My guy showed improvement within a month, but we waited two to bring him back into work.
I use the Emcelle Vit E. It’s about $122 per bottle, but I’m still only on my second bottle and we started him on it last October.
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I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope the ECVM info gave you some comfort, knowing there was really nothing you could have done since it’s a congenital defect. It’s really a heartbreaking malformation.
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Totally does. Thank you!
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they told me at NBC when I was there for a fusion for my wobbler that elevate liquid was the best absorbed vit e, followed by elevate maintenance powder. the liquid was vile and horse refused it.
Alamo recommended Emcelle, as did my regular vet. Elevate is much more expensive, but they’re both natural Vit E.
My horse gobbles it down. It smells like caramel corn!
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I’ve used Emcelle from time to time and have not had an issue with one not eating it. My picky eater will eat Elevate powder, but I’ve never tried the liquid. I will also feed him the Ultra Cruz natural E pellet.
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Update: about a month after we stopped the pred, my horse is angry again. He’s become a bully in the pasture once more - though not as bad as he was before the gabapentin - and he’s tripping and crossing his fronts again. I can’t confirm whether the tripping/crossing were reduced on the meds or if that was wishful thinking on my part, but the back soreness pretty much stayed the same.
I have the vet coming on Friday for something else, and I’ll chat with them about him. Maybe he needs a low dose of pred, or more E, or… something. I am getting to the end of my rope financially for him though, I just don’t think I can do $120 gabapentin every 3-4 weeks, plus pred, plus OSPHOS every few months, plus 10,000iu E, plus plus plus… for a horse that isn’t 100% sound or able to do anything.
Ugh.
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Oh, and he’s 3/4 lame on flexions on a bone spur in his hind fetlock. Which somehow is still the least of our problems.
I don’t know what I’m going to do.
Big hugs. I get it - while it would be nice for finances to never be a consideration, I think at some point weighing whether even with all of these therapeutic modalities, what kind of quality of life that is? Don’t beat yourself up or drive yourself to financial ruin. You’re in such a discouraging situation, you have my total empathy. 
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Thank you. I appreciate it.
I guess I’m struggling with him partially because… it feels weird if I were to put him down and bury him at this farm? I don’t own it, and have put others down at the vet school every time. It feels different. I’d be interested in a necropsy if only to see if there’s anything glaringly bad going on - but it feels unfair to haul him somewhere when he’s terrified to haul and does not do well in new places.
It’s really a tough place to be, since he’s fat and looks amazing and does run around looking sound and happy. But then he’s a witch to the other horses and definitely not “sound”.
Sigh. Horses.
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Sending you virtual support. It’s such a difficult position to be in.
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A good friend was in a similar boat last year and her vet said “I hope you know it’s ok to say ‘enough.’” Horse was a gorgeous TB who had many days when he looked ok enough at a glance but there was just no realistic fix in sight to keep him consistently comfortable, even in retirement, where behavior changes indicated he didn’t feel fine. You have my sympathy; it’s a sad and expensive road to be on but he’s lucky to have you.
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I think his neuro issues are your biggest problem, although of course constant back pain and other lameness isn’t fun. Most likely, that’s the reason for his personality and behavior swings. If his back pain didn’t change, I’d say forget the Osphos. Was he on Gabapentin with the Pred or did you stop when you added Pred? Perhaps you can manage the neuro pain with more meds, but I think unfortunately it’s getting to be time to make a plan for the end, as the neuro stuff seems to be progressing. I’m so sorry. You aren’t giving up…it’s not an illness with a cure. Did you ever image his neck? Do you even know how bad it is in there?
If you really want to haul him, you can talk to your vet about loading him up on medications to make it easier on him physically and mentally. Are there any clinics closer than the nearest vet school?
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Thank you. It feels a bit like giving up. I know what is likely coming, but it really is hard.
He’s stayed on 12 gabapentin 2x a day the entire time. Even taking him down to 10 2x/day makes him angry. And I agree on the OSPHOS. I thought his back improved, but I don’t think so. We xrayed his neck, and the vet said it looked a little weird (maybe some slightly flatter spots) but that they’d send the rads to a neurologist. I haven’t heard back.
