Just a friendly reminder for my fellow cushings horse/pony owners. Seasonal rise time has arrived - had my pony tested again after being tested in May. His numbers have doubled so had to double meds and retest in Dec.
He was getting a little foot sore with zero changes to diet, hay, turnout.
Sorry about your pony. How long has he had PPID?
I was also concerned about a seasonal rise affecting my old horse’s results in his recent retest (he was diagnosed with PPID earlier this year). Fortunately, his numbers are very good. However, my horse is not insulin resistant, and has never been foot sore. I am worried about the future possibility, of course, as the disease progresses.
The veterinarian said to continue with his daily three-quarters of a pill, and recommended testing again next spring.
He started showing signs via bloodwork at 14 y/o I think, He’s 21 now and still going strong. He was fine last Thursday but the big temperature swings get him in the fall. Usually, I increase his dose from Sept to Dec but wasn’t expecting a jump from .5 of a pill to 1.5 pills.
Mine is 26 – he’d been tested last year, but wasn’t even close to having PPID, then this year was positive. Glad he finally got past the Prascend veil – took two months to get him up to his prescribed dose.
Glad to hear that your horse is going strong after seven years! That’s great.
Is it a usual thing to increase the dose in the fall? My vet was very happy with my horse’s results and said to keep giving the same dose.
It’s finally beginning to cool down here – we’ve had some days in the 80s and even a few nights in the 60s, although it’s about to warm up to mid 90s again. We’re thinking of putting a light on a timer in his stall this fall, to see if that helps with the hair coat (I’ve been having to body clip every six to eight weeks).
For my pony, yes. For others, probably not needed. Our temps are going from high 70’s down to low 40’s at night. Once temps stabilize a bit more he goes back to no issues.
I test 2-3 times a year to stay on top of his numbers and keep the right dosage as meds are $$. He’s at home so I micromanage everything about his care, probably too much.
He actually sheds and grows a fairly normal coat on the Heiro supplement and his prescription. Only thing odd is even with his thick coat he gets cold easily, so I have to blanket him heavier than the others.
ECIR site is the best for info and managing symptoms, all my info comes from them and my vet.
Newbie Cushings diagnosed this June equine owner. What is this Seasonal Rise time? 🫣
Scroll down to pages 6 to 8 to see a table and graph. This is from the Equine Endocrinology Group.
https://equineendocrinologygroup.org/
Thank you, off to read!
One thing I discovered is even with a mostly normal coat it’s still not a proper coat and does not properly insulate them. My guy doesn’t grow a bad coat(it’s horrible and awful in my mind cause his coat was my pride and joy before cushings but it’s helped me refocus on his overall condition and energy as my pride lol) but I end up shaving him every 1.5mo-2mo in the summer and when the days get short we start to hit 1-1.5mo shaving cycle cause the coat causes him to sweat when we’re working and takes forever to dry and it’s just easier for blanketing him. /mostly saying for others who didn’t realize about the coats not being as insulating 
That’s why I clip them, as well.
I gotta clip my guy again this week sometimes and I’m not looking forward to it lol… might do it before work tomorrow, we’ve just started back to 5min of trotting from a suspensory injury. Very proud to say his cushings has not caused us any issues for the recovery and hes recovering as good as healthy youngsters with barely any conditioning loss. He stayed on turn out through this though for his and our safety lol and I think it’s helped a huge amount.
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