We may be facing a diagnosis of wobblers next week with my 6 year old mare, could be EPM but leaning towards Wobblers. Anyone have experience with this that can give me some insight, hopefully positive?? Any recommendations for alternative therapies/diet??

What are symptoms?  Friends had 2 horses that were diagnosed as Wobblers many years ago, but I would bet now that it was something else.

Oh man hope its not wobbles, why are you thinking wobbler? 

I took her to our equine hospital to have an eval by their lameness vet. She started refusing her left lead under saddle, could catch it lunging but then cross fires like crazy in the front and rear, tail swishing, cold back...of course i suspected she was in pain or at the very least needed an adjustment. The one thing she did that kept nagging me though was tripping. Shes pretty lazy so I contributed it to that but it still bothered me. He watched her walk across the arena one time and back, had her come to a stop and stand and I heard him say to the second vet watching "neuro", literally in a matter of minutes he spotted it. He had her turn tight circles, walk up and down a hill with her head up and had her step over objects. She failed all of them. Things like "circumduct" and "hypermetric gait". So he did xrays of her neck...mild narrowing of canal space at C 3/4 and 4/5, approx 50% of width of vertical body. He is a lameness vet so he referred me to the internal med doc that specailizes in neurology and she goes next week for a full neuro exam. 

WY Barrel Racer (Krystal)  had a good outcome with her big gelding I believe. . . 

I wish your mare the best of luck next week along with prayers, let us know what is found..

Edited for a question, did she just start this up recently or has this been an issue for a long time, just curtious

I have a 6 year old mare that acts like this also.  I have had her adjusted by a chiro about 4 times now and she is better for about 3 or 4 days and then she is back to the way she was.  She seems stif in her front left.  Have had her feet and legs checked by vets and they say there is nothing wrong in them.  When she tries to turn left or right she puts her weight on her rear end and hoppes over with her front.  She just seems like she can't cross her front end over.

This mare also is cold back.  She will be perfect and all of a sudden she will go into a small bucking fit for about 10 seconds and then stop and she is trembling all thru her body.  It just comes out of nowhere.

I would ask the next Vet about Kissing Spines, kinda sounds like what could be going on with your mare. 

Thank you.  Will do.

Do they find this with x-rays. How do they diagnose this.

The chiro lady says her shoulders are always out by an inch.

Right shoulder is alway ahead. She will never run or lope.

X-rays is the best way.. Had a friends mare that acted pretty much what you described and hod x-rays done of her back and it showed Kissing Spines. It was worth it to find out what was going on with her horse.. The first vet said it was not KP and didnt even do x-rays he said just keep riding she needed more wet saddle blankets so she rode her untill it got dangerious to ride her so she went to a different vet and they listen to what my friend had to say and KS was found. 

She got so bad that she had my 34 year old daughter that had been riding performance horses for 24 years scared to death to get on her anymore.  I have rode her a little after that.  She just explodes for about 10 seconds.  Then she stands there just shaking and quivering.  I have never been on a horse that has acted this way.  This was my first thought before I even called the chiro or vet.   Is this fixable or is it on a case by case basis.

We bought this mare from a highschool girl that this mare scared her into selling her.

Mine has KS and had for almost 3 years before we figured it out. We've been treating since October & she's just now getting better. Between the mesotherapy, spinal injections, SI injections, and hocks to cover alllll the compensating/resulting soreness she's had around 750 needles in her. But things are working and she has old fractures where the touching vertebrae had some type of trauma and we believe knocked together. Assuming she flipped over backwards somewhere in her life. She'd panic out of nowhere for no reason, just be a lunatic. She's mostly fine now and rides 90% better so far. So there is hope but if this is your issue and its that bad and been ongoing it will take a good chunk of time to resolve. Once you get past the physcal you have to fix the mental, and it could take years 

That mare is in some serious pain, If this was my horse I would take her in to a really good horse vet and have her checked for KS and run tests on her and see if something else is going on with her. If shes this bad dont ride her anymore untill you can find the cause of all this pain, I sure dont want to heard that she fliped on one of you and seriously hurt someone. 

I lost one to wobblers in 2007 I think it was? Learned a lot from that. Unfortunately. I few years ago I bought back a gelding my folks had raised. He'd been turned out for a year prior to my buying him. Won money at big futurities. He got to be very inconsistent with his runs. Hence why he was turned out. He worked great for about 6 months then it sort of fell apart. He was always sore over his SI. Took him to a very good vet. She wanted to X-ray his neck because of how sore he was in the SI. She found a few fractures in C3 and C4. Basically he had fractures on the one side in the wings of the vertebrae. She called them jackhammer fractures. She said he must have had his head tied around and he flipped. Hitting the ground with his head tied is what caused the fractures. She injected him via ultrasound. She said as long as we maintain it as necessary, he should go on to have a normal career since we caught it before arthritis set in. He gets done about every 10 months. That was 3 years ago.

