Diarrhea, anxiety and spooky from Prascend?

[rubygirl1968]

Leif, 25 yr old Fjord gelding, was diagnosed with Cushing’s last fall. He’s been on 1/2 tablet a day since then and his numbers were good on recheck this summer.

He’s had fecal water syndrome for years and while it flared up it had gotten progressively worse since spring.

A month ago I noticed that he was spookier than usual but thought it might be due to the bears in the area. They had started getting into bo’s trash on a regular basis and the paddocks are nearby.

Same time he started having loose stool along with fecal water and it turned into diarrhea. Frequency wasn’t changed but the manure produced was all liquid.

Someone asked if prascend was implicated in ffws on the Facebook group and I finally looked up the side effects. Sure enough diarrhea and anxiety/excitability are listed.

I stopped his dose this past Thursday and he’s back to normal manure and his laid back self.

I’m planning on talking to the vet but Leif is my first horse and I have no experience with Cushing’s. What are the risks of not treating? Would the compounded be any different?

I guess I’m trying to find out as much as I can so I can have a somewhat intelligent convey with the vet.

[grayarabians]

I’ll reply.
We are now in the seasonal rise when many owners increase the Prascend / Pergolide dose.
During the rise is when some horses become laminitic and other symptoms worsen due to higher ACTH levels.
High ACTH is immunosuppressant and catabolic to soft tissue.
(Last year at this time my horse abscessed horribly and tore suspensory branches - for starters).
His eACTH was normal.
Finally I twigged and asked the vet for a TRH Stim test. Positive.
Started immediately on Pergolide.
Also started other supplements and he had his first bout with FFWS.
I stopped the supps.
I think the biggest culprit for his FFWS was stemmy hay.
Probably a combination of things really.
I decreased his grass hay and increased his Timothy Balance Cubes and the FFWS resolved.
He’s back on usual amount of hay but oddly today I saw some stains under his tail - which I’ll monitor.
I think the recent flakes of hay have been stemmier.
We had some spooky times as well but I think that was from the APF Pro - given to help with Pergolide side effects.
Stopped APF and he’s back to normal.
My horse is on compounded Pergolide capsules - same drug obviously as Prascend.
No idea about CP vs brand re: FFW and spookiness/ anxiety - though some feel horses do better when changing from one to the other.
Hope this helps.
Do you read on the ECIR forum?

[ladipus]

You definitely need to treat …my older pony couldn’t tolerate Prascend -he got diarrhea, and totally lost his appetite…but he is doing very well on the compounded Pergolide liquid from Wedgewood Pharmacy.

I recommend APF, and giving Sachaaromyces boulardi + MOS for the diarrhea

[rubygirl1968]

Leifs only symptom was late shedding.

I hate to hear APF can cause spookiness if that’s what’s given for pergolide side effects. He was bad enough on just pergolide.

As far as the ffs, he was on chopped hay and pasture with a muzzle. The diarrhea got so bad I put him out 24/7 muzzled to see if it made a difference. It didn’t.

[rubygirl1968]

I’ll talk to the vet about compounded.

@ladipus

I recommend APF, and giving Sachaaromyces boulardi + MOS for the diarrhea

I tried everything but the APF and nothing helped the diarrhea. Biosponge at maximum dose with 1 cup of psyllium twice a day didn’t even help. It went from no form to spattering.

I will look at the APF though.

[ladipus]

Be careful with the psyllium that might not be helping the diarrhea…also something like Succeed oral paste syringes is excellent for the entire GI system

[ladipus]

I’ve given APF to many of mine and it has never caused spooking…however Prascend did cause a complete behavior change in one of my Wb geldings that ended up not being Cushings but was being treated as one by a vet who didn’t test him

[ladipus]

The spookiness could be ulcer /GI system related …it also could be Lyme …has that been checked ??

[rubygirl1968]

No, we haven’t checked that. I’ll add it to the list for the vet visit.

I ordered some waterworks from Horse tech and this is the second week on it. I cut out all the other psyllium.

Thank you