My old cushings horse would rather be dead than go in
a
stall, the handful of times in 18 years she could not be in a pasture
with a buddy she went nuts. If this horse foundered badly I would
put
her down rather than have her go through the pain, isolation and
limitations of living with laminitis.
-----------------------
If you look at Gretchen F.'s Laminitis Site or read Dr. Strasser's books you
will see that isolation and stall rest is NOT what she feels is best , even
in acute laminitis - 24/7 turnout "in the company of peers" , with a soft
place to rest "if they want to" ,cover to go under "if they want to" and a
proper *frequent* barefoot trim is the backbone of her therapy. -
Having gone the solitary confinement routine along with all the conventional
therapies for 4 months(which failed to help the laminitis),my poor gelding
was so depressed it broke my heart...finally came upon Strasser's method ,
and it saved him from being put down or cutting his tendons.
He's not 100%, but he's happy , eats well ,gets around with minimal
discomfort, socializes with the other horses,tries to bite the mare's butt
:-),etc. - happy to be here.
Yes -we had him on Permax , and ,after BET testing, on Thyro-l(this made an
incredible difference in his attitute) - We have retested to make sure
things were in control - We have recently started him on Chromium
supplementation (at BET's suggestion) because his insulin levels are
rising.They say they have seen good responses.
Interestingly enough , even though his cortisol levels were not high , his
"variance" was lower than when he was at his worst - the Doc at BET said he
would NOT up his meds now if he is clinically doing well because "they all
become refractory after a while" and you need to add more Permax , or Cypro
or anapryl. He is only 17 years old so I don't want to use up all my cards.
One thing he said also was that some horses do better if the Permax dose is
split and given Twice/day instead of once - he said he would try this before
upping the dose.
He is also on the ABC "regime" including their "Cushing's Supplement" .I do
believe these have helped .
Anyway...what I started to say was - the fact that this mare moves around
allot may be why she has not had any laminitic problems.
Nora
PS - a long time ago I asked if anyone knew how to get the meds from Mexico
- they are supposedly 1/3 to 1/2 the cost there !! but no one I know has any
contacts
