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Veteran
Posts: 221
Location: Canada | My horse who was a 1D horse ended up mildly foundering earlier this year (white line separation with mild rotation), did not have the classic founder causes (obesity, road found ect..), pulled blood and found out that she has high cortisol levels but all other tests (insulin and ACTH) came back normal so not cushings yet. vet put her on pergolide and recommended a low sugar diet. has anyone had to deal with something similar? what feed did you feed them? i had my hay tested and it came in too high in NSC (sqaure bales at 16% & rounds at 25%), any special farrier work? i want to try and do the best I can for her as she was a competitive top notch horse (she was still running top of 2D out of 100+ girls before we figured what was going on).looking for any advice from people with experience with this or something similar and what the outcome was?? |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
   
Location: Texas | the cortisol levels are actually a classic sign of founder.. it's why you have to be careful when you give cortisol acting drugs like dexamethasone and all that fun stuff.
It sounds like she's border line on the PPID scale and there was enough to just tip her over a little and cause a mild founder.
so the pergolide is going to target ACTH suppression. It's a dopamine agonist and apparently Dopamine keeps ACTH in check. I am betting that although she is still normal with an ACTH test, something is going on with the pituitary to start ramping up cortisol production in the adrenal gland… because with horses Cushings is a pituitary disease.
That's good you tested your hay, because you have to be really careful with it and hay can change even cutting to cutting. If I were you I would also switch to a low starch feed like your vet suggested.. What did he suggest about grazing? |
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Veteran
Posts: 221
Location: Canada | Thanks for your response :) Until I can find different hay the vet said to kick her out on the chewed down pasture for now. Problem is being in Alberta alot of our hay and pastures gets stressed here from the colder weather and from my understanding this will cause high sugar levels. I think I will have a hard time finding hay that may be suitable. I was thinking of soaking the 16% NSC hay to get it down or I wonder if cubes may be a easier choice once winter hits? im waiting to hear back from a few different cube companies on their NSC levels as none of them post right on the bag. |
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Miss Southern Sunshine
Posts: 7427
Location: South Central Florida | I have a good friend with champion horse...almost exactally the same story. She is feeding Southern States Triple Crown Low Starch, very low amount, like half a scoop a day? but also feeds to bagged hay products something called Alfa-lox I think and another by Triple Crown.
The mare has been back running and winning at the rodeo level. I think she started the new diet in June?
We are in Florida so vet told her not to let the mare out on pasture at certain times of day also, but I can't remember when.
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Veteran
Posts: 221
Location: Canada | That's great news to hear, I'm hoping the same outcome with my horse :) |
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Veteran
Posts: 221
Location: Canada | bump |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Could be a Tumor in the adrenal gland |
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Anyone have a horse that had high cortisol levels?