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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1092
 
Location: OK | Can you tell me in your EPM horses how long from when you first noticed something weird until you thought it was EPM? How fast does it progress? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1092
Location: OK | BUMP |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| I am treating my horse with dr. Ellerison from floridas treatment tell u in 14 day.s my horses wes chronic type where he was not right not using rear like he used to. I had a thread earlier. I might go back and bump it up.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 383
| every horse is different - some have a better immune system and those horses will take longer to see the effects, its nothing to mess with though if you suspect it I would treat without a doubt- personally I have a gelding that came ott and he had ulcers and epm so I think he was difficult to get it under control- we tried several different meds over the last 3 years- I think the 5 day iv dyclasoril ( wrong spelling) was the best then 6 months later I did a torclazoril dmso ( wrong spelling) and he has been great - give a vitamin e supplement - and I also use animal element immune and detox since starting these products he is great - we rodeo and he trailers a lot so the I know the stress is hard on their immune system ( which is bad for epm horses) but we have been able to keep him good and healthy now. thank God!!! |
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Regular
Posts: 73
| It was the an overnight thing for my horse. She was a yearling and was seemed fine one night and the following morning she was in a horrible condition. She couldn't walk in a straight line, she wouldn't step over dark spots on the ground or on concrete she was clearly off . During the course of her treatment some of the symptoms were still there but passed within a few weeks. It might have been different for my horse only because she was a yearling and had very limited handling so for me there was no random gait issues that I could experience of see. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| Look dr. Ellerison at pathogenes. Get bloodwork done get red top blood tube from you vet. I got min from dog vet mail out with the form on web site 2 days later u will have an answer, then get you vet to call then she will send you meds. Blood test is 38.00 and meds are 200.00 |
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 Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | Dr. White in Sallisaw will be your best resource if you suspect EPM. His blood test is only $60. He has treated several for us. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1033
Location: Iowa | One of my vets...yes I have several... said you couldnt tell from a blood test! What do you make of that? |
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Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | Evittranch - 2014-10-10 10:09 AM One of my vets...yes I have several... said you couldnt tell from a blood test! What do you make of that?
I'd say he's behind on the research of this disease. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
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 Hummer's Hero
Posts: 3071
Location: Smack Dab in the Middle | I'm very sure my mare had it two years before diagnosis. She was stubbing her toe around barrels. She fell playing in the pasture and ruptured her stifle. She looked like crap off and on. Then she started having balance and footfall problems, sore feet, and freezing up at the gate. Then she started having behavioral problems like piling back and being super spooky. All the while I too her to different vets before going full blown neurological and finally being diagnosed.
She responded very well to treatment and is a 1D/2D horse. And while still a drama queen, she is 100% different to haul. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1092
Location: OK | Thanks for all your replies! Dr White is my vet and we have started ruling out some things, but he suspects EPM. He says he's seen a lot of it this year.
This horse is funny in the back end, has gone from kinda not wanting to turn the 1st to saying hell no on the 1st and erratic on 2nd and 3rd. We've done some stuff to reduce inflammation and gave 5 days of bute and slow worked him and he was no different. He also has funny rippling waves in his muscles behind both shoulders that I can feel and see. His topline is bad. He's either a dead head riding around or a wild idiot on the pattern. He's either crippled or has EPM I think, but if he was crippled with some of the fits he has had, he should have limped somewhere.
We walked him in the barn isle and as he was walking I pulled his tail and could pull his whole back end to either side with 1 hand not pulling hard. I don't know enough about EPM to know if that's bad. I had just heard of people doing that to test balance.
He can back fast and pretty straight. I had a vet tell me if they can back, they don't have it, but Dr White said that's bull.
Should we just treat him anyway instead of testing? I've gotten that advice too.
All info and symptoms are appreciated.
