Dear Sally Mason,

While your recent post was very interesting and conveyed your definite opinions about Cushing's treatment, please realize that others among us with Cushingoid horses have benefited by using the very same medications you choose not to use. Indeed, I feel it was Cyproheptadine and Isoxuprine, working in conjunction, that saved my 19-year-old Morgan gelding when he foundered in January 1999.

I am an equine journalist with a background in the medical field and market research. As such, I have made it a point to read as much about Cushing's as I can lay my hands on. Yes, the disease is still difficult to diagnose. Scientists are working on more definitive tests every day, and will hopefully have one soon. There are many in the veterinary field who choose to treat horses by their symptoms at this time. If the horse responds to such treatment, I see no problem with doing that. All I know is that my horse, on the brink of death not long ago, gallops around like a two-year-old today and looks to have a long, happy, useful life with careful management.

As for the Cushing's study being conducted by ABC, I have also investigated that and found it sorely lacking and skewed on several levels. However, if it works for you, to each his own.

Please don't be so quick to condemn the methods of others.

Paula Brown
Poland, ME