Cushing’s disease is a common condition of older horses, affecting up to 75% of horses aged 18 and over. The technical name for the condition is Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID), as the underlying issue is over-activity of the pituitary gland (a small gland located beneath the brain). Excessive quantities of hormones such as “ACTH” are produced and this leads to increased levels of the stress hormone “cortisol” in the body.

It is these abnormal hormone levels that lead to the clinical signs typical of Cushing’s disease:

+ Long wavy coat or a failure to shed properly, otherwise known as “hirsutism”

+ Bouts of founder, or “laminitis”

+ Muscle wastage and “pot-belly”

+ Increased drinking and urinating

+ Increased sweating

+ Low demeanor

+ Immune suppression, which can manifest as infections such as skin conditions, chest infections, foot abscesses, parasites, and dental disease

The disease progresses slowly, gradually becoming worse over time. Your vet will be able to make a diagnosis based on clinical signs and blood tests for hormone levels.

Treatment for Cushing’s disease is quite effective and involves a medication called pergolide, available as an oral liquid or tablet (that can be dissolved and mixed in feed) given daily for the rest of the horse/pony’s life. A positive response may be seen within 6-12 months with an improvement in demeanor, coat condition, body condition, and soundness.

Horses with PPID require extra attention with regard to dental care, hoof care and parasite control. With good management, there is no reason why horses with PPID cannot live a long and normal life and continue in normal work.

After no autumn break from the long dry in our area there is a distinct lack of the green pasture we normally expect at this time of year. However we do know that it will rain - eventually. And when it does it is important to consider how we manage the transition from hand feeding to young green pasture. It may be tempting to simply open the gate and let the cows at it! However young pasture is a lot like grain. It is high in energy and low in fibre. This represents a significant change from hay and silage based diet. Careful management will help prevent rumen acidosis and maximise the digestive efficiency of this high quality feed.

Aim to:

1. Introduce pasture gradually
Slowly introducing a new feed into the diet gives the rumen bugs time to adapt. This can often be a compromise between needs of the cow and grazing management. Ideally, offer a small break for one feed a day for the first week, then slowly build up.

2. Maintain adequate dietary fibre and effective fibre
Young rye/shaftal pastures tend to be high in rapidly digested carbohydrates. This means they are rapidly broken down and can cause rumen acidosis. High fibre feeds reduce this effect by slowing down digestion. Effective fibre is long stemmed, chewy forage that keeps the rumen contracting and stimulates saliva production, which is swallowed and buffers rumen acid.

3. Rebalance ration for protein
New pasture has a protein content of around 25%. Depending on how much pasture you have available, this may enable you to back off on other expensive protein sources e.g. canola meal.

4. Watch for signs of acidosis
This will enable you to act early and minimise consequences. Watch for cows being on thier own, not chewing their cud, abdominal pain/distension and diarrhoea.

Contact us if you have any questions.

image Margot Hughes photography

Synchronising oestrus is a great tool to get a large proportion of your cattle pregnant in a short space of time using artificial insemination. It is also a great way to manage the workload so that you can plan around other important things on farm. If you are thinking about syncing, here are our 7 top tips:

1. Synchrony is a tool, not a solution
Synchrony helps you better manage your cows breeding, it doesn’t make infertile cows fertile, it doesn’t make up for poorly conditioned and under fed cows.

2. Factor in your facilities
Batch treatments and AI can be a very good thing, or a very bad thing depending on your facilities. We can help match the program to suit your needs.Especially when dealing with mature cows with a calf at foot.

3. Know your budget
There are drug costs, semen costs and the labour costs. Weigh these up against the benefits of tight calving patterns and better genetics from AI to see if synchrony is for you.

4. Feed your cows well
Cattle are always more fertile on a rising plane of nutrition.

5. Get heifers to their target mating weights (65% mature weight)
Forget age, sexual maturity is all about weight.

6. Remember the other end – managing calving
Experience has shown that a maximum of 30% of cows which conceived on the one day will calve on their due date. The spread we see is +/- 10 days of their due date (283 days after AI).

7. Manage animal health & diseases
Reproductive diseases that cause the most economic loss are Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV) and dystocia. Other diseases that are equally as important are internal parasites especially in young stock, transitional diseases such as milk fever, ketosis and retained foetal membranes can also reduce fertility.