Wondering how others are dealing with this disease? My horse is on Pergolide,chromium and thyroid L. He’s pre Cushing and looks fantastic. But gets foot sore on small amount of grazing. Very frustrating, as he was a pasture kept guy for most of his life and now on hay and dry lot. I would like him to be able to commune with the herd and move more.
Has he been tested for insulin resistance? If so, what are his numbers? Has his ACTH been re-tested since starting Pergolide?
Is his hay soaked?
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In addition to the IR question above…Does he wear a muzzle on grass?
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Mine is on dry lot and if I need to move him for short periods in the pasture he gets a grazing muzzle and turned out only as long as I have too.
He just can’t do grass. For movement I work him in long lines or a good walk around the property.
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Grazing muzzles are your friend.
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The majority of ours are manageable in a muzzle.
I have an IR and Cushings mini. She’s mostly in a dry lot but out with a muzzle for 3 or 4 hours per day. I’ve worked through this with her over several years and in addition to the prascend and thyroxine, I also keep her on previcox all summer. The Previcox seemed to be the game changer for her. I start out only letter he4 on grass for about 30 mins in the spring and then gradually work it up as the grass gets less lush. I understand feeling badly that your guy can’t be out with the herd. Would be nice if there was another easy keeper he could hang out with in the dry lot. My mini got used to it over time and doesn’t seem to mind being alone. She’s also fine with the muzzle because she’s figured out it’s the only way she’s allowed any grass.
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Just wanted to share that I’ve had some pretty good success in managing my horses mild laminitis symptoms. I remembered a few years ago that my vet had suggested that I try giving a Platinum product called Hemo Flo- basically arginine-I believe it’s called- a vaso dilator amino acid. It did help but my guys didn’t like the taste and it was too expensive to buy if they weren’t going to consistently eat it. So now along with the vet recommended meds of thyroid L, chromium piclonate, and pergolide, I recently tried adding Laminox a Ukele? product that also contains arginine. I started with a half scoop twice a day, my horses are fed morning and evening, the directed amount is 2 scoops per day. I always start stuff slowly, due to possible reactions or just simply refusal to eat. My warmblood is extremely picky. They ate it no problem. This is gonna sound nuts but after about 4 days, I noticed that my buckskin QH was much more comfortable and not avoiding the gravel driveway on the walk to the barn. He was also offering to stand 3 legged for hoof picking, where as before he absolutely refused to give me his left front, because it meant he had to weight his right front, which my vet has informed me is usually the first foot to get the nasty pulses. After 2 weeks on the half scoop dose I upped both horses to a full scoop twice a day. Both are much improved and offer a jog on their own when being led in for dinner. Even offering trot and bucks when they are moved into their small grass paddock for a couple hours in the afternoon! The overall health of their hooves has improved also as noticed by the farrier on last visit. So I wanted to share this update and hope I have found a way to manage their situations. My guys are stabled overnight with free choice grass hay, out in dry lot first thing in the morning with free choice grass hay, allowed to graze for a couple hours in afternoon until dinner approx 2-4pm without muzzles. They are much happier with this routine and so am I!
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