I'm happy for you that ABC is donating your horse's Cushing's meds
for a year. However, would they do that if you weren't already
purchasing other products? My guess would be not.

Because of these things, I declined to take part in what seemed to be
a seductive sales pitch. I will quantify these remarks by adding that
some people feel ABC's Cushing's products are of benefit to their
horses. They may be... I wouldn't know that since I'm not a vet. I
just know that I want empirical data to back up products I feed my
horse.

-------------
OK Folks ,
I feel the need to jump in here in support of ABC and Alice:
I happened on Alice on another list in my "darkest hour" , when after Jazz's
months(since Nov 99) of constant founder pain/lameness/weight
loss/depression/bed sores/special frog pads/backward
shoes/Permax/Nitroglycerin ointment/Bute/deep bedding/stall "rest", etc .
,the Vet was suggesting upping his Permax (already spending $3+/day for just
that) and/or cutting his tendons (began to think about giving up).
About a month earlier (long nights on the internet) I had come upon
Gretchen's site and it made all the sense in the world to me , pulled the
#$@% shoes off , started getting his heels down . etc., and have never
regretted it - finally got him off the Bute.-Got him out of solitary
confinement -he was getting better but something was still missing - he was
still not "well" even on the Permax.
If it weren't for Alice I would never have known there were actually
"blood tests" other than the Dex. Suppression test to follow his therapy or
have verified the need for Thyroid meds also.
She also was the first to suggest that he needed more protein to grow hoof
(suggested Purina Strategy - low Carb)-gave me allot of other leads to
follow to improve his care - She also told me about the "Cushings Study"
which I could CHOOSE to be on - basically she recommended he be on the "ABC
Hoof" and free choice system and whatever meds the Vet prescribed for at
least 30 days, and provide her with copies of the required lab tests (which
we were doing anyway) ,and ABC would provide the "Cushings Supplement" for
free for one year.
Personally , I think that's *pretty darn nice* since The ABC company had
already been recommended to me (by a Holistic Vet I had a phone consult
with) as a reputable company whose products she'd had some success with.
The fact that they were willing to donate this product in order to have
people try it and get some feedback seemed reasonable to me- and if if it
worked *you better believe I would continue to BUY IT* after the year was
up!! - Lord knows I'd already spent more than a thousand dollars on STUFF
THAT HADN'T WORKED !!(and in case you think I'm eager to spend money - I'm
in the market for a new car now because my '83 Subaru just gave up the
ghost)
Well...Jazz had continued to make slow but steady progress with the
Permax/Thyro-l/ABC hoof/Free choice minerals/and 2-3x/week trims , and THEN
we started the Cushings Supplement just 3 weeks ago....we noticed an
improvement in his coat after about 2 weeks (maybe it was there and we just
hadn't noticed ? )and we noticed he wasn't sweating quite as heavily , even
though it was 100+ degrees here , then my husband remarked that he was
looking "young" again (he's in his late teens) and the twinkle was coming
back in his eyes, and he was starting to get mischievous again (ok..all
subjective..but we had come to think of him as our "old-sick-man").He began
to make some short attempts at trots and my husband reported that "he
cantered a few steps".
Today we hosed off all the horses just to get some of the summer grime
off and we let Jazz loose to walk along the outside drive to encourage him
to walk a little while - never dreaming what was about to happen:
*ALL* the horses got a serious case of "the happy friskies" and before
you know it JAZZ WAS GALLOPING ALONG WITH THE REST OF THEM :-o !!! He was
bucking , running , biting his mare buddy , ran up onto a 4 foot high
embankment -JUMPED OFF ! (a bit worried about this one) -ran back up on the
thing again - this time ran around - Raced the other gelding up a hill!! -
you could have knocked us over with a feather !!!
So...I don't know if it was the other ABC stuff and/or the new Cushings
Supplement along with the trims , *BUT I'M STICKING TO THIS REGIMEN...YOU
BETCHA !* I never thought I'd see him run again.

THANK YOU DR STRASSER, JAIME JACKSON, AND GRETCHEN FATHAUER! THANK YOU
ABC, AND THANK YOU ALICE !!!

( You can have all the double-blind controlled studies you want - I've
seen way too many failures on the "accepted" regimens - don't forget that 25
years ago they told heart patients to "rest and relax" - now they put them
on the treadmill in cardiac rehab !-"rest" just made them weaker! )

Nora
(who knows there may be other bad days ahead , but was thrilled to see her
boy really enjoy life today)