I thought it was about time I shared Kingi's story and his incredible improvement since being on For Love of the Horse's herbs.

Kingston Bay was born in New Zealand and is a 19 year old thoroughbred.  He was given to me as an 8 year old when he retired from a very successful racing career during which he won over $1 million and raced in Australia and Hong Kong.  

Kingi has Cushing’s and would appear to have had it for 3-4 years evidenced by an inability to properly shed and looking like a yak for 10 months of the year.  All seemed quite well with him other than having to be clipped every couple of months.  Until....in late summer early autumn this year (2008) he became very unwell.  At the time my other horse had a bit of a runny nose and was feeling poorly so I assumed it was just a virus.  Poor Kingi continued to get worse.  He was extremely depressed, lethargic, drinking enormous amounts, eating manically, sweating excessively with a really pungent odour and appeared very stiff and never went out a walk in the paddock although not exactly lame.  It is evident now that Kingi had indeed had laminitis.  He developed swellings above his eyes and under his jaw and a continual discharge from both eyes.  He actually resembled a human who has been on Predisone for some time with a bloated look to his face.  I upped the Chaste Berry/Vitex Agnes he had been on for over a year and had vets out several times who gave him antibiotics....Of course there was no improvement, just a worsening of his condition.  In addition I threw all sorts of other western herbs and homeopathy at him.  This may have saved him having a full on founder but no one here seemed to have a handle on the whole disease.

I had been through this before with two previous horses some years ago, plus a friend's horse but at the time did not really understand that it was a metabolic problem I was dealing with and why, despite all precautions, they kept getting bouts of laminitis and/or abscessing through winter.  My last horse was prescribed Pergolide which made him enormously depressed, he wouldn't eat his feed (it was impossible to give this horse anything orally via syringe ­ he probably would have taken Dr Thomas’ herbs though as Kingi absolutely loves them!) finally would eat then he would be depressed again.
After two months of that I gave up the Pergolide and he was put to sleep about a year after his first laminitic episode.  He was also 19 and the previous one was 26.  Both the previous horses were “cresty” types but Kingston has never been although has without a doubt carried more weight at times than he should for his type over the 11 years that he has been with me.  In hindsight Kingi has been very immune challenged for years; knocked flat with the virus each year, two mystery hock infections that required joint flushes and heavy duty antibiotics, hives and a sinus infection for 2 years to name a few things.

So, after endless web surfing and learning all I could about Cushing’s/EMS and on the verge of trying Pergolide, desperate to find a holistic and systemic treatment for Kingi, I found the For Love of the Horse website.  From the time of the first communication with Allison I felt full of hope.  Getting the herbs into New Zealand was a bit of a challenge but it has all been worth it!

Dr Thomas read Kingi’s blood panels and advised he was in state of metabolic acidosis as well as having macrocytic anaemia and prescribed Total Immune Health, Nourish Digestion and the EMS solution.

I would like to share with everyone the amazing changes in Kingi since he started the herbs in early June 2008.

Important change:

• Blood tests one month after starting the herbs showed his cortisol levels had returned to normal.  Prior to the herbs the blood panels resembled a horse who had been on steriods for some time.

Within a couple of weeks the following changes:

• Depression seemed to miraculously lift and his eye became brighter and he looked interested in life again

• Started trotting around the paddock with the odd canter thrown in.  This horse had shown no inclination to go out of a walk for 4 months!

• Discharge from his eyes had gone

• Facial and jaw swelling gone

• The pungent body odour disappeared

• Coat more shiny and silky than it had been in winter for many years.  It doesn¹t stick up like a bottle brush on his body like it used to.

• Started to enjoy being groomed again.  Between February and May I could only brush his head, legs and mane as he appeared to be “tender” all over his body, and especially his flanks and abdomen area.

Recent changes:

• He has been seen GALLOPING around the paddock of his own free will as well as doing some airs above the ground!  The first time he sprinted I almost died of shock!

• The enormous amount of smegma he used to produce has stopped.  It used to literally ooze out of his sheath and coat the inside of his thighs - this had been going on for over a year and required sheath cleaning weekly.

• He has lost that pot bellied, saggy, metabolic look

• The hair on his unclipped bits is starting to come out in huge handfuls ­ this is the earliest he has started shedding for over 4 years.

And, the most important change:

• Kingi is back to his bright, happy and cheerful (and sometimes arrogant!) self.

We are continuing with the three solutions with a recent increase in the Total Immune Health & Nourish Digest to address the ongoing macrocytic anaemia plus I have also had to use the Hoof Ailments a couple of times for foot abscesses which cleared up remarkably quickly.  I would like to note that previous abscesses have always taken weeks and weeks to clear up.  One years ago in fact took 2 months despite the best of care.  I also have MMP Stop on hand just in case.

Apart from the herbs, the only other other thing to change is having Kingi barefoot thanks to FLOTH’s urging and my fantastic barefoot trimmer, Shane Downs.  Despite my fears, since Kingi has been shod for probably 17 of his 19 years, he is managing very well so far with his Easyboot Epics on during the day. 

We obviously have to get through next autumn but I am so delighted so far with Kingi’s progress and his quality of life being returned to him, that I wanted to share the story here.

The people involved with For Love of the Horse are the most caring and lovely people I have come across and I really can’t thank them enough for their help and support with Kingston.  Very special thanks to Dr Thomas for developing these treatments for our beloved horses!

I would happily recommend anyone who has a horse with EMS/Cushing’s to read Dr. Thomas' articles and contact For Love of the Horse.

Jenni & Kingi
New Zealand

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