Should I be worried about Laminitis?

It was been a little while since I last blogged, and in that time a lot has happened!

Molly in really enjoying being out at night, but I have had to increase the amont of time during the day that she has to come in.  This is because after just a few days of living out, you could see such a dramatic change in her weight.  Who would have thought it a few weeks back that I would be trying to slow her weight increase down!!

At the time of my last blog she was averaging 392kgs,

Five days later her weight was up to 401kg, and two days later it was up to 411kg!!

Now I am back to my old worry of laminitis, so she is in during the day when the grass sugar levels are at their highest, which she seems to like, as she has a yummy feed and soaked haynet waiting for her.

I have taken some new pictures and will upload them later, I will also blog later,with the recipe I was kingly given by a friend for homemade fly repellent.  I think it works really well and you can make it up in large batches, and costs a fraction of the price of the leading brands.

Until laterx....

Cushing's Diary: the calm after the storm

After a bit of a rubbish day yesterday, I sat in front of the laptop this morning and spent a couple of hours, reading through other people's experiences with their cushing's horses and ponies.

 It allowed me to see again that what Molly is doing isn't strange there are plenty of other horses in this situation that are doing the same, and some are behaving worse!

It has resulting in her medication being increased a little, and I am trying to stay calm about the whole thing with her eating. Somehow it becomes such an important thing for her to get all the feed stuffs, that I was forgetting that she wasn't exactly on hunger strike! She is still eating, even though she is being fussy, I will just have to be more creative.

This evening she quite happily, demolished her turmeric, oil, pepper and marmite sandwich and in a seperate sandwich she had her linseed mix with thinly sliced apple. I know it does seem a bit of a faff, but it is actually quite fun.  Tomorrow we are going to have linseed and pair sandwiches and 2 turmeric finger rolls.


www.horsecushings.ridetheweb.co.uk

Today has not been one of the good days

I don't know why, but today does not seem to be going well, although in reality it probably hasn't been any worse than most other days, it just seems not so good.

 Brought madam in this morning and after a little persuasion she did each her linseed and turmeric sandwiches, but this afternoon she refused and just spat them all over the yard.  It just gets to you sometimes I guess, doesn't she realise that we are only doing this for her benefit, I mean why else would I choose to constantly have rather fetching yellow tinted hands from the turmeric!

 I'm sure tomorrow will be much better, and the improved weather will probably help, anyway she is back out with her bestest buddy, Murphy to enjoy another grass munching night in the field.

Anyway, after yesterday's blog about when she unexpectedly had Gemma yesterday, we spent the evening trying to find the pictures of mum and baby, and after some searching found this one.

Like mother like daughter wouldn't you say!

Don't forget to have a good nose around the website, and send in your stories etc for us to share.

www.horsecushings.ridetheweb.co.uk

Two for the price of One!

Back in 1998 less than a year after I had Molly brought for me, I went on holiday leaving her in the capable hands of a friend. This in itself seems pretty standard, but what I returned to really wasn't. When I got home, there was a slightly panicked message saying as soon as you get back please ring me!

Well instantly you start thinking oh my god she's killed her or she's badly injured, but what I was told really was not what I was expecting. Molly had had a foal!!!

I don't think it really sunk in until a few days later, when the daily routine changed some what and I now had two horses in my care and one of them I didn't choose to own. I chose the name Gemma, after a pony I had ridden whilst still attending riding schools, she was the best mare ever. I started riding her when she was 4 years old and new to the yard, she was extremely sharp, could turn on a penny and had a fantastic jump in her. Broke my heart the day I couldn't ride that little mare any more.

So I suddenly had two animals and also had to deal with the idea of not being able to ride Molly for a while as well. One lady, who managed the equestrian centre where Molly was living at the time also kindly informed me that it was likely I would have to totally re-break her when I started riding again, This was upsetting but I am glad I didn't pay too much attention, as she also told me the foal would reach a good 15.2hh, and she barely made 13.1hh!

We had lots of fun and also a lot of worrying times over the first few months before we moved the pair to a field with a couple of acres and a large field shelter, where Molly spent the majority of her time trying to escape onto the main road and with the foal in tow! On various occasions we had calls to let us know Molly had managed to get out and her and Gemma were walking down the road, but not to worry because the pair were behaving quite sensibly and sticking to the left! She never put up a fight when we would catch up with her and I still believe she was just bored sick with just being a mummy.

This is a picture of Molly not long after we separated her from Gemma, it was an extremely emotional day, and one that since having a child myself can totally sympathise with her. But not long after that image was taken, we moved Molly to the yard she lives on now and funnily enough her baby lived just down the road, and I prepared myself for the first time we rode past Gemma's field and although baby came running to the fence, Molly didn't even batter an eyelid! Seems really bizarre considering it took 4 people to hold her back and hours and hours of her going nuts in the field when they took little Gems away.