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Member
Posts: 5
Location: NE MO | Your horse sounds just like mine before I had him looked at. He's 10 and he's only been running for 3 or 4 years. I have only run him this year probably less than 10 times. I started noticing him being a little lethargic when I would work him, and I only have to keep him legged up because he knows the pattern so all we ever do is long trot in a hay field, so I thought it was strange he was not wanting to work and being lazy. When I ran him, he would always swing his hind end out and want to swap leads between barrels and running home like he couldn't get comfortable. I noticed it really bad when I took him to a race in Arkansas. I had buted him for the trip down so I think it was still in his system when I had run him Friday. He took a half second off his run Saturday. But Sunday when I tried to take him in, he completely refused and tried anything and everything to not go in. I thought it was just because we had been down there for 5 days and he was by himself. He had gone from running an 18.4 Saturday to a 19.2 Sunday. So I didn't run him for about a month because there was nothing to go to around here. I took him to the Barrel Bash in Iowa September 19. He didn't want to go in at all, which is not like him. He gets pretty hot at the gate usually, but its because he wants to run, he has never refused before Arkansas. So Saturday when I ran him I put my leg in him to line him up with the gate and he reared straight up, I thought he was going to flip. He still ran an okay time, but he just wasn't acting like himself. So I scratched him Sunday and brought him home and had a very reputable lameness vet look at him. I thought something needed injected but he looked him over couldn't find anything so he asked me to trot him on the rocks. He said he was misplacing his right hind foot at the trot which is a syptom of EPM. Then he did the tail test, and he could pull him over pretty easy. He said we could do blood work, but it's not a 100% accurate test. So we decided just to treat him for 18 days and see if he is any better. Today was the last day of his treatment and he is a 100% different horse! He's happy, not lethargic. His eyes weren't the same brightness as usual, and now his eyes are back to normal. I have only ridden him lightly down the driveway and he wants to be ridden again. I had figured he was lazy when I would work him before because of the heat, but he was even lazy when it was cooler. And he is not a lazy horse! When I rode him before he was treated he slipped a lot in his hind end. He would back up too so I wouldn't use that as a symptom. But now he isn't slipping, he wants to play now and he is just his old self. I'm sorry for the novel but I just wanted to give you as much detail as possible! I hope you get him figured out, but I would definitely treat him as soon as possible. |
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Member
Posts: 5
Location: NE MO | I also forgot to mention that my horse also wasn't building muscle in his hind end and his topline looked terrible. He looked like he was withering away. He looked terrible, and he is almost all the way filled out again. He looks and feels like a different horse. My vet is coming out Tuesday to reevaulate him, and if everything checks out okay, we're going to start him on the drug to get the bug out of his system. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1092
Location: OK | Thank you so much! My horse shows almost all of these symptoms. I don't know if he will even bother with a blood test after he watches him, but I'm anxious to start treatment if that's what it is, and I think it is. The first time I ever ran this horse, he slipped in the right hind, and he feels clumsy in turns and moves his head and body around in the turn a lot. He can't settle. What did you treat with? |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 302
| I am waiting on test results right now. My horse is 8 and had vet out due to what I thought was teeth related. He was eating slower, dropping feed and quidding his hay into balls. Also looked like his cheek was swollen some. She said his teeth were perfect and could not find anything. We started looking at his head and noticed the left side having atrophy. Sunken in above eye and temple area and also the cheek. Even his muzzle is slightly turned to the right. That is what led them to think EPM. I was tld the blood test I am having done is accurate but can take 7 to 14 days for results. Just curious what is the cost to treat EPM?
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Member
Posts: 5
Location: NE MO | He can't settle in his turns either, has a hard time with using his inside hind foot. I treated his symptoms with Levamisole. That was for 18 days and cost $150. I don't know what the drug is called to get the bug out of his system but that will cost around $400 and it will take 28 days to be complete. With the Levamisole I saw results in about a week. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| Wonder why is mostly rght rear foot. That is what i noticed with, my horse. Anyway treating now,with oroquin 10. 4 days hown just did,tail test and right rear is good now left rear doesnot,pull rear hard. Will not cross his fromt feet now either. I lunged him on a 50 fot rope he is moving more freely. |
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 Member
Posts: 30
Location: almost heaven | The latest research and best results are with Dr. Ellison in Florida. Look up www.pathogens.com. I started noticing results in my gelding at about 5 days into the treatment. He did a total transformation. I highly recommend her test and treatments.
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 It Goes On
Posts: 2262
Location: Muskogee, OK | rachellyn80 - 2014-10-10 10:13 AM Evittranch - 2014-10-10 10:09 AM One of my vets...yes I have several... said you couldnt tell from a blood test! What do you make of that? I'd say he's behind on the research of this disease.
All that blood tests can tell is previous exposure.... It is in no way a definitive diagnostic to say that the horse definitely has true EPM. Many, many horses are exposed to Sarcocytis neurona (the causitive agent) throughout their lives and do not develop clinical signs or disease but will have resultant antibodies formed.
Now, some veterinarians will take a positive blood test along with clinical signs and say that you are "most likely" dealing with EPM causing said signs. Titers indicate level of antibodies and thus higher antibody titers can lead to the assumption of possible active infection. Some also recommend taking paired titers to look for an acute rise in antibodies which would also correlate to an active infection. However, true definitive diagnosis is only possible via CSF tap.
Edited by barrelracingchick16 2014-10-13 9:29 AM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1092
Location: OK | I asked my vet that this morning, and he said this is not the same type of test as other blood tests... I'll find out :) |
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EPM