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Greetings,
Welcome to the September 2003 edition of the Eye of the Storm
Equine Rescue Horse Tales.
I
want to give special thanks to all of those who helped to
make the August 31, 2003 fundraiser for Eye of the Storm Equine
Rescue a roaring success. Applefield
Farm in Stow held a barbeque dinner donated by Redbones
Restaurant in Somerville with fresh vegetables and watermelon
from Applefield Farm itself. “Harry Chalmier and His
Only Friends” played music while we ate. A greenhouse
is a great place for a party! This fundraiser was so successful
because so many wonderful people did all the work so I could
relax, something I rarely can do when caring for 16 rescued
horses.
Greatest
thanks to the Mong family who let us come and play in their
yard! Thanks to Harry & Friends who also held a concert
for us in February, as well as Alice, his wife and organizer
of much of this event. Thank you to my cousin, Jeff Phaneuf,
who always drops everything he’s doing to run and save
the day as well as his wonderful family. The biggest hit was
Ed from Animal
Adventures who rearranged his schedule at the last minute
and bought exotic animals, such as snakes, alligators, a very
sweet skunk and a lemur. What a great critter, a lemur! My
very dear friend, Ruthie brought her kind old horse, Pepper
and gave pony rides. Special thanks to Mary Owen who held
down the fort and watched over our horses while the rest of
us partied. There were so many people that helped out that
day. I thank you all! Eye of the Storm raised $2,100. That’s
about four months worth of hay!
I
also would like to take the opportunity to thank our ‘webmaster’
Andrea Harris of Minerva
Solutions who made our beautiful web site. She is amazing!
Check it out at www.equine-rescue.com.
I can never thank her enough for this great job and her continuing
work.
Nina
Arbella, President
Eye of the Storm Equine Rescue
The
Cushings “Cure”
(Please note that we're calling this a "cure," but
it's really just a great treatment that we discovered. We're
not vets, we're just observant horse people.)
While
looking through a nutritional healing book at Debra’s
Natural Gourmet, I came across a sentence that said “Chasteberry
feeds the pituitary gland.” Chasteberry in recent times
has been used mainly for “women’s complaints.”
I know it works because it beats the crap out of PMS, you
feel better in 20 minutes. “Hmm,” I say, “I
like chasteberry, let’s see what it can do for our two
Cushings horses.”
Bess, our 26 year old Shetland had obvious symptoms: long
hair that didn’t shed and she was a sway back. Not as
bad as some, but still obvious. I couldn’t wait for
the vet to take some blood to find out her “numbers.”
The results were positive for Cushings. I put her on one teaspoon
twice a day, three weeks on and one week off. Though she began
to shed her coat of “buffalo” hair almost immediately,
she never was a very slick pony. But I was determined to keep
her on the chasteberry one year before testing her blood again.
If I saw results then, I would tell the world.
One year later, after Bess’ test results came back,
the vet said, “I don’t know what you’re
doing, but keep on doing it.” Bess’ numbers were
down 33 points! I don’t know exactly what these numbers
represent, but evidently this never happens in real life!
After one year of feeding her pituitary gland, had I managed
to reverse her Cushings disease? I was very excited as this
ailment affects the lives of millions of old (and not so old)
horses in so many negative ways. This disease is more common
now than it has ever been in the past. No one really knows
why, though I have my theories. That is another tale for another
day.
I was getting whole chasteberry in one pound bulk bags from
Natural Gourmet and running it through a coffee grinder. The
seeds are very hard and I figured it would come out the other
end the same way they went in, unless we knocked the shells
off them. You run the grinder until most of the pinging of
hard berries can’t be heard anymore. You cannot grind
them up completely, but that’s okay. Horses are made
to digest roughage. They handle the chunks just fine. You
should have a grinder for this purpose only, as your coffee
might taste funny if you use the grinder for both.
Right around the time I was ready to tell the world about
this “cure,” another product came on the market
called Hormonize. It is a liquid and costs around $45 per
liter and lasts two weeks for your average size horse. That’s
$90 per month to treat the horse. The developers of this product
found it to be effective not only on mares in heat, but it
also did some impressive things for Cushings horses, too.
It is sold for this purpose as well. It is an all natural
herbal remedy. A bit pricey, though.
I checked out the ingredients. It is a tincture of chasteberry!
I think they call it vitex or monks pepper on the back. I’m
not sure. It greatly saddens me that the treatment for such
a devastating disease sells for so much.
Horses don’t need herbal tinctures. They can and do
digest some pretty coarse stuff (have you ever tried to eat
dry timothy hay?). They can not only digest the herb, but
utilize it in that form beautifully.
Bess, unfortunately, died at age 28 when she decided her mission
was accomplished, so we never got a third blood test from
her. We have two other Cushings horses, and all of our older
mares are on chasteberry as well. Junebug, who is 8 years
old, was tested last year and we’ll test her again soon
to see where her numbers are. Snowdrop was never tested, but
all her symptoms have disappeared and she is doing well at
24 years old.
If any of you out there would like to try chasteberry, here’s
what to do. Go to your local health food store and special
order one pound bulk bag whole chastetree berry from the Frontier
herb company (please mention us when you do). You might want
to order more than one bag so that when you’re down
to one you can reorder. One bag will cost you less than $20
and will last a couple of months per horse.
Run the berries through your coffee grinder and feed one teaspoon
twice a day with feed. We give the same amount to horses and
ponies. It works on both mares and geldings. Give it to them
three weeks on and one week off all year round. It will even
keep the mares from being quite so crabby in the spring.
We also give them all vitamin E in the evening, vitamin C
in the morning, and MSM. No sugars or carbohydrates (not even
a carrot). There are feeds out there that are low in both,
such as Blue Seal Racer and some of the senior feeds (do some
research). All in all, chasteberry is the answer. Even our
two 30-year old mares don’t have Cushings, only Bess,
Junebug, and Snowdrop, who came to us with the disease and
it appears to be reversed. I never had horses of my own get
Cushings. I have every horse in town that has Cushings on
chasteberry and they’re all doing great! This is a cheap,
easy, healthy remedy for Cushings disease.
NOTE: See our Frequently-Asked
Questions about the Equine Cushings "Cure" in
our Feburary 2004 newsletter.
Order form for Bess'
Choice our herbal blend for equine cushings.
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In
This Issue
- Thank you for the barbeque
- Cushing's diet
Definition of Cushings disease from the
Michigan State College of Veterinary Medicine
Equine Cushings disease is caused by a tumor in the pituitary
gland, which is responsible for the production and regulation
of hormones. Symptoms include a long, shaggy coat that does
not shed, excessive drinking and urination, laminitis, a tendency
for recurring infections in the hoof (foot abscesses), and
a loss of muscle mass, especially along the topline and rump.
More information
on Cushings disease
EYE
OF THE STORM RECOMMENDS:
You love your horse.
We love his blanket.
-health food
-supplements
-vitamins
-delicious ready-to-eat meals
-personal care products
-great advice
-and so much more
Debra's
Natural Gourmet
98 Commonwealth Ave,
West Concord, MA.
(978) 371- 7573
www.debrasnaturalgourmet.com
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