And people say horse don't feel emotions.......

Does anyone fancy a sandwich?

These are the rather unappealing looking images of the paste with goes into Molly's sandwiches, takers anyone???

 I don't know what it is about the sandwich, but slap a load of the really unappetising paste of marmite, linseed, turmeric, pepper, agnus castus, cinnamon and mag ox between two slice of bread and apparently its really tasty! Put the same ingredients in her feed and she will not touch it!!!

As you can see dinner without the extra supplements is going down well, and since being out at night she is eating more hay in the few hours that she is in, than she was when in all night.So although I do still worry about her dropping weight whilst out at night she seems to be happier being out.

  I also took her weight measurement yesterday, which showed she is still on 392kg,  I'm not overly worried that she hasn't put on any weight in the last week, as her routine has changed and shes probably using more energy due to being out rather than just stood in her stable.

The hope is that with the extra exercise she may regain a bit of muscle that has been wasted since not working, and spending many wet weather days over the winter in her stable due to the risk of mud fever.  The annoying part is that in herself she is so happy and energetic, there isn't any sign of lameness or any other ailment to be seen.  It is just her weight that I am battling with, which in a way makes a bit bearable because she seems so happy with her life at the moment.

and so that I do not get moaned at by the 'boy genius' web designer extraordinaire, don't forget to visit the adjoining website:

www.horsecushings.ridetheweb.co.uk

Why is it we have horses??

After getting soaked at 7.30 this morning as I strolled across the field to retrieve a once again soggy mare in , after another wet night, I am beginning to wonder why I do it.

I think that it is actually an illness, horses, are surely an addiction, I mean come on, we pay huge sums of money to get our horsey fix, unless you are top of your game they never make you money and you find yourself thinking about them most of the time!

Anyways, Molly is now living out for the summer, which she is loving, and she is still coming in for 4-6 hours a day for a rest, and to have some hay and feed. But she has decided to give me another headache, after months of finding a mixture of feeds that she will eat and that are good for her, she has once again started not eating the feed I am giving her.  This is a big worry for me as she needs to continue gaining  weight and if living out means that she isn't getting the calories without the sugar than she will have to come back in. But that in turn is going to make her miserable, and the whole point of her still being here is because she is still happy.

I know where the problem lies, it is the micronised linseed, she is about the only horse ever to not like the taste of it, and during the winter I was able to hide it in 3/4 smaller feeds and mixed and soaked into her fibre beet. She now only has one or possibly two feeds a day, and she is just refusing to touch it, god that horse makes me so angry! (lol)

 To try and get some of the important stuff in her I have devised a cunning plan, when she comes in I give her a sandwich, which she loves and in that sandwich is:

•  Turmeric paste made with turmeric and olive oil
•   marmite
•  freshly ground black pepper
•  and agnus castus

she has two of these a day, so at least I know she is eating those things.  When she comes in I still give her a small feed of fibre nuggets, chaff, oats,barley and linseed and she must be consuming some of the linseed that has attached itself to the fibre nuggets which she loves.

I will update later, as to whether she has eaten anything whilst in today, and today is weigh day, so I can see if being out has affected her weight in anyway.

Until Later......

Looks like its going to be another wet day

Decisions, Decisions....

  A few years ago when I owned a pretty simple never goes wrong horse, days like today when its a bit breezy with mixtures of drizzle and heavy rain, wouldn't have been a source of concern.  I'm either going soft in my old age, or I am realising now that all those years I was neglecting her slightly by taking advantage of the fact that she was such a hardy type.

  She really knows how to pull on the heart strings now, and the thought of her being out in this horrible weather all night has meant that I am now rather soggy, after traipsing across the field to bring in two rather bedraggled looking pensioners!

I have been told in the past by many people that Horses have no feelings and that their only concern is their natural  instinct, to be in the herd, stay safe and eat, but if you had seen the look on those two wet faces when they saw us coming up to the gate, in my opinion there is no question that they do have the ability to feel certain emotions.

You could almost here them say:

 'thank god your here, we are a bit tired and getting rather wet!'

This may make me mad, and to be honest I can accept that, because if caring for an animal that puts their total faith in you is being mad, then i am more than happy to be mad! If it makes me a push over or a soft touch, then that is fine as well, if my horse is cold and wet, then in my view she is likely to drop weight, which at the moment is not something that I can let happen, so if it means that I do not 'get the summer off' from mucking out etc then that's fine, because at the end of the summer I still want to have that horse, to have to muck out and do all the crappy jobs we all moan about by the end of January.

