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HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Nervous System » Incoordination, Weakness, Spasticity, Tremors » Wobblers or Cervical Stenotic Myelopathy »
  Discussion on Wobbles, EPSM or a little of both
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New Member:
Mvfarm

Posted on Thursday, Nov 7, 2002 - 9:52 pm:

Hi Dr. O, I have a 4 y/o Warmblood mare. She started undersaddle in Jan. 2002 when my trainer made notice of her slightly dragging left toe. She often did this when sluggishly walking around the paddock, so we put it off as being lazy. At the end of the month we brought her home from the training barn and decided to restart her in June, 2002. She still would drag the left toe, but began to notice that she did not look "quite right" behind. Under saddle she looked disconnected between her front end and rear end. By August she got worse-she began to lose weight and muscle, especially on the top of her back and shoulders. She had muscle in weird places. I decided to have a neurologic exam done and she failed miserably. She was classified as a 3+. When turned in a tight circle, her hind legs would stay bent and suspended a few seconds, then stomp down, and she has difficulty backing-not sure where her hind feet are. I decided to bring her to another one of my Vets and after his neurologic exam, he thought it was Wobbles. He performed a myelogram and guess what? The Neurologist found nothing! Except for one thing-there was one view that my vet did not take that the Neurologist would like to have seen. Oh, well! I don't want to put my mare through that again! She couldn't bend her neck right for 2 weeks!! Not to mention the cost of the procedure. So, after reading article after article, I decided to change her diet to an EPSM diet-higher fat/fiber. Since then, she has gained back weight and muscle, and now instead of dragging her toes, she appears to stomp her hind feet down as she walks. I've also seen her stomp her left hind while standing. Another note,...for 2 years now, my farrier had a heck of a time working on her hind feet. She rocks back and forth, and is very unstable. I will continue the EPSM diet, as it won't hurt her. As for a muscle biopsy,...it will have to wait, I'm still paying off the last vet bill! Please give me your opinion on this very confusing dilema. Thanks, Jacquie
P. S. EPM tested negative on both blood and CSF.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Nov 8, 2002 - 8:22 am:

Hello Jacqueline,
This "stringhalt" like activity has been seen with EPSM, how long have you been of the diet and are you following it religously? Also other than the stomping does she now pass the neuro exam?
DrO
Member:
Mvfarm

Posted on Friday, Nov 8, 2002 - 10:30 am:

DrO, Her diet was changed approx. 1 month ago-but it is not a "true" EPSM diet. The feed she's on now, even though it is higher in fat, still has too much sugar and starches. Just this week, I started to change her over to one of Dr. Valentine's "official" EPSM diets. I'm taking it veeeerrry sloooow, so hopefully she will adapt to the "blandness" of it. I've also added cocosoya oil which she seems to like. As far as passing a neuro exam, I have not had a vet here to look at her, but I can tell you, my farrier was here last week and the mare was still quite unstable behind. So as far as passing a neuro exam now, I would say no. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again, Jacqueline
Board Administrator
Username: Admin

Posted on Saturday, Nov 9, 2002 - 1:23 pm:

Good I think the diet offers hope and thanks for keeping us appraised.
DrO
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