Hi. I have a 22 yr old made who was diagnosed 2 yrs ago with Cushing’s disease. Every year for the past two years, she founders going into winter. I’ve been looking into getting BOT quick wraps or bell boots to see if increasing blood flow will help her recover faster. I don’t have the cash for both. Any suggestions will help immensely.
No pasture starting September 1, depending on where you are. Wraps or bell boots won’t help. What does your vet recommend? Is she on any meds regularly?
Are you treating for Cushings? What meds is she on and how much?
I agree that taking her off pasture has to be part of the solution, if she’s on pasture. If not, maybe the medication dose she is receiving is insufficient during the “fall rise” when ACTH levels tend to increase.
I also agree that this has nothing to do with boots/wraps, and everything to do with medication and diet. She has a metabolic condition - you can’t fix it with wraps. It’s unlikely that either will help her “get over” the laminitis that she now has; the better solution is to prevent the laminitis.
I feel your pain. I have a pony with Cushings that is very sensitive to sugar/grass/fall (well, everything!) and I found that although his ACTH tests were showing normal while on Pracsend, an increase in dosage made a big difference in reducing the laminitic episodes he was having. (Not sure i’d recommend this to other people - my pony is a rescue case and is a bit of a metabolic trainwreck. In his case, he was barely a step away from euthanizing so the medication experiment was a last ditch effort. And it worked. That was more than a year ago and he’s still with us…he’s still a trainwreck, but his quality of life is good, for now.)
“going into Winter” is a season with sunny days and cool to cold nights, just like Spring, which sets up a lot of metabolic/insulin resistant horses for laminitis. That’s how you manage her - either get her off the grass, reduce her grazing time, or put a muzzle on her.
Insulin resistance often comes in behind Cushing’s. You can either get her tested to see how bad it is, or just assume she is and manage her accordingly.
I also would like to know if she’s on Prascend, as she really needs to be to manage the Cushing’s symptoms, which can help with the laminitis issues.
What is her whole diet - what, and how much?
I currently have her on 1 mg of Prascend per day. She’s never been a pasture horse because she doesn’t get along with other horses. As for her diet, she has free choice hay, and gets 4 cups of dark grain and 4 cups of light (aka Essential K and Kalm Ultra). I also have her on Dumoor weight gain supplement. She gets grained 3xs a day.
I would talk with your vet about increasing her dose of prascend during this time that she experiences laminitis. She may need extra medication for a few months. It’s fairly common to give 2 tablets a day.
What kind of hay? And what is dark grain?
I don’t know if the top of my head what type of hay it is. I know it doesn’t have alfalfa mixed in. Dark grain is the Kalm Ultra from Tribute
I’ve done everything and spent hundreds of hours researching the best way to manage my old metabolic mare. She has a high ACTH, but increasing prascend made her worse (caused ravenous appetite, weight gain and mild laminitis). Eventually, I found Riva’s Remedies. I was very skeptical at first, since some of what they say is very different from what I heard from others. But I put her on some of their products, and I’ve been amazed at the results. Fat pads gone. Hair coat normalizing. No more heat rings in hooves and nice sole concavity. Lots of energy, to the point where I had to remind her of ground manners. I’m still surprised at how well she’s responded. It might be worth talking to them.
I’ve used polo wraps, neoprene bell boots and shipping boots to help keep her legs and hooves warm during winter. She definitely gets a bit tender footed when it gets cold. EasyBoots could be best, as far as boots go. When I talked to BOT, they said that their products shouldn’t be used 24/7.
[QUOTE=MythicalSis;8918751]
I currently have her on 1 mg of Prascend per day. She’s never been a pasture horse because she doesn’t get along with other horses. As for her diet, she has free choice hay, and gets 4 cups of dark grain and 4 cups of light (aka Essential K and Kalm Ultra). I also have her on Dumoor weight gain supplement. She gets grained 3xs a day.[/QUOTE]
Many Cushing’s horses can do well (for a while at least) on a lower dose of Prascend during the longer daylight days, but need a higher dose once the daylight hours start to decrease. You should talk to your vet about increasing the dose towards the end of Summer, through sometime in the Spring, as mentioned.
She gets grained 3x/day - is each feeding the 4 cups of each of those products, or is the 4 and 4 the total amount she gets?
If she needs weight, why wouldn’t you feed more of the regular feed, and not any of the ration balancer (the Essential K)?
Both of those products are in the roughly 3c/lb range, so you’re not feeding nearly enough of the Kalm Ultra. I would change to the Kalm N EZ pelleted at 14% NSC, instead of using the Ultra at at 26%. That is MUCH too high for a metabolic horse.