Everyone has the right to care for their horse/pony the way in which they see fit, and I have to say that I myself have found that I from time to time pick holes in how others look after their four legged friend.  Unfortunately it is how the horsey world seems to work, but it does tend to get my hackles up when you see something that is so clearly not in the animals best interests, but possibly being done because it suits the human.  They are not machines, they are living, breathing creatures, that put up with you lumping a saddle on their back and a chunk of metal in their mouth and be bored by running round in circles or petrified by scary monsters in hedges or bins, so they should know that you will do what is best for them.

We choose to have these animals, they cost us a hell of a lot of money, time and effort, they do not choose to come to us, so surely we owe it to them to give them the best care that we physically can.....

   ok rant over, time for a cup of coffee...........

What on earth do you feed a horse with cushings?

OMG, you know that this is going to be a headache!

  The hardest thing was getting used to is actually having to think about what to feed her rather than how you are going to stop the far too intelligent madam from stuffing her face with anything that stands still long enough! To be honest after at least 5 months of trying it is still a hard thing to master.

I want to point out straight away that I'm not in anyway suggesting this is how you should manage a horse with cushings' diet, I just wanted to share what seems to be working for me.

There is so much on the Internet and a lot of it is very conflicting, it can leave you feeling extremely disheartened and totally lost.  But seriously trial and error is the best policy as every horse is different and what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another.


So basically as you are probably already aware, cushings is also known as Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID), which basically means that the Pituitary gland isn't working as it should.  The Pituitary gland is found behind the brain and plays an important role in controlling hormone levels.

Cushings also makes the horse more susceptible to infections as their imune systems are not up to scratch which leaves their bodies lacking the full ability to fight the infection, so conjunctivitis,dermatitis and so many others are all things that need to be kept on top of as the horses ability to recover is greatly compromised.

Anyway back to what to feed:

Obviously it is wise to go down the recommended medication route of the Prascend tablets, which undoubtedly do work. Her symptoms are literally gone, the constant empty water buckets in the morning are no longer a problem and also her stable although still mareish isn't a swimming pool either. Her coat although still thick (she has always had a thick coat) is coming out this year unlike last spring when she was intent on holding onto it! Once you get over the price of the little buggers per day you can start to appreciate the impact they have.

Apart from the Prascend I wanted to give Molly everything possible to improve her condition, so get ready for it this is a list of her daily feed, I haven't added the quantities as that would differ depending on the horse and Molly is starting to live out for the summer so her quantities are also changing.

• Agnus Castus (Chase berry) aka Monks Pepper
• Micronised Linseed
• cinnamon
• Turmeric -don't forget the freshly ground black pepper
• Magnesium Oxide
• Fibre Beet
• Fibre Nuggets
• TopSpec TopChop Lite
• Micronised Barley
• Rolled Oats 
• Ad lib soaked hay

Oh yes it does take me longer to make her feeds up that it does to muck out her stable, but everything on the list I have researched and is there for a reason.

Agnus Castus

If you type into any Internet search engine 'Cushings Horse' you are likely to stumble across this stuff.  The rather ingenious Chase Berry was discovered and originally used by monks to help combat certain 'urges' and is used to good effect in other European countries to help balance women's hormone levels.
It isn't just used for horses with cushings, hormonal mare and riggy males are also given this supplement to balance hormone levels.  You can purchase this from most horsey feed shops and many big brands have it listed in the ingredients in their 'Stroppy mare' supplements.
If you decide to feed this to your horse where you purchase it from is totally your choice and please do not be swayed by my decision, but I order mine from a on line auction site as a straight feed, without any fancy names and additional bits and pieces added, it comes in a simple bag and is much cheaper than others I have looked at and has the same content etc.

Micronised Linseed

This stuff I could write a whole book about, I cannot praise it enough! In my personal opinion it is quite simply a super feed and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.  If fed in small amounts it does not affect weight gain and is good for all round health and well being including a super shiny coat, a much improved knot free mane and tail, good feet, great vitality and health.  If fed in larger quantities it is a brilliant addition to the cushings suffering horse that needs to gain weight as it is high in fat without the sugar which can be so dangerous to the poor dears. And also horses love the taste of it.
It can be brought in small amounts but can work out quite pricey, It is worth shopping around, as I have found a feed outlet not to far from where I live that sells a 15kg bag for under £19 and that lasts me months which is brilliant as Molly gets between 2-3 cups of the stuff a day.

Cinnamon

This was suggested to me by a friend who has ponies who are prone to laminitis, and knowing that my madam has a muchly increased chance of suffering from laminitis I didn't think it could hurt to add this inexpensive accompaniment to her ever increasing daily menu.
I'm not 100% sure as to how cinnamon works but from what I can make out it is thought to help the cells respond to insulin and cinnamon is supposed to have high antioxidant levels that can give extra health benefits to the laminitis prone horse.

Turmeric

At this point I wanted to add this picture of what turmeric does to ones nose, and also may I add anything that gets remotely close to that nose!

