One of my students has a horse whom I have questions about. I am encouraging her to get the UC Davis test. This horse has been labeled as problematic buy some other trainers and I think we should rule out this condition. Anyone care to share? And what about diet as Treatment… How did that work out for you?
I have a PSSM2/MFM horse. We began treatment a month ago. So far the decline has been arrested but no improvement. I’m scared for the outcome honestly…
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Type 1 is pretty different from Type 2, but P1/P1 is no fun at all
What breed? What symptoms?
Diet as management for P1/n tends to work pretty well, even if the horse can’t perform at a high level of work
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It would help to know what the symptoms are in this horse that leads you to think PSSM1 ?
I was having some issues with my gelding ( QH) and wanted to be sure so I sent his samples in to UC Davis.
Well worth the $45 to know for sure what it is or isn’t.
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My mare was diagnosed with PSSM2/MFM in September 2023. With diet/exercise management, she felt better pretty quickly but it took until December/January for her to really get her groove back and then a couple of more months until we could really get to work. This past weekend, we showed (dressage, third level) for the first time in 2 years, and she felt great. Hang in there!
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Mine was diagnosed before we knew there were different variants (it was still called EPSM). At the time, all we could do was change the diet and management, and since both were safe for non PSSM horses I didn’t bother testing. I’ve had his management figured out for many years, so there was never a need to test, and I didn’t bother. I didn’t keep up with all the new research either, so I don’t have a guess as to which type he has.
I was doing almost everything right at the time, so my changes weren’t huge. My horse was getting a single closed handful of ordinary horse pellets on days I was at the barn, ridden 5-6 days a week, and kept outside full time. I was finding him hard to get moving when I rode, but not because he didn’t want to. He was happy to go along with what I asked, it was like he just couldn’t move out at the beginning. Doubling his pellets to two closed fistfuls made things worse.
He did have low selenium and vitamin E, so the vet started with a shot once a week for three weeks, then had me give him a supplement in his feed. I did the no carb, oil diet change - which looked like molasses free beet pulp and alfalfa pellets with oil, and a general vitamin/mineral supplement and the selenium/E. I started severely restricting his treats at that time as well.
I started the new diet at the end of November, struggled through December and early January worse than ever before things started to improve. By the time we went to a clinic in April, I had a different horse. His hindquarters muscle soreness completely disappeared once we got through the feed change. At the time many horse had a sort of mini relapse in the 4-6 month range post diet change. My horse didn’t experience that, he just kept getting better.
It was far from smooth sailing after that. It took a few years to get everything dialed in, and I kept learning new triggers and how to handle some day to day stuff differently. For example, if you go to ride and your horse feels NQR you might stop the ride and give them a day or two off, or just do a light ride to see if anything changes. That would make things worse for my horse if the NQR was due to excess glycogen. I had to put my mean on and make him work anyway. After many years I did learn what excess glycogen NQR felt like and could be pretty sure if that was the case.
My horse decided he wasn’t eating oily beet pulp and alfalfa pellets, fortunately around the time that feed manufacturers were beginning to offer appropriately low NSC feeds. I was able to find something he could and would eat.
I think he was around 6 at diagnosis, and he’s 26 now. Honestly it’s not something I have to think about much any more. It’s just become the way he needs to be managed. I only really have to be careful when looking for a new barn and dealing with new caregivers to ask the specific questions about things that could cause issues.
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I full time care for a mare with PSSM1
Symptoms that led to testing for the diagnosis were grass intolerance, horrendously tense if got cold and wet, a couple of full on tying up episodes due to the aforementioned grass and cold and a complete inability to canter.
She is managed by keeping her warm and dry with (over) rugging, an almost grass free diet - kept on a track system, a low starch diet with additional vitamin e.
Canter is still like riding a camel, but she can do it now, otherwise she’s a happy little soul who hasn’t had a tying up episode in the last five years on this management.
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