Cushings management

[rainydayride]

Yahoo group on Cushings management
groups.yahoo.com/group/EquineCushings/

Do a Google on Cushings and Chasteberry - you'll see results on a reportedly successful use of the herb in treating Cushings

[lildunhorse]

Thanks, RDR!! This may come in handy for a lot of us. Hopefully we will know by Tuesday if we will need to brush up on it for Hawkins.

[pdevlieg]

Lildun - somone offered you Cushings meds on the CBER BB under Hawkins thread. I didn't know if you had seen it, so I wanted to give you a heads up.

[eve]

Does Hawkins need the meds?

For what it's worth, I had my cushing's mare on chasteberries for several years to good effect. When it seemed CBs weren't as effective as they were initially, I went to pergolide. I order this from American Vet Pharmacies of Houston. If your vet will allow his office to recieve it for you, it is less that $1 day, with free shipping. I'll give you the rest of the info if you need it.

[eve]

Here is a chart of the glycemic rating of common horse feeds. If your horse is Cushing's or is Insulin Resistant, feeding low glycemic feeds is an important step in keeping them laminitis free.


"Note: Glycemic index is a measurement of the rise in blood glucose seen after
consuming a substance. In people, glucose is used as the standard. In this
study, oats were the standard all other ingredients were compared against.
Oats is assigned an arbitrary value of 100. Numbers over 100 indicate a higher
blood glucose response than to plain oats; those below 100 indicate less.

Glycemic Index of Practical Horse Feeds

Corn 117
Oats and molasses 105
Barley 101
Oats 100
Oats and oil 86
Alfalfa and molasses 85
Wheat 71
Vetch blend hay 53
Carrots 51
Wheat bran 37
Timothy hay 32
Alfalfa cubes 30
Alfalfa hay 26
Bermuda grass hay 23
Rice bran 22
Beep pulp 1

Project Summary:
A glycemic index was created for 16 common horse
feeds based on the blood glucose responce elicited
by each feed. Blood glucose response curves were
graphed for each feed based on changes in blood
glucose concentrations over a five-hour period
after horses ate each feed. The areas under the
glucose response curves for each feed were
compared, on a percentage basis, to the area under
the glucose response curve for oats, which was
assigned a relative value and glycemic index of
100. The other 15 feeds were assigned glycemic
index values based on the relative size of their
glucose response curves compared to that of oats.

Anne Rodiek, Ph.D., Professor of Equine Sciences,
can be contacted at: Ph# [phone] or email
address: [e-mail] for further
information. The above report contains summarized
results of Anne's study entitled "Glycemic Index
of Practical Horse Feeds," ARI project No.
002-2-034. To view and/or obtain a copy of the
complete final report, or to obtain additional
information about this or other research projects,
visit the ARI web site at: ari.calstate.edu.

COMMENT: Based on their very high pectin content, soy hulls would likely test
approximately the same as beet pulp."

[schwung]

That's interesting, I always thought beet pulp was made from sugar beet so had a lot of sugar in it.

[eve]

The beet pulp is what is left over when all the sugar has been squeezed/processed out of the beets. Usually, the feed mfgrs then add molasses to the beet pulp to keep the dust down and to make it more palatable. If you have to buy beet pulp with molasses (most of it has molasses added whether it says so on the sack or not), then you have to soak it, preferably in hot water, to get the molasses out of it, then rinse. Lots of work.

The cushing's list has a file of mfgrs who DON'T put molasses back in the beet pulp. I'll find that file, and post it here, too.

[eve]

The Molasses Free Beet Pulp supplier list has grown! I don't want to use all the bandwidth here, so here's the link. Luckily there are suppliers all up and down the west coast.

There's also mention on this list of companies who supply a complete feed for cushing's/IR horses, called Ontario DeHy balanced cubes. Dr. Eleanor Kellon helped developed these cubes, and makes sure that the company toes the line. These cubes are pricey, but easy to feed.

f2.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/4I2ZQ3udcFOA_x2AEAASB1AoP_gA1FlwtsYS1k46BbgvjsABQdAh3D4pX0rsnhHNchzfFXeBr8tDYoy2G9h32XW4_rkA/BEET%20PULP%20SOURCES

Fooey. The link is too long to actually function as a link. Here's what you need to do: Cut and paste the whole thing, THEN when the last bit goes onto the next line, delete the carrier return character (which you can't see) that is directly after the last letter/symbol on the first line.

Or, if it still doesn't work, use the link below, and scroll down until you come to the file titled "Beet Pulp Sources"

groups.yahoo.com/group/EquineCushings/files/

[rainydayride]

Or click on this ... (to see how to work with long urls, click on the "quote" icon for this post)

Beet pulp sources


Thanks for this info, Eve.

[eve]

Thanks, RDR.

I'm the Official Re-inventor of the Wheel! ;D

[falseimpression]

LUCkily I don't have to deal with a Cushing horse, but I find all this information fascinating.. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

[eve]

You're very welcome. I'm happy to share this information, and it's very useful, whether you have a cushing's or Insulin Resistant horse or not.

There are so many horses out there who are suffering, and so many owners who are just banging their heads against brick walls because they don't know what to do about their horses' discomfort / pain. Right now, I have a gorgeous, big Hanno/DWB in my barn who was sold to me for $1 (he's schooled to I-2 in dressage) because his former owner couldn't keep him sound. She had spent $$$$$ over the years, and didn't/couldn't believe that it was just a matter of the proper diet for him.

So I brought him home. (He's sound.)

I find that lots of people don't want to believe that diet can be so important. I guess it's just too simple to comprehend that a cure doesn't have to involve 30 or 40 vets and exotic tests and medications. It's just amazing that we've lived with these wonderful creatures for thousands upon thousands of years and remain clueless, for the most part, about how to meet their needs. But it's not as amazing as how some people can dump them in a feedlot or at an auction.

If I could figure out how to get a picture in here, I'd show you my $1 horse. ;D

Try this link. Evidently Yahoo Photos doesn't allow the picture procedure. Robert ($1 horse) is the first and last shot. He's being goofy in the 2nd.

pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/eorndoff/album?.dir=/f59e&.view=t

[safehorses]

Robert is handsome!!

[falseimpression]

What a beautiful guy!1 and lucky to have you!

[eve]

He is just drop dead gorgeous, and you ought to see his extended trot. He is lucky that Dr. Eleanor Kellon DVM, and a score of other horse owners and professionals are willing to share the information that they've managed to gather over the years.

Most vets know nothing about Insulin Resistance, and not much more about Cushing's. We keep the good vets so busy that they don't have time to research the new information on diagnosing and treating this/these conditions. By the time a text book is published, it's out of date, so even brand new vets don't know all we'd like them to know. You really have to go to bat for your horse if he's one of the many horses who develop these conditions.

I would hope that everyone here would go over to the Yahoo group (RDR posted the link), join the group, and at least read the articles on symptoms of Cushings and Insulin Resistance that are published in the FILES section. That will help you to notice if something is not quite right about your horse: Maybe she's down a lot, maybe she develops odd fat patches, or maybe she stumbles for no apparent reason. There's also very good information about feet (horse).

Certain breeds (easy keepers) are prone to insulin resistance, so if you have an Arab, Morgan, qh, appy, mustang, paso, or any of the ponies, you especially want to know what symptoms present IF they cross over the line.