Anyway turmeric is used by many for horses,dogs,humans etc for its health benefits.  There are many forums and even pages on Face Book where people share tips and success stories about health improvements.
I would suggest looking into it yourself, but the little i know about feeding it is that firstly it should be fed with oil, ideally olive, coconut or linseed oil and if you are feeding micronised linseed you do not need to add any extra oil to the feed, and also that freshly ground black pepper added to the turmeric in a way activates it and has better results.
I cannot add that much more regarding turmeric as this is a fairly new addition to the diet.
People use it for sweet itch, sores, cushings, dermetitus, arthritis, general joint pain the list goes on!

Fibre Beet, Fibre Nuggets, Top Chop Lite

These sort of feeds I would generally say are personal preference as there are so many on the market.
The simple things to remember are:

• very low or no sugar
• no molasses
• high fibre - I have found that the linseed can make her a bit runny and with a lot of fibre added to her diet that problem seems to have been rectified

Straight feeds e.g oats

The only reason I have started to go for straight feeds is that I know exactly what is going into my horse. I have absolutely nothing against mixes etc, I just feel that it is important for me to have total control over what my horse is eating.

Magnesium Oxide

It is found most commonly in many of the shelf equine calmers, as it is supposed to help re balance horses when magnesium levels are low which is generally in spring and late summer, which can result in a fizzy pony. I however have added it to the diet due to the belief that it can help in combating fat deposition in overweight animals (cresty necks), yes Molly isn't overweight, but with her susceptibility to laminitis it cannot hurt to ensure magnesium levels remain good.  There are also reports that it is good for bare footers as well. 


Well that is it, it took awhile to put it all down on here but that is what the old mare gets, it seems to be working for me and it has taken what seems like ages to get a good balance right and there are likely to be alterations especially now the spring grass is here, but the best advice I can give it trial and error.

Once we were diagnosed

I thought that before I go any further it would be good to show you a picture of my rather plump madam a few years ago.

This was taken in 2010, and although she is a little scruffy with a bit extra weight I wish I could have that horse back!
 This next image I did not want to take, and in honesty had to get my daughter to take as I really do not want people to see how poorly she looks, but for the purposes of comparison I think it is important I have a visual log of how the old girl is getting on.
 So here goes this picture was taken at the beginning of April, and I plan to add new progress pictures about once a month, to hopefully show Molly's progress.

I know what you are thinking,'why did you start clipping and then leave her looking like that?!'
well I started to clip her and they literally died on me, so I'm in the process of buying a new set.


At the end of December, I had to make a decision as to how I was going to deal with this, and I came to the conclusion that after near on 19 years of her being the most loyal of companions I owed it to her to try everything I could before I let her go.  If she was miserable, lame or possibly in pain then I wouldn't have thought twice about letting her go, but she isn't, she is still the stroppy, bubbly, cheeky madam that shouts at you as you arrive on the yard and drags you up the drive to go out to play with her field buddy Murphy.
 So that has been my mission, try everything so that I can look back if it all goes pear shaped and have no regrets or what ifs.


At the beginning of January I took my first weight reading of Molly which came up at

353Kg

I have regularly taken readings roughly every 10-14 days, and although the weight gain seems slow we are now up to

392kg

Which is broken down over 16 weeks to an average of 2.4kgs a week, which after seeking some advice from a much trusted and knowledgeable friend, is apparently a good safe gain rate.



Next on my blog..........

What on earth do you feed a horse with cushings?????

Heres where the story begins........

Molly

  Well she has got to be the most temperamental, stroppy, hormonal, messy, unglamourous mare that has ever walk this earth, but at the same time she is extremely intelligent, caring, generous, and so full of hilarious character you know exactly where you stand and know you can trust her fully.

I have owned her since I was 12 years old and she was a rather tatty looking 5/6 year old mare who was being sold by a riding school who had decided she wasn't going to take to being a riding school horse due to her amazing character. We have both aged quite a lot and she has reached the ripe old age of 23/24.

Then at the end of summer last year, she suddenly lost so much weight, and although generally happy didn't seem to be quite as bubbly as usual, so after a short period of denial and ignoring the problem I arranged for her to get tested.

I believed that her being diagnosed would be as good as a death sentence and I didnt want to lose the old girl after all those years, she had been my sanity during the bad times and the source of a lot of the good times, but once I had spoken to the vet about the condition and did some of my own research I realised that it wasn't necessarily the end, yes it wasn't going to be easy and the downs so far have been more frequent the and ups, but cushings doesn't have to be the terrible illness that so many people believe it is.

Whenever I have the time, I plan to bring you up to speed to how I have learnt to manage Molly's cushings and also get off my chest the irritating comments, advice and peoples inability to fully care for their own horses.