I can’t remember if Charlie is just IR or PPID. My farrier used to work for the guys who created Succeed. When I called them to ask about it, they told me it was not safe for my horse who is both IR and PPID. I’m assuming the NSC is high…,it’s been some time since I investigated that.
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Thank you for sharing this!
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He’s not technically either. This is his latest bloodwork from last year. All things metabolic/laminitic were basically just assumed from the get go but nothing else to truly back it up. By ECIRs criteria, he’s higher risk but I don’t think we’re quite there yet.
His leptin value is the only one that’s high, and it was attributed to his breed/body type basically.
@JB would you have any major concerns on the Succeed?
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I didn’t realize that… so perhaps no worry at all!
I think we should be ok, it actually looks like it’s possibly Lyme could be causing that elevation too after a quick quick search.
Thank you for calling that out though!! I wouldn’t have thought about it.
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My cushings/ir pony had zero issues with succeed. He was on it for 3 months.
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Succeed smells REALLY GOOD 
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And I fed it (got a boatload free from my farrier) when my horse was younger and non- metabolic.
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Well…shoot! My IR horse turns out to have chronic Lyme. I tested him in 2020 (because of tripping and other things going on), and it was negative.
His IR got out of control to the point of doing a course of meds winter before last. Although he’d spent 18 months in there not getting turned out due to his scapula fracture and rehab. So who knows when he picked up ticks. Following several tick bites that I found this spring (including picking off 3 ticks myself), he had a few days where both hind legs started stocking up. So we did a few tests including Lyme test. Which showed no acute infection but a chronic infection (sort of on the lower end of the range but definitely not borderline). Because he was oozing from the bites and suspect other bites and/or summer sores, we put him on doxycycline. Which after a few days was sending him dangerously towards colitis land (diarrhea, going off all food)…just in time for the bloodwork to come back. Vet advised to take him off the meds, give him all the gut support (ulcer meds, extra probiotics, and Succeed), and said he was probably fine because he wasn’t really symptomatic of Lyme.
Stocking up did resolve without any cellulitis or anything. But dang, could Lyme have been the thing that tipped his EMS-prone self off into clinical insulin dysregulation? I had checked his (unmedicated) insulin levels the month prior to all this tick drama, and it was lower than it had been in December, as hoped.
Sorry to derail this thread….clearly I can’t treat the chronic Lyme, so this is just life now? So interesting.
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Not a derail at all!
I’m skimming through stuff now and it looks like in people, Lyme causes weight gain for many people who get diagnosed with it.
I haven’t vetted the sources yet, but ChattyG had this to say and a quick google seems like there’s something to it.
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Provided he can tolerate the antibiotics, I will absolutely have another panel run to see if it moves his leptin down.
That could explain why he can’t stop himself from eating if there’s food in front of him too. Or he could just be a fjord on that one
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Have you seen this?
If you plug his insulin and glucose numbers in, he may actually be IR, or at least strongly borderline
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I have! He pings on all three of their assessments from his insulin and glucose numbers. #drylotforlife
They do have info on their site about NSC! https://www.succeed-equine.com/expertise/blog/management-tips/non-structural-carbohydrates-nsc-and-succeed-your-top-5-questions-answered/
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This is very interesting. This wasn’t on the website years ago. Maybe they’ve done more research since then. I may reconsider it. Thank you!!!
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You bet!!
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First dose of mino went down the hatch with no complaints this morning. I did spray with diluted molasses just to make it extra good, but I’m not planning to do that for more than a couple days.
Fingers crossed he tolerates them well!
Editing to add - picking up the meds at CVS was a hoot. I walked in and said I was there to pick up meds for my horse, and the tech was pretty flat but goes, “Oh, I remember that call coming in” Then she gets the bag which was big and said to someone looking at her funny, “Charlie is a horse”.
Mino is generally more well-tolerated than doxy, so that’s one check in your favor 
My mare ate all her mino capsules without any hesitation. She gets minimal food, and is fed on a swept mat, so also cleans up whatever she drops, and this included any dropped mino capsules LOL! If I found any that she missed, I got a handful of alfalfa pellets and added them, and she ate them right up.
Her son, however, wanted nothing to do with them, so I was breaking open his whole dose and adding that to his soaked food which he was ok with. Thankfully that was NOT for Lyme, it was for another issue, and was a short-lived PITA
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I am happy to take any easy wins we can get!!
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