This isn't a big deal with ordinary horses, but this is the first spring since he has been diagnosed with Cushings Disease. Cushings is a tumor on the pituitary gland. The most obvious symptom is a thick coat that doesn't shed out in the spring; but just keeps growing. Ranger actually didn't grow near as thick a coat this year. It is probably because he had low level Cushings going on for a while that caused a thick coat, but it still allowed him to shed. It is the only reason we can think of. Anyway, his coat is still much thicker than the average horse, but it always has been.
He shedded out last spring, but then he immediately started to grow a new coat. That is when we got the vet out and put him on the medicine. He then shedded to is normal summer coat.
Over the winter, he did end up going on a hunger strike. We had a lot of trouble getting him to eat anything except hay which he had trouble chewing. Out of desperation, Ellen stopped giving him his pill for a week. He started to eat again, so she started to give him half a pill. He has continued to eat, and his hair is coming out in gobs.
It isn't the hair that we worry so much about. The pituitary gland is the master gland that runs all the glands. It does more than control seasonal shedding. If that is working, other things are working, too.
As he sheds out, we can see that he did lose some weight during his hunger strike, and that is problematic. Unlike many Cushing's horses, he doesn't have insulin resistance. Those horses tend to be overweight.
He has been perky and cantankerous, and that makes us happy. When Ranger isn't cantankerous and demanding, we worry. Well, we worry anyways, but we worry less.
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