Ok, here’s a probably silly question: what kind of insulin do they give to diabetic horses? Porcine derived, cow derived or synthetic? Do they also use a mixture of long, short and regular acting insulins? Do they do capillary testing for blood glucose? Where do you “stick” a horse? Is “normal” for a horse around 100? Or, for that matter, do they treat diabetic horses at all, or just put them down?
I know it’s veering off topic a little, but I’m curious, and you’re here, so…
Heh. I might be a little out of my depth here, since I haven’t gotten to the actual clinical medicine part of school yet, just normal physio stuff, so my clinical knowledge is patchy and based on before-school experience. Maybe one of the real vets will come along and bail me out here.
Insulin-dependent diabetes is VERY rare in horses. The only horse I have seen on SQ insulin was a miniature horse (already a walking endocrinological disaster by breeding) who had persistent glucose dysregulation after hepatitis/anorexia/hepatic lipidosis. Most of the horses I’ve seen on IV insulin were septic and/or on parenteral nutrition. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what source of (regular) insulin we used.
Dogs and cats are more prone to IDDM than horses. There used to be a porcine zinc product called Vetsulin that was marketed for dogs and cats (I think it’s off the market now), but a number of vets on a vet geek board I go to like Lantus/glargine. I have a friend who used to just go to Target and buy Humulin-R for her cat - he weighed 25 lb (he was as wide as he was tall) and got 13 units BID. You have now exhausted my knowledge of types of insulin. 
One thing we DO see a lot of in horses is insulin resistance. Some of this is equine metabolic syndrome (hmmm, fat people → fat horses) and some is due to Cushing’s disease, which is fairly common in older horses. In either case, there’s a lot of counseling about the same things as in people with insulin resistance - low-carb diet, lose weight, and exercise, plus drugs (pergolide) for Cushing’s if present. Some vets also recommend Mg/Cr supplementation for insulin resistance, and in a few cases thyroid supplementation is used to encourage weight loss. Because insulin resistance can lead to crippling laminitis and thereby kill a horse, getting it under control is a pretty big deal.
Sorry for the thread-jack!
Funny thing about Byetta. I took it briefly a few years ago, and I started gagging at random times throughout the day, beginning with the very first time I took it. But even though I stopped taking it, the gagging has continued to this day. It’s very slowly diminishing over time.
How does one low carb a horse? Feed them lots of steak? <semi silly but a serious question>
It took me about 2 years before the thought of a piece of bacon didn’t turn my stomach, and about 6 months after that before the smell didnt turn my stomach. About 8 months ago i actually ate a piece of bacon … the smell of breakfast sausage still turns my stomach. I can manage about 5 bites of ham, and maybe half a porkchop of noncured pigflesh. I really miss pork and not having to wonder if I can eat something once I either order it out to eat, or cook it at home. sigh
This bacon aversion thing is making me sad. 
Aruvqan, since horses can digest cellulose in their hindgut, you basically try to feed them more fibrous stuff and less other carbohydrates. The first step is often reducing a horse’s grass intake, particularly during spring and fall when growth and stress increase the sugar content in grass. There are nylon grazing muzzles which leave only a small hole in the bottom through which to munch grass, reducing a horse’s intake per hour. Some horses can’t tolerate grass at all, so you have to find or build them a smaller paddock in which you have killed all the vegetation and just feed them hay. Different types of hay very in non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) content, and hay harvested later in the season tends to be stemmier and lower in NSC’s. You can also get your hay tested for NSC’s. Horses that need to lose a lot of weight often get a limited amount of hay, as opposed to free choice (as much as they’ll eat), which is the norm for many normal horses when not on grass. Finally, if you need to reduce NSC content even further, you can soak the hay in water for an hour to leach out sugars before feeding it to the horse (and dumping the water). Grain feeding is reduced to little or nothing, and so-called ration balancers, which contain vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acids, are given to fill in the nutritional holes that may be left by the limited ration of hay.
If the horse is skinny - Cushing’s horses have fat deposits in unusual places and are often overweight but also can be underweight with muscle wasting - there are ways to put calories back in. Alfalfa hay, which is high in protein, is somewhat controversial in IR but is sometimes lower sugar than regular grass hays. Commercial fat and protein supplements are available to mix with a ration balancer or a small amount of grain, or there are plainer sources of fat like vegetable oils, flax seed, rice bran, etc.
Sorry for triggering it! But thanks for answering. I have all sorts of respect for veterinarians - y’all have to learn everything human docs do, only for a lot more species! Good luck with school. 
absolutely fascinating! thanks for the info =)
I’m always happy to provide useless horse trivia, just say the word. 