Sidewinder disease

[tricia1029]

dorsal root ganglion dysfunction or sidewinders

My horse has also been diagnosed with sidewinders or a dorsal root ganglion dysfunction. According to my vet this diagnosis originated at Cornell and received the colorful name as the horses eventually lose control of their hindquarters which swing from side to side like a snake.

My vet has been treating my horse with prolotherapy as well as pentosan with some gains, he can move much more comfortably. However, his gait is still not normal. If anyone else has received this diagnosis and has any other treatment options, I would love to hear. Thanks.

[MelantheLLC]

Maybe google doesn’t know everything after all.

[Simkie]

@tricia1029;6238046

My horse has also been diagnosed with sidewinders or a dorsal root ganglion dysfunction. According to my vet this diagnosis originated at Cornell and received the colorful name as the horses eventually lose control of their hindquarters which swing from side to side like a snake.

My vet has been treating my horse with prolotherapy as well as pentosan with some gains, he can move much more comfortably. However, his gait is still not normal. If anyone else has received this diagnosis and has any other treatment options, I would love to hear. Thanks.

Just curious–how did you rule out other causes of neurological lameness? How did you come to this particular diagnosis?

[deltawave]

Now I’m curious as well. Most disorders in this family are treated with corticosteroids–has that been tried?

[Rick_Burten]

[QUOTE=deltawave;6238127]
Now I’m curious as well. Most disorders in this family are treated with corticosteroids–has that been tried?[/QUOTE]
Depending on where the corticosteroids were injected, might they not, by some, be considered prolotherapy(which some of us oldtimers would recognize as what ‘back in the day’ was referred to as counter-irritant stimulation, either external or internal, to aid in healing ) Hmmmm, I guess prolotherapy sounds more impressive and can be billed at a higher rate… Some of even referred to it as [external or internal] blistering… IIRC, last I checked, its [general] efficacy was still in question.

[deltawave]

I thought prolotherapy was the injection of something to purposely promote inflammation, sort of a counter-irritant smart bomb? Corticosteroids would be antithetical to that premise.

Generally speaking for neuronitis/demyelinating/nerve root inflammatory disorders we’re talking systemic steroids, not injected at a particular site.

[Rick_Burten]

@deltawave;6238810

I thought prolotherapy was the injection of something to purposely promote inflammation, sort of a counter-irritant smart bomb? Corticosteroids would be antithetical to that premise.

Well, DUH!(smacks head against desk…) You are right and I suffered a major, though hopefully temporary, brain flatulence episode :eek: :o

[deltawave]

Where would one stick the needle for THAT disorder? :lol: :winkgrin:

[Steph7768]

My horse was diagnosed back in the fall of 2011. My vet had me give my horse previcox which is an anti-inflammatory for 2 months, once a day. She also had me give my horse pyrimethamine/sulfathiazole for two months in case it was something infectious. I also was recommended by my vet to start giving my horse Platinum Performance equine wellness 1 scoop, two times a day. I was also told to walk him at least 4 times a week for 15 mins. Platinum Performance has made an amazing difference. My horse used to have to lean against the wall to hold himself up, and I couldn’t even pick out his feet with out him almost falling over. Now after having my horse on the equine wellness supplement he walks normal 90% of the time. He is able to roll and lay down (when he was sick he was unable to lay down or roll at all). I turn him loose in the arena and let him do his own thing, he will roll atleast 3 times, buck, and full on gallop around the ring, he even free jumped.

[deltawave]

Anti-inflammatories
Antibiotics
Passage of time
Supplement

Why do you give all the credit to the supplement, particularly?

[Simkie]

@Steph7768;6245381

My horse was diagnosed back in the fall of 2011. My vet had me give my horse previcox which is an anti-inflammatory for 2 months, once a day. She also had me give my horse pyrimethamine/sulfathiazole for two months in case it was something infectious. I also was recommended by my vet to start giving my horse Platinum Performance equine wellness 1 scoop, two times a day. I was also told to walk him at least 4 times a week for 15 mins. Platinum Performance has made an amazing difference. My horse used to have to lean against the wall to hold himself up, and I couldn’t even pick out his feet with out him almost falling over. Now after having my horse on the equine wellness supplement he walks normal 90% of the time. He is able to roll and lay down (when he was sick he was unable to lay down or roll at all). I turn him loose in the arena and let him do his own thing, he will roll atleast 3 times, buck, and full on gallop around the ring, he even free jumped.

How was your horse diagnosed? How did you rule out other causes of neurological lameness?

Did you evaluate blood Selenium levels prior to treatment? If a vitamin supplement has been used with good effect, my first thought would be that the horse was deficient in Se.

[Steph7768]

When I have my horse on preicoxx it didn’t make a difference. Two weeks after giving my horse platinum performance I could see a huge difference in how he was standing and walking.

