Thanks for the valuable information, Maggie. I do try to watch his weight. He has been fatter. He has no cresty neck, has never had sole tenderness in the 13 years we have had him. He gets Remission, which I know is controversial as to effectiveness. He gets a cup of mixed grain, mostly oats morning and evening, to put the supplement in and to give him something to do while the other horses eat. We might not see the horses regularly without some grain as we have 85 mostly wooded Ozark acres. The pasture is poor. We have never fertilized as we never wanted lush pasture. Pasture here is generally fescue which gets very thick and rich when fertilized and leads to what they used to call "chronic founder," and is now recognized as IR. We have never had a horse with that.
We have short Bermuda grass since we have fed Bermuda hay some years, and clover, other odd grasses and tree leaves. I know stressed pasture can be higher in sugar. In 30 years of horsekeeping we have never had IR or Cushings. We just lost an Arab/quarter gelding after 29 years at the age of 31 this spring, still have a 27-year-old Arab mare we have had since she was a yearling, plus her 23-year-old son, a 14-year-old MFT gelding and Rudy, MFT. 15. We have had the MFT's for ten years and thirteen years respectively.
Our current hay is orchard grass, but we are not feeding hay right now. It would be nice to have it tested.
The Pergolide they showed me at the vet's was in a box. It was certainly expensive at $116.00 for 60 mg.
Judy
