Update

Good intentions.. I had such good intentions. But the care of a Cushings horse his first year was busy and I failed to capture it all on blog. :(

That said, I am working on writing up an "annual report" to tell what I learned. What works, what didn't, what surprised me, what was a waste of time, and so on. Since Zippy was diagnosed last July, it seems timely.

I'll have Zippy's Annual Report published out within a week here- check back soon. I have loved the mails I've gotten and the chance to connect with other horse owners who have experience (or need advice on) Equine Cushings.

Medicine Increase- expensive!

Zippy's coat does look better, but the excessive urination and drinking continues. For that reason, the vet has decided to increase him from 1.0 mg per month to 1.5.

Zippy loves his medicine comes from SmartPak it is flavored so nicely, I've had no issue getting him to eat it since starting with them, though he lost his enthusiasm for grain now that his sweeter feed has been replaced by timothy pellets.

Unfortunately the first couple of months with SmartPak mean you pay for a prescription and about a week or 10 days later you have to pay for the next month so they can begin preparing it and get it shipped.

This system is very efficient for ongoing meds because it ensures you don't ever run out- but when you're in that first few months on a medicine like Pergolide you are likely to be adjusting doses and there just isn't time to allow your horse to adjust to the new dose and (if it needs to increase) change the next dose. So I'd recommend using a local compounding pharmacy for Pergolide until your dose is determined.

Since this month we already have a refill coming this week we had to call in the other portion of the dose, so I got to pay for two prescriptions. :(

Our 1.0 mg SmartPaks for this month cost about $48.95, and $3.99 shipping. Add that to the second prescription which was $38.50 - that is over $92 for this month alone. Ouch!

I asked the pharmacy how much I'll spend if he stays at this dose (1.5 mg), and here are the results:

• $56.50 from Woodinville Pharmacy for 30 days, and $158.50 if I buy 3 months at a time. So I can get down to about $53 per month and pick up locally. This is for capsules, that I break open and sprinkle on his feed.
• The 1.5 mg dose from SmartPak will be $68.95 (plus shipping it's about $72 per month) for the individual pots of flavored powder.

Well, I am just going to have to figure out how to make flavored powder because that's almost $20 a month savings to go local and buy 3 months at once!

I am going to do some research on what SmartPak uses to make flavored powder, perhaps I can make something similar at home. If you have ideas for making the powder more appetizing let me know- remember, I can't use molasses, sugar, alfalfa - those aren't good for a Cushing's horse (as we've discussed).

So I started him on his increased dose this evening, I can hardly wait for him to do less drinking and peeing, the poor fellow has a soaking wet stall every morning. The other day I stripped it at 8 pm, he'd been in for 3 hours and there was nowhere dry for him to lay.

he WILL learn to like shows, he WILL learn to like shows

Saturday, Zippy and I headed out to the SAFE Benefit Show, an annual event that I have never attended.

Pause for some background info:

• Zippy was sold due to his old age (12 then, now 13) and increasingly naughty behavior in the ring- he had been a youth show horse for years and decided he was done with behaving, he had a bad incident in a show (he was startled badly by a child running along behind a wall with a stick, running the stick along the metal siding) and when his young rider got nervous, Zippy sensed it. I believe he saw it as a way out of the tough life as a show horse- he found a weak spot and capitalized on it. A young rider would almost always be reactive to a major spook, and soon enough he was replaced.


• We did a show back in March and Zippy was a PILL. It was not fun. He was impatient and annoyed, bitter and temperamental. We won our equitation class and placed in several others but this was definitely not the Zippy I know and love. During our last class, he stopped on our way to line up and peed and peed for a very long time. This was before I knew he had Cushings and I wondered if he had been holding it this whole time or if he was just determined to say NO to a continuing show career.

When I got Zippy, he didn't spook until a few rides in and that first fake spook was outrageous- he literally went from a beautiful collected superslow jog into a full bolt. My trainer told me to ignore it, not to fight. That's what I did and soon enough it stopped, but you always have to watch for the slight ear twitch that indicates he's getting bored and looking for something to do.

Anyhow, I really just enjoy showing locally, so I really want him to like it as well and I feel if I make it pleasant he will learn to like it again. So I had a plan- make shows fun. A stall, lots of treats and love and plenty of breaks for his still frequent potty needs. For me, I enjoy the (mostly) friendly people and fun atmosphere. And ribbons. I don't want to work all day and get 'points', how boring! What would I hang on the wall? I like ribbons :)

So Saturday I was prepared- I planned to do just 2 riding classes and a class or two in hand. I also paid for a stall (rather than tie to trailer, which is usually what I do to save cash). I was hoping he would actually enjoy the experience.

