cushings -hot and cold.. sweating..

[calekio]

I know sweating is a sign of cushings.. But anyone else found there cushings horses sweat at certain time of the year.. When they really shouldn't!!
May has cushings.. And for the past 3 years around this time of year she starts sweating! Badly! This year she had a full thick coat, stabled at night and and even though temperature below freezing she was sweating! Day and night.. I'd come down in morning and she would be soaked! I was worried about her getting ill and Sunday she had a bit of a snotty nose.. So I clipped her fully.. And when I did she was still sweaty, very scabby and roasting!
Now however... We gone the other way and she is very well rugged up bless her.
But its this sweating this time of year that gets me... And this is third year running she has done it!

[june]

It's been relatively warm and some of ours have been sweating in heavyweight rugs recently. Its a tricky time of year as the temperature is so variable and they have their full winter coats. The one we have with Cushings has a really nice fluffy coat this year and hasn't sweated in her rug. She's been on pergolide for the last 2 years which seems to have helped a lot.

[calekio]

Well she was diagnosed a year ago.. And at the yearly retest.. Had to increase pergolide... Actually that is kinda when the sweating started... Bit last year she was like it.. And year before she sweated buckets! I'd say improved from being on pergolide but still sweats up..

[june]

I think it is down to the weather. We start to feel the cold and rug them up just as their winter coat gets to full strength and then we are surprised they are sweating. I've had a horse on box rest recently who had been living out in a heavyweight rug. She was absolutely fine living out and never sweated. However, on box rest in a slightly lighterweight stable rug she was dripping in sweat each morning. She is now in just a fleece and doing absolutely fine on box rest. I think we underestimate how efficient their coats are and how mild the temperature is in a stable compared to when they are living out.

[calekio]

Ah but June she was sweating up with no rugs on.. That was what I found so shocking! As a month or so earlier she was feeling the cold when it wasn't that cold but was damp so was rugged and not sweating!

[jill]

It probably isn't the Cushings as such but the IR which accompanies it. Sweating and drinking lots are classic IR signs, it is very similar to diabetes in humans. Is her diet low sugar/starch (cereals)? Have you done a urine glucose test to see if her levels are high? Easy enough to get dip strips and test, less easy to reduce if she is already on reduced sugars diet - maybe get your fodder tested for sugars? If all is being done as far as sugar intake goes, then seak to your vet and see if he can offer anything.
Or join the ECIR Yahoo group and ask the very experienced experts on there. They will want to see all her blood test results and a full history before they can offer help or advice.

[calekio]

Oh.. i thought the drinking & sweating with cushings? Thats interesting as over summer she came off the metformin and was doing well.. but when we re-tested both atch & ir about 2 months ago i think showed a spike in her insulin being too high so back on metformin now.. (which she is a bugger to take! lol) i've never heard of doing a urine glucose test... i know vet did blood test and also blood tested strip for blood glucose levels.. i was ask her about other way as well... as be easier to check now rather than redoing blood tests etc which we are redoing in the new year anyway to see if the atch & ir levels have come back down...

She is on fast fibre which is low sugar/starch, no mollasses or cereal, gets no treats (has the occassional low sugar/no mollasses treat but none recently) and her hay is soaked for 24hrs for night time net.. and her daytime haynet is soaked overnight so minimum of 12hrs there.. she has been getting a small amount of dry hay in morning though when its all frozen as i have to thaw out her other haynet.. she is a basically a dirt paddock so i don't have to worry about frosty grass there...

3yrs ago she did this.. and was sweating buckets even outside as was on box rest/paddock rest for a tendon injury.. this was before the IR & cushings were diagnosed.
Last year she also did this sweating thing... she still had the IR levels spiking though as we couldn't get them down.. and she wasn't diagnosed with cushings till December. When we got her cushings diagonsed and medicated that is when the IR levels started to drop and by march she was even off metformin and levels staying down..
But this year.. she'd had to go back on the metformin as levels a bit high (i think normal was under 80.. she was 160 or something.. i remember a double figure) and the atch was borderline for time of year (normal under 45 and she was something like 45.2) but from symptoms we decided to try inccreasing pergolide as she was very dull, depressive, losing weight etc.. i think the pergolide has helped...
Oddly enough... she doesn't drink that much any more...:/