Hello everyone! I haven't had time to read through the posts, but i thought i would give you some information on my big guy. I have a 23 yr old Saddlebred Gelding, and in June was diagnosed with cushings. Let me give you some of his history. I've owned him for 10 years, and roughly 6 years ago i noticed a lump in his neck on the left side. It would kind of come and go so i just ignored it until for a week it didn't go away. We did a biopsy of this lump and it came back as thyroid cancer. During this process we were debating on removing the tumor or keeping. Decided to leave it as it wasn't causing him any problems. Ever since i've owned him he has had an "abnormal" coat. Not really thick or long in the winter and when he was done shedding in the summer it was slick and shiny, but the hair was super short like normal horses. I expressed concern with 3 vets about if he had cushings, and they all said they didn't think so because his coat was not really long nor was it curly, and it did shed out for the summer and could be because of his thyroid. He is a very very lean horse, and was at one point emaciated, because the barn wasn't feeding him, and what i was feeding him at night wasn't enough to keep weight on him. Fast forward to Mayish of last year he was in turn out which was a dry lot, and we hadn't had much rain, and someone put their yearling out and chased the horses for 3 hours. I come to get my horse out to go for a ride and he can't walk. Vet comes out and we do radiographs and so forth and treat him for founder. This is the vet that has been seeing him for the past 3 years. He leaves the practice and another vet takes over. This vet meets the farrier to oversee the trimming and suggests i pull blood after all this to check him for cushings. I asked why, and he said because he is old and foundered... I was like well yeah, but he foundered from being ran around on hard ground barefoot for 3 hours... So a couple months go by and we send off and test. his results come back at 11.4 normal is 10. He has been on prescand for 6 months now and we restested and he was at 7. Vet said to keep him at the same dose and recheck in 6 months. I don't doubt that he has cushings, but if he does i want to make sure he is getting the correct dose. My main question is that i heard that stress can elevate their levels and i would say my horse was fairly stressed out being at a barn he hated, and stall rest, and no work. Does anyone else have a cushings horse that didn't get the long curly coat? I mean surly if he has had it for at least 6 years his coat would be curly? Maybe?
