Seeking information on Cushings disease

[sabre]

I think one of our horses has Cushings disease, anyone have any experience or know of any good resources for information?

[Shans5050]

Cushing’s Disease – Recent Advances


Cushing’s Disease or hyperadrenocorticism, is relatively common in horses and ponies in their teens, although cases as young as 7 years have been reported. The clinical signs include:
Failure to shed out their coat in Spring, the coat becomes long, thick and matted.
Affected animal tend to sweat more than normal, they loose weight despite an increased appetite.
They may become diabetic, either diabetes mellitus (sugar diabetes), or diabetes insipidus. They drink excessively, and if stabled you will notice their bedding is quickly soaked.
They show filling above the eyes. This is fat deposition in the supra-orbital fossae. (Normal horses have depressions above the eyes, you can see these depressions moving when a horse chews.)
They become depressed and ill-looking, with dull eyes and they loose the shine on their coat.
They all develop laminitis eventually.
Their body shape changes so that they loose muscle mass, developing a dipped back, poorly muscled neck and quarters with a pendulous abdomen. There is a re-distribution of fat deposits. The horse looking thin (ribby) but gaining a rather blocky appearance. This is particularly evident if it has been dieted in the mistaken belief that the laminitis is due to obesity.
Their resistance to infections or worm burdens is reduced.
Cushing’s Disease in horses and ponies is usually due to a tumor (benign cancer) or hyperplasia of the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is the “master of the hormonal orchestra” governing the function of all other endocrine glands in the body. The pituitary gland is situated under the centre of the brain in a quite inaccessible position. Treatment of tumors of this gland therefore relies on medication rather than any type of surgical or X-ray treatments that may be applicable to other types of cancer.


To the trained observer, Cushing’s disease cases can be diagnosed on clinical appearance and history alone. There are confirmatory tests, which can be performed. The Clinic recommends measurement of endogenous ACTH, insulin, cortisol and serum glucose as the safest and most accurate test available at present. If you use tests such as the ACTH stimulation test or the dexamethasone suppression test (or a combination of the two) there is risk of inducing, or worsening an attack of laminitis. Taking a blood sample to measure cortisol levels is of no diagnostic use whatsoever.


If you only realize that your horse has a pituitary tumor when it gets an attack of laminitis, then the outlook can be grave. In some cases the normal laminitis treatments of acepromazine and phenylbutazone are not “strong” enough to correct the vasoconstriction in the feet. In these cases, phenoxybenzamine drips over 48 hours have been used successfully. The horse really should be hospitalized if this is to be undertaken.


The long term prognosis for Cushing’s Disease is bad, if they also have chronic founder then this worsens the prognosis. However there are drug treatments which have proved valuable. The treatment does not cure the tumor or hyperplasia but counteracts the effects of the substances which are released from the lesion. These treatments can give horses a good quality of life for many years. Although the treatments are recommended for year round medication, we have found that in many cases treatment can be tailed off, then stopped in the Spring and started again in the Autumn. This is because the pituitary gland receives information from the pineal gland (the third eye) indicating the day length. Most horses with Cushing’s Disease come down with laminitis in the Autumn, as the day length shortens, and in the winter.


Treatments:
Periactin
Celance
Modrenal
Vitex clinical trial

[Shans5050]

here is another link i found along with that info i didnt check into it but hope it helps you.
You can read up on Cushing's Disease in The Laminitis Clinic's webpage here: http://www.laminitisclinic.org/PDCD.html

I had a pony that ended up having cushings, even tho she was on meds it slowly ate away at her, she ended up having a tumour in her brain and started walking into trees, beating her head against things etc so we had to put her down :(
but hope all of this info helps.

Shannon