Cushings (from Barb Peck)

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Barb Peck bpeck@together.net
There's alot of VERY recent data about
Chushings being similar to type II diabetes
in humans. These horses are showing insulin
resistance.
  One of the latest papers is by
Matt Frederick, and was presented at the
Laminitis Symposium. You can read this paper
on www.horseshoes.com on their bulletin board
"farriers helping horse owners" on the
bulletin board named "laminitis problems".
It's about half way down the page and it's in response
to a question I posed there.

Gene Ovineck (farrier), Dr. Diane Isabel, Barbara Page (Vets) have
 also quite a bit of data on Pergolide (which is the drug of choice for
insulin resistant horses) and may be the drug you're thinking of.
I was in California visiting Patty Stiller (Gene's main shoer
at his clinics) and had the occasion to meet Dr. Isabel.
Alot of these horses are laminitic as a consequence of
cushings and there's alot of research going on right now
tieing it all together.
(Gene Ovineck has a web site www.hopeforsoundness.com
and a discussion forum on that site).


Another large body of work on this subject has been done by
Elleanor Kellon (Vet advisor to the HOrse Journal)
and targets horses that are "pre-cushings".. those
who are sub-clinical.  Magnesium oxide supplemets
(about 6 grams per day) have been shown to be
beneficial in these cases.
SHe can be reached on Tom's horsescience list.

There's really a ton of new stuff recently on
laminitis and cushings syndrom/disease.
The answers aren't all in yet, but these are
main players, with the latest research.

Barb