[Lieslot]

Was EMND ruled out? Was a muscle biopsy done?

Like Simkie mentioned, adding Se (if deficient) can make a different, so can adding a multi vit/min with Vit E.

When we biopsied my horse, he showed some minor damage similar to horses with EMND. With EMND it’s often thought to be very skinny horses with serious hindend wobbles, but eventhough not described in literature, there are lesser forms.
That being said my horse’s bloodlevels tested high for Vit E, doesn’t mean his muscles thereby use the blood E correctly. But not enough research been done in that area to speculate further.
My horse still can’t pick up his hindfeet and never will be able to, the true nature of his condition will in part remain a mystery, hence I’m very interested in this disease and sure wished there was some literature about it out there.

@tricia1029

My horse has also been diagnosed with sidewinders or a dorsal root ganglion dysfunction.

Hmmm, really would love to know more about this, may need to aks my vets. Is that similar to a spinal neuropathy in that case? (which is the best guess we have with my creature in the backyard).
Tricia, which symptoms is your horse showing?

Previcox/Bute neither does much for my boy either, Gabapentin does to some extent. Maybe, just maybe, a year of omega3 from KER, has upped his comfort, but wouldn’t bet my head on it.

[Steph7768]

I would recommend for you or your vet to take a video of your horse walking and send it to someone at Cornell.

They said we could do a bone scan for my horse but its very difficult. We would need to trailer him and thats too hard on them if they can barely hold their hind end up. So we decided not to do a bone scan.

We tested him for a vitamn E dificiency, it came back normal.

[Lieslot]

Actually I may very well, have tons of videos and vet is very familiar with the vets at Cornell since she worked there.
Uni of Minnesota reviewed his vids & biopsies in the past with no answers other then EMND & bonescan was inconclusive.
However my horse doesn’t sound as bad. He’s trailerable, albeit it makes him uncomfortable.

So did your vet have any answer to what causes it in the first place? I’m a little confused as to the cause, are we talking trauma or purely nutritional deficiency?
Sounds like it’s a diagnostic of exclusion, since we excluded everything possible so far… maybe I have my answer.

[Steph7768]

We don’t know what caused it, she said it could of just been old age. I don’t know if anyone really knows what causes it.

I don’t know how to exactly explain this, but does your horse walk with his hip out wards towards one side? Or does one of his hind legs almost slant inward towards the other?

[Lieslot]

Okay, medical folks, help me out.
I’m probably looking at this too simplistic.

Wobblers = neurological issue due to compression in the ‘cervical’ spine only, correct?

What if a similar compression happens in thoracic, lumbar or sciatic spine of the horse? What is that called? Could that be dorsal root ganglion dysfunction?
It’s pretty tough to get a diagnostic of that.
As for treatment, the cervicals can be injected, but not the thoracic, lumbar nor sciatic vertebraes, too deep in the body.

[Lieslot]

I don’t know how to exactly explain this, but does your horse walk with his hip out wards towards one side? Or does one of his hind legs almost slant inward towards the other?

No, it’s barely noticeable, but he is in pain day to day.
He does go 3-legged lame at times for short periods of time, at those moments you’d think he has a hoof abcess or fractured leg and then he goes back to walking normal.

I’d just love to know if sidewinders is a neuropathy, if so there is no treatment other then painrelief.

[deltawave]

Dorsal root ganglia are OUTSIDE the spinal canal and deal with sensory nerves only, not motor nerves.

Compression of the motor nerves (like with canal compression) will cause weakness, paralysis, etc. while a problem with the sensory nerves will demonstrate good strength but lack of sensation (probably what you and I would feel as a limb “falling asleep” or some such) or PAIN (very much like with shingles) and typically the dorsal root ganglia only control one segment of the body in a “stripe” known as a dermatome.

Compression of the thoracic spine is really rare since it is strong and not very mobile. Lumbar nerve compression would give the equine equivalent of sciatica, with hind-end only motor problems. Down there there are also no dorsal root ganglia, so sensory and motor nerves run closer together.

I have a hard time reconciling dorsal root ganglion problems with hind end weakness/ataxia, but I haven’t put my mind to the neuroanatomy too much, either. But I am thinking more about this topic (dorsal root ganglia) as a possible explanation for my new horse’s weird behavior when I bought him–he pulled back HARD in the trailer as we were loading him, breaking the rope, and when he got off the trailer some hours later he was really weird–didn’t want to walk on concrete, super hypersensitive to flies on his neck, rearing, etc. I do wonder if he tweaked his neck/T-spine in the process and gave himself a “stinger” (old football term). He’s on a course of dexamethasone now and I’m anxious to see how he responds when he’s back under saddle. :yes:

[Steph7768]

I was told there is no treatment for sidewinders.