The neuro issues are concerning. It’s hard, as this is the first not-currently-falling-over neuro case my BO and I have seen. We had a previous boarder with two gnarly EPM/founder/Cushings/generally trying to die horses that are both (somehow) still alive, mostly due to this vet getting creative. I have different standards for QOL, but I know my vet may be hesitating with the reality check since I’m a newish client. I don’t think they would push me to treat just to treat, but I know it can be hard to figure out where a new client is coming from.
There is a closer clinic. But the vet school is barely farther at 1.5 hours… ugh. I do have the option of taking him back to the retirement farm where he thrived previously, just to be sure it’s him declining and not… something I’m doing wrong? And I know for a fact that BO wouldn’t judge me in the slightest - and has dealt with weirdness like this enough to be very pragmatic.
Neuro things can present in so many different ways. I’ve seen some quite not right horses who are managing fine with limited expectations. I’ve also experienced dramatic personality changes and panic situations with horses who were stable for a long time until suddenly not. Even though it started out intermittent, they were not confident and not themselves. There are so many more variables and individual responses with neck stuff. What matters is that you know your horse, and you can see he is having difficulty and is not normal. Where you draw the line, though, is a personal decision, and that’s super difficult.
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Do you have anyone nearby who can do acupuncture and laser?
My ECVM horse was having neuro issues, but it turned out a lot of them were due to back spasms related to him holding himself oddly during shoeing (since he can’t balance with his neck like most horses).
We had a vet come and do acupuncture on his low back and all the symptoms went away. We now have her do acupuncture and laser on his low back the day after every shoeing, and so far, he’s come back to solid second level work.
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Maybe. The horse has historically HATED acupuncture and needles, and what little relief we thought we got from B12 acupuncture lasted… a week?
It’s the front end neuro symptoms that throw us off the most. He will cross the fronts and then graze around, barely uncrossing them in time to prevent falling over. I’m pretty sure I could shove him over if I wanted. Hand walking him is an exercise in spatial awareness, he’s a bulldozer and trips over nothing without a care in the world.
We switched turnouts around and he seems happier, we have even seen him grooming and playing with his new friends. But he’s sharky again, and sometimes a switch gets thrown and he goes after those same friends for no apparent reason. I wonder if he gets a zinger and takes it out on the neighbors.
Anyway. I’m not against trying something, and I’m even considering hiring an animal communicator (which I really don’t believe in, like at all, but horses make me a little insane apparently)…
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When he’s on the Gabapentin, is he actually pain-free or is he sedated? Either one could make him less sharky, and I have no idea how to tell which one it is myself.
I ask this because I think about this A LOT with my own weird horse. We had him on Gabapentin this spring as an experiment and initially he was lovely to ride, spook free! (Usually he is a turkey after the winter off 
) I ended up taking him off it because he got to the point where he was just stopping and nothing would make him go forward. His mind was pretty clearly on another planet. It got me thinking about how he is similarly great on Robaxin and I always wonder if it’s that he has no pain or if it’s the sedating effect of the Robaxin.
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I’ve been following this thread…and am both sympathetic and empathetic w the situation. I was just wondering… would Trazadone help? Or Tylenol?
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He blew through traz, though I have some. It didn’t seem to help him much but made him randomly explosive.
It seems that bute and Advil don’t do much to help, and he won’t eat them. I couldn’t even get him to eat salt in his food for a while - ended up bribing him with some yummy Senior feed.
I wonder if the improvement on the gabapentin is just because it is sedating him, but then again it IS supposed to help bone or nerve pain.
Anyway, I talked to my BO and we are on the same page as to considering if this is fair to him. The only treatments left that I haven’t tried are surgical and he doesn’t tolerate stall rest. Well, I haven’t shockwaved him but the neuro stuff and the bone spur aren’t likely to be helped by that. My vet thinks the front end weirdness isn’t likely caused by his back, but his back may be springing from the front end somewhat. If I thought it would help, I’d try a round or two.
He used to be sweet, if quirky, and was a cute hunter mover. Now he moves like a pogo stick reindeer and is a bit of a witch. He’s also gone from bottom of the totem pole to The Boss in every pasture, which may not be related but is interesting. He’s so backsore that grooming him makes him buckle, despite asking for back scratches from his pasture mates recently.
I know for a fact that this won’t go over well with my mother. So that’s not helping the situation, and I feel like a bit of a failure. I did realize that this horse has been clutzy and had a trip in him since I bought him, which we chocked up to an intolerance for long toes. I wonder if he’s always been a little NQR and age has caught up with him, even though he’s only 12
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