Gauging Success
Blood tests for baseline insulin and glucose are useful for diagnosing and monitoring the degree of insulin resistance. But sometimes cost and logistics make frequent blood testing difficult. Blood tests for glucose and insulin are quite variable throughout the day, so one baseline test may not be accurate anyway. So it's best to treat the horse, not the blood test. Veterinarians and owners of IR horses find the Neck-O-Meter to be a very useful indicator of how well metabolic dysfunction is currently controlled. Some horses seem to develop abnormal fatty deposits in different areas, such as over the loin, or around the tail head. If this is where your horse seems to accumulate abnormal fat, then you will watch the Butt-O-Meter, or the Back-O-Meter. Lowering NSC content of the diet, or when you've already done all you can do on diet with a Cushing's horse and are increasing to a more effective pergolide dose, may cause a noticeable softening of these hard, lumpy fat deposits within a week. One can often see dramatic changes in appearance within a couple weeks. If so, CONGRATULATIONS! You are on the right path.Neck-O-Meter
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