EDM and other neurologic diseases in your horse

[majanick]

For anyone who is interested Free clinic at The Hampton Classic Horse Show.

“Equine Neurologic Disease - Is your horse Neurologic or Lame?”

Please join us for an informal seminar led by Dr. Amy Polkes, medical director of Antech Diagnostics’ Equine Division. Open to all, Tuesday, August 27 in the Der Dau/CWDRider’s Lounge following the last class in the Grand Prix ring (approx. 4 pm).

[beowulf]

@majanick

For anyone who is interested Free clinic at The Hampton Classic Horse Show.

“Equine Neurologic Disease - Is your horse Neurologic or Lame?”

Please join us for an informal seminar led by Dr. Amy Polkes, medical director of Antech Diagnostics’ Equine Division. Open to all, Tuesday, August 27 in the Der Dau/CWDRider’s Lounge following the last class in the Grand Prix ring (approx. 4 pm).

Will it be televised/recorded for those of us interested, but challenged by geography?

[IPEsq]

Thank you for sharing. A client’s horse got retired last year after about a year of chasing various problems. The normally very sweet and quiet horse definitely has a personality change that correlated to when some ataxia would show up. Spooking, bolting, bucking. Some days I couldn’t pick out his front feet. Some days he couldn’t back up. But then maybe wait 20 minutes and he’d be ok again. He was 14 at the time. I don’t know if it’s EDM or cervical compression because we also discovered that his neck X-rays looked horrible, and he’d always been a little hard to connect, a little heavy in front, sometimes would trip. Client needed to move for work to the east coast, and while our local vets were having me try to get him really fit for the journey (which made me cringe), I pleaded with the owner that she not ride and definitely not think of jumping him until she took a trip to New Bolton. They did not do a myelogram but just on regular exam said the horse needed to be retired. He is taking it a day at a time in the field. Some days he still doesn’t seem right in the head similar to an EPM horse, and so I wonder if on top of neck issues he might also have EDM, especially if you describe it as similar to dementia.

Thanks for for sharing your story.

[majanick]

@IPEsq I am so sorry to hear about your client’s horse. @beowulf and for any one else who may be interested the Free Seminar on neurologic diseases will be free livecasted on The Hampton Classic Horse Show website. It will be under the livefeed for the Grandprix field and it will be tomorrow at approximately 4:00-4:30 start time. Whenever that ring finishes with competition for the day. If there is also a videotapefor viewing at another time, which I am working on, I will share the link for that too.

[IPEsq]

I’d love to watch a replay if it can be videotaped.

[jetsmom]

Aly, what a lovely horse Sheldon was. Thank you for bringing this disease out into the open by sharing your story. I had never heard of it in horses. I had a German Shep with DM, but never heard of EDM.

[whoapony01]

Thank you so much for sharing.

I have a gelding I have suspected of having neurological issues for some time now. It has been exhausting (emotionally and financially) chasing down various lameness’s and rehabbing after time-off. Multiple vets and trainers have looked at him and I’m so tired of everyone telling me he looks fine. Finally one trainer thought there was something off, too, but we haven’t been able to pin anything down. For now, he’s happy enough living out in the field with his friends but I always wonder…

So sorry for everyone’s losses here, but I do appreciate hearing the stories (it helps me feel like I’m not so crazy…). I’ll definitely be looking more into this, as I’d never heard of EDM before.

[majanick]

Hi all,

Thank you for the kind comments about Sheldon. The horse show had trouble with the Live feed working but it was videoed and we are working on getting that uploaded soon. I will share the link once we have it. @whoapony01 there are internal medicine specialist you can call in who can tell you definitively if your horse is neurologic. The specialist who diagnosed Sheldon actually cost less per visit than my normal high profile show vet. Go figure. Anyway feel free to pm if you want vet reccs as my specialist literally consulted with every top neuro specialist in the country. I am so sorry for what you are going through and understand more than you will ever know. We are not crazy and a good owner knows before anyone else when something is not right.

[whoapony01]

@majanick

Hi all,

Thank you for the kind comments about Sheldon. The horse show had trouble with the Live feed working but it was videoed and we are working on getting that uploaded soon. I will share the link once we have it. @whoapony01 there are internal medicine specialist you can call in who can tell you definitively if your horse is neurologic. The specialist who diagnosed Sheldon actually cost less per visit than my normal high profile show vet. Go figure. Anyway feel free to pm if you want vet reccs as my specialist literally consulted with every top neuro specialist in the country. I am so sorry for what you are going through and understand more than you will ever know. We are not crazy and a good owner knows before anyone else when something is not right.

Thank you! PM sent