Talk to me about picky older PPID horse.. please help!

[shadesofbay3]

sorry in advance for length…

i have a 25 Y/O TB - she has never been picky with feed or finishing up her meals. she was diagnosed with cushings about 2 years (?) ago, and i just had her tested for IR, pending results. she has been stable on the PPID, and has been on 1/2 tab on prascend since her diagnosis, and hasn’t had any issues (thus far) with “the veil” or any other related issues with not wanting to eat. not sure if this is related to the cushings, prascend, etc.

i board, and recently, i have been getting some texts that she is not wanting to finish her grain. she was getting 1 and a half pounds senior (pro elite brand) in the morning and evening, topped off with PEP (pro elite performance)… but she really started to pick at it. she seemed to have more interest in the PEP, so we inverted the two feeds, and now she gets the larger ration of PEP with the smaller amount of senior. her supplements/meds are as follows:

AM:
-1/2 prascend tablet (for PPID)
-10 allergy tablets (for allergies, especially in summer)
-smartlytes supplements for electrolytes (self explanatory… she could prob. come off in winter but i keep her on)

PM:
-10 allergy tablets
-1 equioxx
-1 scoop equishield powder (she has very sensitive skin and has had times where her whole body has broken out in hairless patches that the vet didnt know what they were… this really cleared her skin up)

it is worth noting that she had all of her incisors removed in the beginning of june due to EOTRH, but she is past that now, and has healed up nicely, not seeming to have any trouble eating. she is able to graze, pick up her hay, and use her back molars.

the vet was just out for fall shots, took blood, took rads off all 4 feet (she had 2 random lamenesses on 2 different feet so i wanted her checked out), did her teeth, etc etc, and overall she was good. waiting on bloodwork results.

she was getting unsweetened applesauce in her grain but i think she disliked that more than anything.

the not eating thing is worrying me like crazy as this is something new to her. barn owner thinks it might be oversupplementing, but they are all things she needs to be on.

not sure what i can add (short of waiting on her blood results) that can help her out, or what i might be missing. i know i need to be mindful of NSCs in anything that is added… am i freaking out over nothing? help!!!

[Renn_aissance]

APF is not cheap but in my experience it really helps with inappetance in Cushings horses.

The other thing to consider, looking at her supplements, is that some horses get stomach issues from electrolytes after long term use. You might consider trying without, or doing a sucralfate trial, to see if she has some gastric upset contributing.

If her bloodwork is good, I don’t see harm in trying sweetened applesauce or another tasty additive. My vet’s line on this for my horse is that “if he drops dead because he ate an extra cookie, the cookie is not what killed him.” In other words- the amount of sugar added by half a cup of cinnamon applesauce is negligible in the scheme of things if that’s what makes her eat her food.

[shadesofbay3]

what is APF?

[Renn_aissance]

“Voodoo witchcraft,” according to my vet. It’s an adaptogen supplement that purports to bolster the immune system, help with muscle maintenance and repair, and reduce time to exhaustion in working horses.

A bunch of people in the Cushings group say it worked for their horses. I saw results in about 2 weeks. I kept my guy on it for a couple of months after the onset of pergolide veil, then took him off and he kept eating. I use it during dose increases and at the start of summer, when heat inspires him to go off his feed.

Adaptogen Supplement For Horse Immune Support and Energy

[jherold]

If she’s been on 1/2 tab prascend for 2 years, it’s not the pergolide veil. If electrolytes can cause ulcers, I’d pull those and add an antacid and see if that helps. Drizzle a little molasses on top and see if that helps.

[MorganMaresVT]

These horses are all such individuals, you may have to experiment. If your barn can accommodate it, I wonder if adding some sort of soaked forage pellet might get everything softened and the powder supplements mixed in an appealing way? My horses seem to really like Speedibeet, a textured beet pulp flake. Bonus with that product is that it soaks very quickly, even if you don’t have access to hot water. Small timothy/alfalfa cubes are also popular.

Hope you find a magic potion that works for her, I know it can be really frustrating when they just nibble and walk away.

[ladipus]

I highly recommend APF Pro and syringe it by mouth orally …how long ago were vaccines done ? Could be related to that …has she been tested for Lyme ? Had the acth been tested recently ? Cushings might not be under control during the seasonal rise …I would stop putting supplements in until appetite returns