Insulin dysregulation can occur alone or alongside clinical signs associated with other diseases. It is one of three components that constitute equine metabolic syndrome, the other two being obesity and clinical or subclinical endocrine-related laminitis. | Photo: iStock

At the 2018 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 1-5, in San Francisco, California, Elizabeth Tadros, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, assistant professor of endocrinology at the MSU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, in Lansing, gave a rundown on these diseases and described commonly used tests for diagnosing them.

Insulin dysregulation (ID), which can plague horses of any age, is a metabolic derangement that can manifest in several ways, including:

• Higher-than-expected insulin levels in horses that have been fasted (fasting hyperinsulinemia);
• Higher-than-expected insulin levels after a meal (postprandial hyperinsulinemia);
• Exaggerated responses to oral or intravenously introduced carbohydrates;
• Tissue insulin resistance; and
• Dyslipidemia (elevated blood lipid, or fat, levels).

Horses with ID might have one or a combination of these characteristics