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> > My vet is 'absolutely sure" he has it.Says he has treated alot of it. No
we
> > didn't run blood tests/he said a waste as 90% of horses in Se would test
> > pos. (been exposed sometime).Told me about the tap, but didn't Push
it",(I
> was in shock by then so I didn't pay close attention.
If my vet told me that about EPM, even with what I knew when Star was
diagnosed I'd get a second opinion ASAP. There's no way I know of to
diagnose EPM without a Spinal, and even then it's not conclusive because of
possible contamination. I pasted my horses EPM diagnosis story on the bottom
here for those that are interested, I don't believe she ever had EPM, it was
an ill fitting saddle and spinal trauma from a horse hoof.

Steph

My horse was diagnosed with EPM May 2001. I purchased her sound in November
2000 as a supposed 5 year old QHx, she was 13.2hh and 200lbs underweight. I
was pretty experienced then and bought her as a project, if only I'd forseen
how much heartache went into this horse. As soon as I got her I realised the
saddle that came with her was too wide and changed to my hunter show saddle.
Within a week she had bucking issues, had a trainer and vet look at her and
they told me it was attitude. So, I took six weeks and completely rebroke
her, she remained sound even through my first few ridings in a friends
western saddle. Went back to riding in my show saddle and she turned up
lame. Went through trainers and vets again, they told me once again it's
just attitude, this was in January. After another six weeks with no
improvement in her behavior I made one last appointment with my vet. He
stood me up and I decided it was time to go with a sport horse vet. I rode
her until April around the pastures in friends western saddles, her bucking
had gotten to the point that it was near impossible to stay on in an english
saddle. When my vet came in April she had moderate inflamation of her stifle
ligament and mild inflamation of the  muscles around the loin on the left
side, nothing major. We did the hand walk for two weeks and lunge for two
weeks, no canter. She remained sound.

For her first week of riding I did it bareback to give me a better feel, she
felt awesome. The same day we started back riding in saddle the boarding
barn turned out a big QH mare with my horse. This horse had just given a
little QH gelding a spinal injury from slamming her forehooves repeatedly
into his back, those owners had X-rays, MRIs, and thermographs done and they
threatened to sue if the horse wasn't removed from their pasture. The first
day she remained sound, this was a Thursday. The next day she was lame on
her right hind, and slight soreness over her loins, so I requested her to be
stalled.

The next day I was out was a Monday, I headed out after work. I can still
remember like it was yesterday. She was in a back corner stall, I walked in
her stall with a treat and her halter. Her neck was strait up and she was
standing with her feet way out, real spradle legged. I tried to put her
halter on, chalked it up to sore muscles from being stalled. Got her out and
saddled her up, my vets instructions were to ride her no matter how lame she
was for two weeks and see if that helped. She was incredibly headshy, Made
it about 50' and she went down out from under me, I bailed at the last
minute. Got back on and she did it again. So I got off and took her back to
the barn, pulled my tack and put a lunge caveson on her. She went down twice
on the lunge, I was nearing panic.

I went out to the barn twice that night to check on Star, the next morning I
called my vet. He came out Wednesday of that week and said she had mildly
impaired Neuro findings, did the blood test for EPM. He told me spinal
injuries are uncommon, etc.. Scheduled a chiro visit for her that week.

The farm hand caught me at the local gas station, we both passed through
there every evening, he was waiting on me. I knew him pretty well, and
trusted his opinion. He followed me out to my truck and told me that the new
mare in Star's pasture had reared and slammed her shod hoves down onto Star
until she went down, and it took Star a few minutes to get back up. I
mentioned it to my vet and he dismissed that as nothing.

After a year of not being able to keep this horse sound for more than two
weeks I was at the end of my rope and going to retire Star when the owner of
the practice I was using wanted to take one last look at her. He looked at
her with a thermograph and palpated her back, asked me if my saddle fit and
if she'd had any trauma to her spine. I told him I'd had my saddle fitted
twice and that she'd not had any in a year. We got my saddle out and looked
and the panel's were 1/2" difference in thickness from right to left.

She showed symptoms of spinal damage and muscle problems from the ill
fitting saddle and the trauma from the horses hooves. He told me there was
no hope for ever having her sound, but we've been sound for one year and two
months next Tuesday. She's not quite back to the point before her injuries,
but we were doing flying changes last week, and when she was in shape late
last fall were doing lead changes every other stride and spins and
rollbacks.




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