down. Make sure you specify you need ACTH tested too. Not all vets include it as part of the metabolic panel.
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We pulled blood Tuesday afternoon, sent also to Cornell, we had results Friday morning.
Here is more:
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March 18, 2021:
ACTH & Insulin were both $92.
Postage/handling $30
Farm call, $60
It just depends where you live and “whatever the market will bear. That cost would be a lot higher an hour NW of me, where all the HJ barns are:)
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One clue that had us test for Cushing’s was our gelding’s sheath was swelling a bit, gravity wins and extra fluids accumulate there.
When we saw that along with him being so fat without any more food than the others that were in good weight were getting, we suspected something metabolic was going on.
If a gelding is way too obese and has a sheath that tends to swell, you should test to rule Cushing’s out.
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Thank you, @Bluey. In this instance, the horse was in good weight in 2015, but by 2017 his BCS was 7/9. Four years later he’s still fat, but he’s fed a lot of alfalfa. This is a WB that probably should be on grass hay. I don’t know about his sheath, but I know he gets it cleaned regularly and the vet would have noticed that. I think he’s just over fed, but will follow my trainer’s advice.
A “full metabolic panel” of ACTH, leptin, insulin, T3, and T4 was $240 here in MD including overnight shipping to Cornell. A follow up ACTH only was $90 inclusive of shipping.
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I paid 225.00 for a similar if not the same panel for my pony. It’s worth it to establish a baseline. And Bluey is 100% right on sheath swelling, as soon as mine has the slightest swelling, it’s time to pull off grass 24/7 and possibly up meds for a week or so.
