Also, given the comment about Regumate, consider adding in Evitex. It’s a chasteberry supplement that works on the pituitary gland and helps to regulate hormones. They can be on both at the same time. My mare has really painful cycles and the Evitex made a huge difference for her. She’s been on Regumate without the Evitex and with it - both approved by my vet.
Personally, I believe that for chasteberry, you really need a high quality liquid form for it to make a difference though.
Is it okay to show with this supplement?
Yes!
Would the chaste berry affect a cushings test? Her owner has her on the smartpak pelleted version. The vet mentioned hormonal changes sometimes being a sign of PPID and plans on testing during spring shots. I’m wondering if we should take her off of it for a few weeks before the test. I am also not convinced this version of it really does anything either.
I am not sure, but I have read that the chasteberry only mitigates the symptoms, not the underlying disease. So if that is correct, it shouldn’t affect the test.
I did a ton of reading on chasteberry before buying any, and like I said, I am skeptical that the smartpak version would do anything. From my sample of one, the Evitex made a HUGE difference. She went from unrideable every third week to not being able to tell when she was cycling.
I might have missed it but what was life like at her previous boarding barn? Was she different there?
This…but start to teach her to tie in her stall when she is calm before you start using it to calm her down.
I have a horse on my farm who can be a little quirky about certain horses going out or coming in first, she is one who I do tie in her stall at times—she’ll go from a spinning cantering mess to quietly eating her hay, and it works well at horse shows too, but I don’t think it would have worked so well if she hadn’t been trained to tie first.
(It’s like crate training your puppy…all the good things happen in the crate. And if done right, the puppy automatically chills right out once she’s in the crate.)
I don’t know what she was like previously. I know she got two hours per day of turnout in a small paddock. She got groomed and maybe lunged if they felt like it. she was eating a ration balancer, alfalfa and free choice grass hay. Her stifles were incredibly weak and she had the same nervous energy there. Its part of the reason her owner decided to move her. She felt the horse needed more turn out if she wasn’t going to be worked.
Gosh, I really feel for you, OP, and the mare’s owner. And the mare, frankly. It’s such a bummer to see a horse that is clearly unhappy like this. When my boy was an anxious hot mess, it was upsetting because I couldn’t figure out how to help him and I hated seeing him so blatantly unhappy and agitated. What a miserable existence. The relief at finally being able to help him find peace and calmness again was so wonderful.
I hope something can be done to help this poor mare.
What about a scarecrow? If it looks human and has a scratchy brush for hands? It can just stand there quietly giving scratches all day.
This might actually work!
The repro exam revealed nothing. Ovaries are normal sized. Uterine culture came back clean and her bloodwork revealed nothing abnormal in her hormone levels.
After trying to teach her to tie for several weeks, it’s clear that she learned to set back against the tie. If she is tied in a regular breakaway halter, she will rear against the tie and fling herself around violently until it breaks. If she is wearing a rope halter, she barely tests it. Because of how she behaves tied in the stall vs. on the post we built, no one feels comfortable tying her in the stall, for our safety and hers. The mats get too slippery for her to be rearing and setting back the way she is. After witnessing her meltdown last week, the vet did put humane euthanasia on the table for her owner.
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