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Re: Questions concerning recent PPID diagnosis

Sherry Morse
 

Hi Anne,

  1. Metformin is for control of insulin levels that do not come down with diet and exercise. Until you know what Tricana's current insulin level is you won't know if she's a candidate for metformin or if just a diet adjustment is in order.
  2. Thyro-L can help with jump starting weight loss but I would look at tightening up the diet first. More on this below.
  3. I believe you said your vet already pulled blood for insulin and glucose although I don't see those results in your file.  If not, those are the only 2 things you need to check at this time.
  4. Assuming that you are looking to balance your hay you can find a list of people who can do this in the HayBalancing.pdf file here: https://ecir.groups.io/g/main/files/6%20Diet%20Balancing
  5. APF is not available in Canada as per recent discussions ( https://ecir.groups.io/g/main/message/255925) so you're fine to continue on the current supplement program
As far as the current diet, we recommend a TOTAL intake of hay and concentrates that is either 1.5% of current weight or 2% of ideal weight - whichever is higher.  For a horse that's meant to weigh 900 pounds the higher of those two amounts is 18 pounds a day which is 7 pounds less than you are currently feeding.

Before looking at Thryo-L my suggestion would be to get the diet tighter - if you're using the ODTBC to carry supplements, can you do less? 

Brooks Enhancer - if the numbers here are correct (https://madbarn.com/feeds/enhancer-brooks-feeds/) this is not a suitable feed for an IR horse and based on their own feeding chart (http://www.brooksfeeds.com/pdf/products/Enhancer.pdf) you're feeding much more of it than needed. It would be best to cut that out completely and have your hay balanced to determine what vitamins/minerals are needed for Tricana.

Then, whatever the difference is between the amount of ODTBC you're using and the 18 pound total can be made up in hay, but it should be weighed so that Tricana is only eating a set amount each day.  That should help with weight loss without needing to add in Thyro-L.

Thanks,
Sherry and Scutch (and Scarlet over the bridge)
EC Primary Response 
PA 2014
https://ecir.groups.io/g/CaseHistory/files/Sherry%20and%20Scutch_Scarlet 
https://ecir.groups.io/g/CaseHistory/album?id=78891
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