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  Discussion on White muscle disease
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New Member:
Joshua

Posted on Wednesday, Apr 9, 2003 - 10:33 am:

i have a 8 year old shetland pony stallion that has has been sick since last tuesday. he became so ill, that he is now at an equine veterinary hospital. i hope that this won't be too long, but i am desperate for some help-we don't want to lose him! his symptoms started in this order:"sad attitude", very disintersted in his mare and surroundings, not eating/drinking or passing manure. the vet was out, all vitals were normal, drew blood, only thing that showed up was elevated muscle enzymes. vet figured he had a blockage, tubed him with no results by the following day. still not passing manure and began to notice that he was "lame", having a very hard time moving around. vet was out again, all vitals were still normal, drew more blood with the muscle enzymes being even higher. decided to ship to equine hospital, because situation had become grave. the hospital vets beleive he has a vitamin e deficiency which is causing myositis. he is exhibiting all of the symptoms and this diagnosis makes sense, because the hay (he only gets hay)has not been as good as in years past, so he wasn't getting the nutrients he needed. unfortunatley, we didn't realize this. he is now passing manure every day, regularly, is on liquid vitamin e given orally, has had doses of muscle relaxers, is still having quite a difficult time trying to eat (major concern), but is eating a little. his attitude is 100% bettter! he "chats" with the horse next to him and is interested in things going on around him now. he is still experiencing muscle stiffness, but not nearly as bad as before. my questions are, does this all make sense or are we just wishful thinking? if this is what's wrong with him, will and can he recover and lead a normal, healthy life? we are just wondering how long to try to make him his old self or should there be a time frame of when to consider that treatment isn't working and to maybe put him down?
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