scwebster - 2016-11-29 9:47 AM

Hey guys. Ive gone back and read several posts about EPM. Unfortunatly I am dealing with this first hand. The good thing is there are very mild symptoms and I am hopeful that treatment will be sucessful. Can anyone who has delt with this tell me about your treatment experience?  Is there any one medicine that is superior than the others? How long will I need to lay the horse off? Can I hope for complete recovery? Is this cureable or just manageable? A little back story, we had no idea anything was wrong until we had a check up at the vet. She was litterally running barrels perfectly last week. She tested positive via blood test. Thanks in advance

FlyingJT - 2016-11-29 10:08 AM most horses will test positive with a blood test. I'd get a spinal tap done and then determine if she has it. Marquis was a waste of money, Diclazuril 5-day IV worked great, Orogin/levamisole also worked good. I also tried a 30day compound from Weatherford, I think it was Diclazuril/Levamisole/and something else that I can't remember. It worked ok but I would use it as a follow up after one of the above treatments. It would appear to work until you stopped giving it and then 10-20 days later I would notice symptoms again. Complete recovery for the two I caught early. Partial recovery, no neurological damage but already had the muscle wasting and it never returned. He's a kid horse now. I think it's curable but the damage it does to the nervous system(if not caught early enough) I don't believe it ever repairs itself.

GoMistyGo - 2016-11-29 9:58 AM  I’m sorry to hear you are dealing with it.  My mare had it first in the spring of 2014.  No neurological issues, but bucking and loosing weight.  Three vets told me that she does not have EPM.  I insisted on the test and her levels were extremely high on the Pathogenes test.  We treated with Oroquin. My mare also had a suspensory injury and she was off for over one year.  It took a while to get the EPM titers down to a somewhat normal level.

 

We started running barrels again a year ago, all was well, but she started falling apart on me again about three weeks ago.  EPM titer high again.  Treating her now with Protazil. 

 

All EPM is different and it seems all horses react differently to the various types of treatment.    I hope yours gets better soon.

 

scwebster - 2016-11-29 10:19 AM


Thank you for the information! Do you happen to remember the cost of Diclazuril and Orogin/Levamisole?

FlyingJT - 2016-11-29 10:27 AM Orogin/Levamisole was the cheapest, I believe 250-300. The Diclazuril was 500-600. Stayed at the vets for 5 days so it included the treatment and boarding. I liked the Diclazuril because it was quick, I'd go with it again if I had to. If you have stalls at you're home and the time you could probably do it yourself and save the money from the boarding.

RockinGR - 2016-11-29 10:49 AM I had a mare that we actually (in hindsight) think she had it for at least a couple of years before I got a diagnosis. She worked a pretty pattern, but had gone through a bout of refusing the gate--just freezing in the alley and refusing to go in. We frequently had sore feet--thought it was being barefoot...she stubbed her toe often, usually on the third barrel, but never fell. She would have footfall rhythm problems. She would randomly, and violently pull back. She would grind her teeth and tilt her head. She was flightly--nuttier than a squirrel turd sometimes. And she could be a hard keeper--very similar to an ulcer horse. She also had HORRIBLE heat cycles that seemed to never end. But she worked, and even tho I took her to multiple vets saying something is wrong, no one diagnosed her. She got very foot sore--which I didn't really get alarmed about because the ground was frozen, then fell on her face one evening right after the farrier hammered on a shoe--then couldn't pick any of her other feet up. The next day she stood off by herself from the other horses, then the next morning she could barely walk! I had a fairly new vet, and she's the one that finally diagnosed her. Tested positive, and we treated with Oroquin10--about $250 at that time. My mare did a complete 180. I didn't actually lay her off that long--around 6 weeks, and I ponied her during that time to keep her legged up. I didn't do it during the 10 day treatment. Went from making a pretty 3D/4D pattern to a 1D horse in a few runs. Ran in the top 20 at 300+ entry races. And she looked phenomenal! No more hard keeper. I did have to maintain her--I treated her early every spring before transitional heat, just as a precaution, since her heat cycles had seemed to be a trigger. And I kept her on the detox dose of Animal Element Detox--which I truly believe is both what saved her life and what almost killed her. I had her on AE maintenance dose when no one could diagnose her. I let her run out about a month before she got to the point she couldn't walk--because I didn't know that it was doing her any good, and thought I'd eliminate an expense... She made a full recovery with that minimal maintenance and became the horse I only dreamed she could be. She did end up dying suddenly at a young age (only 9) but we can't say if it was EPM related. I didn't post her, and it appeared to be a pulmonary embolism and she died in the trailer on the way home from a barrel race (hours after her run). Again, we don't know if it was related.

scwebster - 2016-12-04 9:41 PM

 Just an update. I took this horse to the vet I regularly use for treatment. After his evaluation he did NOT diagnose her with EPM, and says the test only confirms she has been exposed. (Apparently a high percentage of horses are exposed but do not nessesarily have/get the disease. The test was a serum test with her titer results being 1:1000. He gave me a 30 day treatment because it made me feel better and that was that. He did a full physical exam and says she shows no signs of active EPM..  so that's great news. This is becoming quite the educational experience.