If it is injury related wobblers, you need to get on top of it ASAP.  Waiting is a bad idea. Had I known with Sidekick what I know now, his story would have had a much happier ending. Scary thing with him was I thought EPM just like everyone now thinks when neurological symptoms start. I put him on EPM meds and he improved drastically in a lot of ways. He didnt have EPM. Wobblers is probably a lot more common than most people realize. But everyone now assumes EPM. If a horse has ever flipped or run into something, no one should assume they're fine. X-ray the neck. I know EXACTLY when Sidekick got the injury that caused his wobblers. But at the time I didn't know it. Hindsight is 20/20.

I had a mare diagnosed with wobblers. She was right on track for Futurities doing great then just started randomly ducking the first barrel. She would either clock in the 1D or not even make the pattern. We lived at the vet trying to figure out what it was since we were getting ready for Futurities and already paid in. Thought it was stifles, SI, etc. until one vet said she looked neurological. Started treating for EPM and that did nothing but give her HORRIBLE ulcers (I had just moved from Colorado to Texas and didn't have any knowledge of EPM or the treatment, now I know not to give it without giving something for their stomach along with it.) They X-rayed her neck and said maybe wobblers something in C1/C2 didn't look tight but the vet said they would turn the horse out and look again in a year so I bred her and turned her out. After foaling I took her in to get looked at by a new vet xrays showed narrowing in C3/C4 and her symptoms were grade 2.5. After weaning we did a myelogram and it confirmed the wobbler diagnosis. We went ahead with the basket surgery and they didn't expect to see a whole lot of difference for about 6 months but at her 6 week check up there was already 75% improvement. Now we are at month 5 and she looks basically like a normal horse and should be running barrels again very soon! Looking back now I should have known earlier. It took a lot of work to get her to hold a lope in tight circles, she was always a tail swisher and she fell on me once when I was backing her up but she was so great in every other way that I didn't think much of it. I thought maybe SI or ovaries but every time the vet looked at her they didn't see any issues 

My show horse unloaded from the trailer with a stiff neck after a simple dental float. Long story short he was diagnosed with wobblers after the same test, up and over things, hills etc. Xrays too. Had a myelogram done 3 months later at CSU and he was better, almost normal when he woke up. His was soft tissue. I  never fully believed the diagnosis because it shouldn't show up instantly. But usually gradually unless from a pasture accident. Praying you get it figured out. 

You do realize you are describing PSSM2 symptoms??

Maybe try diet etc that is recommended for PSSM2 & see if there is a difference.  Won't happen overnight - it does take awhile for it to get into their system and actually start helping the muscles to see a difference.  You also are seeing some symptoms of PSSM2 & these are easy changes to try.

*Update* My girl went for her neuro exam today, I left with a broken heart. She is a grade 3 on the neuro scale. I don't know how I missed this, I ugly cried in front of everyone but vet said she is compensating so well that unless you have a trained eye it would be hard to miss. Vet suggested we do a spinal tap to rule out EPM and then a myelogram if that comes back negative but in my research it appears that they can do a spinal fluid collection during a myelogram to send off for EPM testing. I feel like the best route would be to just go ahead and do the myelogram and get the EPM testing done at that time. I am grasping for straws, this mare is so special to me and I want to do what is best for her so please give me your best opinion. 

Ahhhh hugs to you Its so hard to heard something like this when we are so attached to our animals. If I were in your shoes I would go ahead with the Spinal tap but if your vet feels its safe to do both at the same time then I would go ahead and do the myelogram and spital tap, I never had to do a myelogram but have had a spinal tap done on my gelding and it came back negative, the reason for testing for EPM is that he came out of the pasture stumpling and could not stay standing up he would flip over onto his hindend sitting like a dog, but this happen over night I had a feeling he had hit his head on a low branch while running and this cause the stumbling but went ahead with the spinal tap after a few days just to be sure, he did recover after a few months, he had a bit of a head tilt at the start of all this but it went away to, the head tilt was from the head injury.. I thought I was going to have to put him down but worked with him for a few months and he came out of it great. So do what you can and pray for the best. Hugs

I would do both,the myleogram can give so much info,and if it shows nothing,at least you know.Many prayers for you,i know this is difficult:(

I am so so sorry--praying for the best possible outcome for her. Hugs and the best possible thoughts sent to you