The mustang might need to be in his own paddock to make sure he is only eating his hay and not anyone else’s. I suspect he is smart. My mare has figured out how to “maximize” the amount of hay she can get through a small hole net - he might be eating more than you think. Retailers are coming up with bigger nets with smaller holes - I’ve seen as small as 1", and you may need one of those.
I do have 1" hay nets that they eat out of overnight. Lunchtime nets are more like 2".
I’ll have to work on increasing the exercise, as I think right now that is the missing link. He took a back seat to my pony this summer, but I’m giving her the winter off. Also I haven’t been trail riding him because of hunting season, but that will be over soon.
I’ll ask my vet about slightly increasing his dose of Thyro-L, too. Thanks for all the advice, everyone!
[QUOTE=Ghazzu;8897853]
Actually, there is support in the published veterinary literature for use of Thyro-L to facilitate weight loss in IR horses.[/QUOTE]
I have only ever found 1 study, (N. Franks AJVM 66 (6) 2005 U of TN) From 2005, that’s 11 years ago, and it has not been replicated. Not very impressive support for a theory.
Do you know of any others?
I, personally, have seen lots of horses put on Thyro-L not loose significant weight.
Studies have been done where the thyroid gland was removed completely and that did not cause insulin resistance.
Stimulating a normally functioning thyroid in order to rev up metabolism, instead of using exercise to do the same thing, is a risky move best reserved for a last ditch effort IMHO.
All the vets I know say controlling sugar, and increasing exercise is the key to weight loss
[QUOTE=csaper58;8903504]
I have only ever found 1 study, (N. Franks AJVM 66 (6) 2005 U of TN) From 2005, that’s 11 years ago, and it has not been replicated. Not very impressive support for a theory.
Do you know of any others?
I, personally, have seen lots of horses put on Thyro-L not loose significant weight.
Studies have been done where the thyroid gland was removed completely and that did not cause insulin resistance.
Stimulating a normally functioning thyroid in order to rev up metabolism, instead of using exercise to do the same thing, is a risky move best reserved for a last ditch effort IMHO.
All the vets I know say controlling sugar, and increasing exercise is the key to weight loss[/QUOTE]
Do you know what dose level these anecdotal horses were on?
If a study confirmed the hypothesis that horses on high doses of thyroid hormone lost weight, why would one need to repeat it?
If you look in the coth archives, you’ll likely find at least one post where I actually cited the thyroidectomy study.
I also did not say that diet and exercise were not essential in management of weight loss. In my previous post on this very thread,I strongly advised increased exercise.
And, if you read the peer-reviewed literature, you will see that those authors do not promote the use of thyroxin as a substitute for diet and exercise as management tools, but rather as a preliminary adjunct therapy.
If you want a more recent reference, try this one.
Frank, N., Geor, R.J., Bailey, S.R., Durham, A.E. and Johnson, P.J. (2010), Equine Metabolic Syndrome. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 24: 467–475. doi:10.1111/j.1939-1676.2010.0503.x
Which, by the way, is a consensus statement from the ACVIM.
"Consensus Statements of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) provide the veterinary community with up-to-date information on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of clinically important animal diseases."
or this one
Veterinary Clinics of North America: Equine Practice, Volume 27, Issue 1, Pages 73-92
Nicholas Frank
which states: " Levothyroxine is primarily administered for the purpose of accelerating weight loss in obese horses, and can be prescribed for 3 to 6 months while other management practices are instituted."
Our vet came by Friday and is letting us cut down to two from five scoops on the thyroid supplement, because our horse has lost all it needs now and that we hope will be his maintaining dose.
The horse was on Prascend for over 2 1/2 years and not losing weight, on the thyroid supplement the past 7 months and has lost considerably amount of weight.
That thyroid supplement was specifically prescribed to help him lose weight and we think it is doing it’s job.
