Well unfortunately my boy developed epm and we are in the middle of treatment. It’s mainly affecting his left hind, and he received two IVs(two weeks apart due to scheduling conflicts between my job and the vet) and he is on sulf/tmp/pyr powder daily and we are about to start his second month of that med. After the first IV he got really bad then made a full rebound at exactly two weeks(no symptoms at all), then we got the second IV and several days later he was having issues again. Is it normal for them to worsen after each treatment? I’ve added equine omega’s 10,000unit vitamin e supplement for about a month now. He’s out 24/7 on a sloped paddock, so he’s still moving around as best he can. I don’t know if there’s much more I can do except wait it out.
I only have experience with EPM with my one gelding. He was at the trainers when it started…his issues were mostly behavioral…though he did start having issues balancing behind for the farrier and swapping leads.
We treated with Protazil for a month. I wanted to treat longer, but two vets didn’t think we needed to. About 2-3 weeks after stopping the drug he relapsed back (behavior and hind end weakness). I put him back on it for another 3 months (vets didn’t argue about continuing to treat after that). I then switched to 2x week dose, and now 1x week dose. There is a good article about using that as a maintenance dose for prevention of relapse.
So far he seems to be doing okay with that. But we definitely had some ups and downs for a few months. My guy also had an acute Lyme infection at the same time. He’s an overachiever! LOL
lol, this seems to be a theme for me, when I got my first dog he got parvo instantly(he was 8 months old so it was unexpected), so now I guess I have to pay dues with my first horse. I’ve already made up in my mind that we’ll continue a full 3 months with the oral med. The funny thing is I was a bit nervous about trailering him for the first time because I’ve never done it before but when I realized there was a problem I just about teleported him into the trailer and we were on our way.
Did you see any behavioral changes on the month-long Protazil treatment? After a couple weeks, my horse was…not “hot” exactly, but kind of bursting with strength.
Update, once again exactly two weeks after the iv he is back to normal. I guess he shed even more Protozoa after the second iv and had a small regression. I’m not going to get another iv at this point just finish up his oral meds.
Mine was definitely better…not hotter on the meds. He was pretty hot and obnoxious before treating (ie kicking out, spooking, balking, spinning…etc.). Once he got on the treatment, he settled back down and was back to acting like a normal horse for trail riding and not freaking out and having melt downs for no reason.
Do you mind my asking what the IV treatment was? I am always looking for information on treatment options that seem to work. There is still so much unknown about this disease.
I have a mare that had two months of marquis this spring and was doing better. However she recently started relapsing and we started Protazil last week. This is my third horse with EPM. In my experience, they can get worse during treatment. My understanding is that this is due to the inflammation from the protazoa dying off in their system. This varies by horse and by treatment. I did not notice it with Protazil when we used that on our gelding in 2019. I did notice it significantly when we treated a different mare with a round of Marquis last year. She became quite neuro between about days 12-21 of treatment. We gave her banamine for a week during the worst of the side effects and that helped a lot. We kept the current mare on equioxx during her marquis treatment and it helped to minimize the side effects.
I’ll look at paperwork when I get home, I’m not exactly sure which one he used.
Does no one use the Marquis treatment any more? Our horse had EPM in the early 2000’s and was treated with the Marquis for a month, had a full, back-to-use recovery.
We did catch it very early, just a couple NQR things on this horse we knew so well. Doc said try it for a week when husband balked at the cost. “If it will help, horse should show signs of improvement by the end of the week.” Husband as Farrier, had only seen the sudden-onset type EPM, with going from normal to staggering in a few hours. Our horse was nothing like that!! So he took up Doc’s recommendation, we will try it for a week. Along with that, horse was to be kept quiet, no riding or driving work.
There WAS a real improvement in attitude, not grumpy anymore by the time seven days went by! Horse was again greeting us when we came into the barn! More wanting to be with the herd, instead of being alone in the field near them. We continued the treatment for the whole month and he seemed to be back to himself. Doc said put him back to work, he is healed or not healed. We came up with some therapy exercises to strength the slight weakness in one lead, went back to flexion with head and he came around with DD keeping him ridden. He was back 100% in a couple months. Husband said “You learn something new every day!” We thought the treatment price of the Marquis was well worth it!!
Again, we caught it VERY early, horse just was not himself. Husband thought age and hard usage had caught up with him. I had been reading MANY posts on COTH about the different ways EPM could present, so I wanted horse tested along with checking for wear-and-tear of age. Doc gave horse a full check over, watched him go, said horse could pass a PPE. Doc saw nothing off about him. Did a blood test anyway, sent us home with the Marquis. Doc said the spinal test was VERY expensive and almost always got blood contamination, so you had to pay for a SECOND test! Plain blood test would show if protazoa were in horse’s circulation. Inexpensive way to find out.
Doc said then, any horse out grazing in the State is probably carrying the protazoa, just not showing signs. He said MSU Vet school could not find a herd in Michigan not carrying EPM, including Doc’s own herd of very expensive Arabians, for running a study!!
Doc called when he got test results showing horse had EPM protazoa in the blood. He said he never would have guessed by watching him move.
It was iv diclazuril.
Edit: I probably would have looked into marquis but I kind of squeezed my way into a vet visit the same day he started showing symptoms, I literally showed up and they sedated and administered the meds and the doc had to head out to a farm call a state over.
Thanks for checking! I was just curious because I’m always trying to learn more about treatments.
I treated my gelding in March/April and we used Marquis. He was back to himself following the 30 day treatment.
It is my understanding that Marquis only treats one variety of the epm protozoan. If your horse only has that one it wl work. We used lavamasol and oragen successfully and it was much much cheaper than Marquis
