Tough times

Getting news that your child is ill is never easy. For a lot of us our horses are just like our children so when they are sick and don’t feel well it is just as difficult.

If you recall I posted that Sis hasn’t been feeling well. She slipped in a hole Memorial weekend and has been “off” since. MIL consulted with her vet shortly after the accident and he suggested time off with bute. After some time off she was as little better but still wasn’t “Sis” so I suggested that MIL have a chiro look at Sis to make sure she wasn’t out. The chiro was out and found lots wrong with Sis. She felt heat in the buttock area and suggested 1 mo. off as she felt Sis had a pulled/torn muscle.

After some time off Sis slowly got worse so I suggested MIL take her to her vet. Below is his diagnosis.

slight raise of the right hip at the trot. Slight stiffness and response to palpitation of loin, xrays showed-right hock-narrowing tarsametatarsal and distalintertarsal joint space. ordering surpass cream --put 5 inch ribbon along area, rub lightly can wrap or not

Basically he told MIL that Sis was getting arthritis and the treatment for it was to work her and then put the surpass cream on her hock after she was exercised. This was great news to MIL as she really didn’t want to be without Sis for a month. I had my concerns about this diagnosis since arthritis doesn’t explain heat in a muscle. MIL was so excited though that she started riding her slowly and that weekend we had our show. The following day MIL and Chase left for Utah for 2 weeks so Sis was in my care.

That Tuesday I took Sis to drill practice. I had only planned on trotting her through the routine but after warming her up I decided I wouldn’t even do that. She was so stiff that even the gal who rides her gimpy horse ever practice noticed it (her horse could be bleeding and she wouldn’t notice). When I got home I had a talk with DH and we decided to seek a second opinion. While neither one of us disagree that she might not be getting arthritis, neither one of use feels that this is due to arthritis.

It took over a week to get her into another vet. Horse vets around here (good ones that is) are few and far between. The vet we currently use is supposed to be one of the best. Since we are busy at work I was unable to join DH yesterday when he took Sis in. The results were what I expected but not necessarily what anyone wants to hear.

Sis has a pulled muscle but worse yet due to all of our pissing around this muscle is starting to ossify. If she doesn’t respond well to his treatment it could require surgery. The muscles affected are the popliteus muscle & gracilis muscles on the inside of the stifle. He injected the muscles with several different injections and did shockwave therapy on the leg. He also had his chiropractor look at her while she was there and he did find that she had popped her shoulder back out.

This was the good news. The bad news was that he thinks she has EPM again. This didn’t come as too much of a shock to me but it still wasn’t something I wanted to hear as I know treatment is very expensive. Unfortunately the meds he used on her leg will make it worse if it is EPM so I can’t try the Karbo Combo on her so DH is picking up the treatment today so we can get her started.

What I’m finding out about EPM is that it seems a lot of horses have it but it is so mild that it can/does go unnoticed and that stress, injury or an illness can cause the protozoa to become active (assuming this is the case with Sis). It sounds like cancer – everyone has the cells that make cancer but not everyone gets cancer and those who do get cancer don’t get it to the same degree (different stages). The chiro that was out said that a lot of the reiners/cutters were finding that when their horses were “off” they had EPM and after treatment they were better. With EPM the only 100% way to diagnose is through a necropsy. All a serum test does is show that the horse has built up antibodies to the protozoa. This doesn’t mean they are infected. A spinal tap can be done but it is expensive and those results aren’t 100% either so most diagnosis are based off of a clinical examination.