Hi. Does anyone here have any experience with EPSM? I recently acquired a Palomino gelding with this disorder. With a total diet overhaul he is making a great recovery. I've read what literature I could find and it does look promising but I was wondering what other people have found to be the prognosis with treatment?
EPSM
- Thread starter momtotwo
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I had a spanish arab mare that contracted this...I had given her to my sister when my son went to college and i could no longer asfford to board her. after trying to find out what the problem was through the UW vet school as well as my own vets (this was like 10 years ago), my sister's vet figured out what it was and the mare made a full recovery although she still gets immune system boosters to this day.
jennifer :saludando:
jennifer :saludando:
yvonne_89
Well-Known Member
What is EPSM?
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This will take you to the list of articles by Dr. Valentine, who has researched this disease: http://www.draftresource.com/EPSM/Draft_EPSM.html Basically, the horse is unable to use the carbohydrates is grain as an energy source and winds up digesting it's own muscle cells instead. It causes muscle stiffness, sore back, weight loss; kind of makes the horse move like a zombie. When I got my gelding, he was terribly underweight and very stiff. Mostly he just wanted to stand in the barn. He had a funny "hitch" to his gait, had a lot of trouble turning around, and was very sensitive along his back. Because he had LONG (about 3"), curly hair in August (in Florida), we thought he might have Cushings but he was very underweight and didn't drink much water so my daughter did some online searching to try to find out what might be going on. When she saw EPSM she showed me the information and I started crying. We switched him to a low carb/high fat diet and within two weeks we started noticing a change. He is making a steady recovery now--putting weight on, trotting for short periods just for the heck of it, chasing our old Paint mare, bucking, and rearing at feed time, he even cantered a few feet twice this week
. I used to call him Mr. SnuggleUpAgainst but now around the other horses he's Mr. StuffItUpYourNose. Big change in a horse that I bought just so he'd have a quiet place to live out his last few months or so Now I'm looking forward to many years with him
. I used to call him Mr. SnuggleUpAgainst but now around the other horses he's Mr. StuffItUpYourNose. Big change in a horse that I bought just so he'd have a quiet place to live out his last few months or so Now I'm looking forward to many years with him
