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Expert
Posts: 1531
  
Location: South | I have posted before about my gelding who had aquired an unknown injury while being boarded. Long story short it has been almost 2 years and he has made little improvment. I had him to two of the best vets on the coast for diagnosing lameness and it was pinpointed to his hips and the muscles. He lost a lot of his muscle tone across his hips and top line and is still visibly off at the trot on his right hind.. He had his hips injected, was on numerous Vet prescribed muscle relaxers, isoxoprine, etc. I have also had him on Animal Element, THE, devils claw and other joint type supplements.He has seen Chiro's, laser therapy and massages. Nothing has made any improvement.
My question is, does anyone have any other suggestions or experiences that may help? The Vet's told me they did everything known possible and could not see anything wrong and all thought he might come around.
He still wants to be ridden, and I was told that he was not suffering from pain...but I fear no one can really know for sure the answer to that so I do not ride him often or beyond a walk.
Has anyone seen anything similar? He is only 7 and I he wants so badly to be used- anything I can try to make him feel comfortable or help give me answers would be appreciated.
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 Ditch the Stirrups
Posts: 5369
 
Location: Sorrow Not! Defending against workplace bullies | Has he been treated or tested for EPM or PSSM?
If it was my horse I might try light exercise to see if it helps or not...but keep a close eye to make sure he does not get worse.
Lots of times rest will heal. But it has to be the right type of rest. Keeping him in a small turnout and handwalking him might be good. |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | I am having my 3yr old tested for EPM next week. He is dragging his hind toes, bucks, but the vet couldn't find a thing wrong with him other than something he has going on in a front leg. That vet didn't suspect EPM, but I am going to have him tested anyways, just to be sure. He wouldn't take a lame step flex testing and everything else seemed normal. |
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 The BHW Book Worm
Posts: 1768
| I had a filly that went to 4 different vets 2 being specialists. She had torn ligaments within her hip and the only hope was a box stall she would not be able to set foot out of for a year and even if it did work she would be sound for a very short time most likely would NEVER be competing sound I tried for 1.5 years spending thousands I finally cut my losses about a year ago....she is still not sound go with your gut I did and sadly I was correct. |
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 Sweet Tea
Posts: 3496
Location: Home of the World Famous "Silver Bullet" | have you been to a vet with a lameness locator ??
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Expert
Posts: 1531
Location: South | Oops, did forget to mention the Vet did think it was EPM right from the start and that is what he was first tested for before taking a closer look into his pelvic area. Everything came back negative.
What is a lameness locator? I'm not sure |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | palpated for a broken pelvis? |
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Expert
Posts: 1531
Location: South | wyoming barrel racer - 2014-08-16 6:52 PM
palpated for a broken pelvis?
Yes he was, however the Vets said the most accurate way to tell would be to get an x-ray of him laying on his back- but both strongly felt that nothing was broken to the point where they did not even suggest it until I asked. |
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Ditch the Stirrups
Posts: 5369
Location: Sorrow Not! Defending against workplace bullies | Wow that must be so frustrating! I have a "special needs" horse who had respiratory problems (never any diagnosis) and fractured his coffin bone...all before he was 6. Thankfully he is all OK now and I am runnung hum at jackpots. But I remember thinking I might have to put him down. i hope your horse gets better too. How old is he? What is the story of his injury? |
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 Ms. Poutability
Posts: 2362
Location: In my own world | Any vet I know that has had experiment with EPM won't rely on test results. They are not very accurate unless you did the spinal tap. My mare showed all the signs and tested negative. We treated based on symptoms and she did a complete 180 and is much better. Legging her back up this fall. |
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Expert
Posts: 1531
Location: South | ninaom - 2014-08-17 12:07 AM
Wow that must be so frustrating! I have a "special needs" horse who had respiratory problems (never any diagnosis) and fractured his coffin bone...all before he was 6. Thankfully he is all OK now and I am runnung hum at jackpots. But I remember thinking I might have to put him down. i hope your horse gets better too. How old is he? What is the story of his injury?
I'm glad your horse got better for you. He's 7- I broke my arm right before this happened but wanted to keep him legged up through the winter since I could not ride, so I got the referral of a few people at a boarding barn with an indoor. I paid a local girl to ride/lunge him until I could ride again. I went out to see him one day and noticed he was standing with his hind legs out and looked "off"- I questioned the girl and she got defensive. I brought him home 2 days later when I could and had the Vet out. Could never get any answers out of the barn and the Vet's were also stumped and he has been the same ever since.
Even standing behind him you can see the right side of his hip has significantly less muscle tone making his topline almost look bony even though he is in good body condition. |
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Expert
Posts: 1531
Location: South | livinonlove&horses - 2014-08-17 8:57 AM Any vet I know that has had experiment with EPM won't rely on test results. They are not very accurate unless you did the spinal tap. My mare showed all the signs and tested negative. We treated based on symptoms and she did a complete 180 and is much better. Legging her back up this fall.
Wow, glad you treated her anyhow and got results. I am going through his records now and see I have about 5 articles with spinal tap highlighted- however I am looking through records and I see he got two EPM Blood Titer exams 3 weeks apart. I do remember the Vet saying that was more accurate to do it twice. I also remember him saying if he really felt like he should have tested positive he would start him on treatment however they both came back negative and he did a series of tests on the ground and said he didn't preform like a horse with EPM should. I see the meds he was on during this time fram was Previcox and Robaxin. Not sure either of those are EPM pills? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 975
Location: The barn...where else? SW Missouri | Epm attacks their muscle tone and shows up on their right side. I just treated my mare with origin 10. |
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 Owner of a ratting catting machine
Posts: 2258
| I wouldn't hesitate if I liked the horse, to dig further in with a high powered vet, even if I had to haul out of area. I'm not scared to haul 10+ hrs to a good diagnostician. I'm currently hauling 6 hours when I really need to get a diagnosis made and move forward.
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 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| Not to much advice here but maybe aqua tred or some kinda of aqua therapy could help build some muscle tone? That could be a slippery slope if too much strength deteriotes.
Prayers for you and you horse  |
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Expert
Posts: 1531
Location: South | Update :
Thanks to everyone who posted. I just put an order for the EPM meds through the Vet. He said to try that and see if he improves at all, then go from there.
Praying that this does help him. Thank you guys for refreshing the symptoms in my head. I have just noticed in the past few weeks that he is dropping so much grain that i've had to put another bucket under his feed dish. Didn't think anything of it (except wow, the dentist missed a few spots LOL) until I saw it listed as a symptoms.
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