Testing for IR?d

[Fharoah]

my horse has had some changes we suspect may be cushions/ metabolic/ or IR related. His bloodwork was a little off then came back to normal range. His ACTH test was within normal range but he showed symptoms such as dramatic increased thirst, increased irrigation, puffiness around the eyes, docile, very sensitive around the sheath,temperament changes not himself, intermittemt listlessness. 30 days of gastrogard made no difference whatsoever and he’s a bit overweight. Then I thought he might have had a mild bout of laminitis at the beginning of November which has resolved. thw vet I have access to locally doesn’t have allot of experience. I hope to get him seen by specialist shortly.

If concerned about possible insuline resistance what tests could we do?

[JB]

When was the ACTH test done? How “within normal” - middle, or higher end?

AFAIK the most current recommendation is an insulin challenge test - baseline glucose reading is taken, insulin is administered, and 30 minutes later another glucose test is done. The ideal is to have the glucose decrease by 50% or more at the 30 minute mark, as that indicates insulin sensitivity. The longer it takes to decrease, the more IR the horse is. It’s not a fasting test, but the horse only has his normal forage and water for at least the previous 12 hours.

[TWH_Girl]

Blood glucose will likely give you info on IR. IR/metabolic issues are similar to Type II diabetes in people. Need to watch sugars, cut back on grain, eat more forage, and get exercise. Some supplements may assist as well, such as magnesium and chromium. I would discuss with your vet and determine what blood tests should be run. I’ll check and see what they ran for my guy about 2 yrs ago. He’s 15, a TWH, easy keeper, etc. The perfect IR candidate.

[monalisa]

My older mare never tested positive but had all the signs. I don’t have much faith in the tests. Once I put her on meds, she improved greatly. We tested her 4 times - all normal. Trust your gut not the test.

[walkinthewalk]

@monalisa

My older mare never tested positive but had all the signs. I don’t have much faith in the tests. Once I put her on meds, she improved greatly. We tested her 4 times - all normal. Trust your gut not the test.

Ditto^^^^. I can’t say how any times I have read the Op’s story on a forum and in the end the horse was dealing with metabolic issues.

the signs Op mentions are indicative of insulin resistance. My thought, along with trying to find a more experienced vet, is to put the horse on a low NSC diet right away.

https://www.ecirhorse.org. has a lot of good information regarding diets.

A no-grain diet is a must.

If you buy your hay in bulk, have it tested. Use slow feed hay nets and be sure hooves & shoes can’t get caught in them. Horses need 1.5% - 2% of their desired weight in total forage. Cut pasture time down, even in the winter; which there is also such a thing as “cold weather laminitis” in horses prone toward metabolic issues.

When my horse was diagnosed in 2012, his insulin numbers were more than three times higher than what they should have been — he could have died. He did founder really bad and the twist to that is he passed the vet’s hoof tester test only a week before he foundered.

He is a tough &every stoic horse who hides his pain almost to his demise. I have to micro-manage his diet and also try to figure out what little inconsequential “things” he does, mean — something or nothing?

Best set of luck as I believe you do have a horse teetering on the edge of metabolic issues and many kudos to you for being sensible & sensitive enough to pay attention to those subtle army signs:)

[MysticOakRanch]

We did Blood Glucose test on my mare - several times. I do it every year or two now to keep monitoring. We’ve got her back to normal range through diet, supplements, and exercise.

I would point out, Metabolic issues is a broad category. So an IR test won’t catch other metabolic issues. When I first tested my mare, we threw a slew of tests at her, including PPID. She exhibited classic signs - fat pads on neck and around dock of tail, in spite of being on a diet. Lack of energy. HANGRY all the time. None of these were serious - but it bothered me that I’d had her on a diet for 30 days, and she kept gaining weight.

Just remember, if a BG test comes back negative, it doesn’t mean your horse is not metabolic, it just means their blood glucose is normal. They may not be IR, but could still have other metabolic issues. When in doubt, change the diet first! That is relatively easy to do.

I got some great tips from this forum on supplements to help her as well - magnesium, chromium, lysine and amino acids, safe fats (added Vitamin E, she had always been on Flax). And careful to exclude certain supplements, including glucosamine and iron. You might consider testing your hay - mine was in normal acceptable range, but not acceptable for an IR horse, so I changed hay providers. Lucky for me, we have a large hay broker and grower in the area that also runs a testing service, so all hay they sell has been tested.

One warning that I give a lot of people - all grass hay is NOT safe. I hear people say this all the time - “I’m feeding orchard grass, so I’m not worried about the hay. It isn’t like I’m feeding rye grass.” Simply not true - I’ve seen rye grass that tested at 14% NSC, and orchard grass that tested at 20% NSC. It is safer to test - or soak to leech out the sugars.

[monalisa]

I have one IR horse. He gets a low starch feed. I monitor his hay intake and he gets ridden regularly.