Equiseq

If you posted this on pssm group on Facebook, they would tell you your horse has a undiscovered variant that Paul is working on………

But have u tested for epm lymes? Vit e and selenium? Did you do a muscle biopsy? Have you tested for imm/my? That can be done thru animal genetics or uc davis, hair test like testing for pssm etc.

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Yup!
I’m not in the US so some of the suggested options aren’t relevant, but had full blood panel inc Lymes. Did not go down the biopsy route as too invasive.
It actually became very apparent that, whatever else was going on with his muscles, he had DSLD - signs had all been there but only confirmed on secondary scans from a specialist vet.
Broke my heart and he was PTS last year as he started losing his hind legs completely.

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Ahh. Yea dsld is such a poor outcome. :confused:

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Michigan State University is researching DNA genetic testing and does not recommend it as of 2020 with no updates.

https://cvm.msu.edu/research/faculty-research/comparative-medical-genetics/valberg-laboratory/type-2-polysaccharide-storage-myopathy

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Here is some more information on the University of Minnesota work.

My understanding of the EquiSeq work is that it is research/experimental and may not pan out at all and there is no treatment except diet and each horse responds differently to diet choices. However, it looked intriguing and sounded like it might be useful information someday or where to start with diet. My horse was looking pretty bad and at that point, I wanted information.

Best of luck. These hard to pin down symptoms are really difficult to go through.

This is my mare having an episode. I filmed this to show to my vet. She is severely exercise intolerant and cannot hold the canter. It’s another terrible disease and the problem is, it looks an awful like colic, except it’s exercise induced and she never looks at her belly. How many horses are misdiagnosed as having colic episodes when in fact they actually have pssm?

Interestingly enough she can hold her canter if you just canter her the moment you get in the saddle. You can’t do a slow warmup and then try cantering. It’s just not going to happen. She feels okay for about 5-10 minutes. By 30 minutes of exercise she starts moving stiffly and tripping in the hind end. Her career as a trail horse is probably over unless by some miracle she comes back from this. At 18 years old, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Now I’m trying to decide on the best retirement situation for her.

This is a more recent video:

This is an older video showing her difficulty with the canter:

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I had a horse in training who was just like this, and progressed to explosive episodes as training continued. The episodes didn’t connect to anything specific or replicable in the training regimen with the exception of the canter and downward transitions of any type. We did various things within the training to try to sort out the problem, and I finally decided that perhaps we were dealing with PSSM. We had a full lameness workup done by a specialist, and his conclusion was that we were, in fact, facing PSSM. He sent hair to UC Davis for testing for PSSM 1, and that was negative (it was of particular concern given that the horse was an unregistered QH). We then sent blood to Equiseq for testing, and he came back positive for P2 and Px. Neither of us (owner and trainer) have a lot of faith in anything which is not peer-reviewed and independently tested, but the biopsy route was pretty much unavailable to us in Western Canada in the midst of a heat wave, so we tailored his diet and exercise to those recommended for PSSM2 positives, and within a month he was happy, forward, and cantering normally. The Equiseq test only verified what we and the specialist had already concluded, and helped to some degree with the dietary considerations. One of the biggest changes was the inclusion of forced exercise every day, even though he had access to ample turnout. Longeing, hand walking, or riding every day is really helpful.

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Most of these horses with pssm need forced exercise even if they are turnout. Only turn out set up that I believe that is actual helpful is if they are on acres and acres or track system where they have to continue to walk to get there next hay net or water. But a lot don’t have ability to do that me included. Then a lot of pssm horses can’t have pasture so the acres and acres turnout may not be doable. So they get out in dirt lots that vary in sizes but even if big they don’t move enough bc hay is on one place water is right there and there on dirt. Even doing enrichment things like many hay bag all over or treat balls still don’t do enough so forced exercise on top of being out is what usually is what’s needed. Sadly so many people don’t have time or don’t make time or don’t like to be out in bad weather or cold to do it.

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