We started in Showmanship and tanked that class when I got the pattern wrong, but Zippy could not have been better so the ribbon didn't matter. Next we did trail in hand, and he did beautifully. It was a good sized class and we won. Our two riding classes were Western Pleasure Walk-Jog Open and Western Pleasure Open. We won both of those classes as well.

So 4 classes total, and we won 3 of them. We even won 3 prizes in SAFE's most excellent raffle. In addition I met some new friends and had many many laughs. It was a great day.

As for Zippy, every time we went to the stall between classes or walks he would urinate- he still drinks and urinates a LOT more than any other horse. I bet he went 6-8 times that day. But he got lots of snacks and tons of love and he really was a wonderful horse- he gave me his all in the ring. I couldn't be a luckier horse mom, and Saturday was a glimpse of a really bright future together.

So bright Zippy had to close his eyes and have a nap while I packed for home...

Chasteberry

I returned from vacation last night- a week in California camping with the family was such a good stress reliever. I've been so consumed with Cushings, it was time for a break.

While out and about I found a place to buy bulk chasteberry. I got 10 ounces for about $1.60 an ounce- it is quite fragrant and seems fresh. The chasteberry is dry little round balls that you bring home and grind up in a coffee grinder- it takes longer than grinding flax or other seeds, those little balls are tough. The store I bought this herb from is Mt Shasta Herb and Health and they do process mail orders- the lady was very sweet there.

I will be starting Zippy on 2 tbs per day- this seems to be the standard dose. It does not smell really pleasant (some people use it as a pepper of sorts on foods) but I am hoping he doesn't notice if I mix it with his flax.

I do not plan to use this instead of the pergolide, as I am seeing substantial improvement already (just 3 weeks in) but do hope that the chasteberry helps as well.

I also ordered Zippy's next month of pergolide, he goes up to 1 mg per day and I will be using SmartPak's apple flavored powder. The cost is $48.95 which is about $10 more than I paid at Woodinville Pharmacy for the capsules, but the does is twice as high. I also want to see if he is going to be more eager to eat it with the flavoring.

Since he was diagnosed with Cushings I've removed all sweet feed and tasty treats so Zippy just gets timothy pellets and his flax supplement and medicine- he is not enjoying his grain right now and I fear that he will lose interest in it and stop taking the medicine so I want to see if the apple flavor powder makes it more palpable.

It's good to be back, Zippy has lost even more fur- it was hard to be away from him for 8 days but I was relived when the weather cooled down, as I know it keeps him more comfortable.

Update before Vacation

I am going on vacation, gratefully I have a wonderful friend and barn owner so Zippy is safe and sound.

I have put his timothy pellets into Tupperware containers with his flax supplement and then I opened the capsules and sprinkled them in. It's not as perfect a way to give medicine as it is to make him it the capsule but he does tend to spit the entire capsules out so I chose this method.

He's still getting electrolytes every night in his stall water and is drinking them well, they really help with his comfort and reduce his sweating.

I placed an order for his next month of medication from SmartPak- they were having a 3 days shipping free and they offer an apple flavored powder form that sounded more palpable for Zippy.

I talked to the vet, and he is going to jump Zippy from .5 mg to 1.0 mg a day, sometimes he only increases .25 each month to work his way up but since the main risk is that they can get a stomach ache and go off food (and this has not been an issue for Zippy) we're going to make the jump now. If he reacts badly we'll go back to .75, but we feel he will do fine.

We're now about 2 weeks into his medication and I feel he's shown a small amount of improvement (energy and a bit of shedding) but not a lot, though we expected it to take a month or two. He's definitely enjoying all the love and attention, I've been at the barn daily instead of my usual 3-4 times per week so he's loving all the mommy time.

I'll be out of town and not blogging from Sat 8/1 through Sun 8/8 but you can bet I'll be back online as soon as I return to share our progress.

Sweat, Rinse and Repeat

The heat our area (Western Washington) is in the 80's and 90's this week- many horses are sweating but for a horse with Cushings (who is hot from the inside out, for metabolic reasons) it's extra miserable. You can see his sweat in this photo of him (left) in his stall from when I arrived at 4:30 yesterday. I've been going to the barn every evening to rinse Zippy down to cool him off.

I don't use shampoo daily, because I don't want to irritate his skin (which has some areas of dermatitis from the Cushings) so I just tie him up and rinse him down.

Yesterday evening I rinsed him off then we went to the arena for his favorite game "I just got a bath and now I'm gonna roll" in which I take him up there after rinsing and he rolls and rolls. He barely got in the door before he was on his knees rolling, he rolled 5 times in the half hour we were in there. It was great to see him enjoy himself.

Here he is rolling...

I really loved this last photo- he is so beautiful to me and I love seeing him feel a teensy bit better every day, it makes it all worth it.

Better Pics (current)

I borrowed a friend's camera and got some better photos to show Zippy's symptoms:

sweating (primarily neck and chest)