I received this email from a woman with a filly with EPM:
Quote:
I have a young 15 month old filly who has just been diagnosed w two different EPM protozoa. She's at the University of Georgia Vet School Clinic right now, and they started treatment this week w Marquis and Banamine, which she will get for 4 months.
I know that the EPM protozoa attach themselves to the spinal cord in the neck, causing lesions ... and these lesions can cause permanent neurological damage. The Marquis kills off the protozoa, and the Banamine is an anti-imflammatory to keep the inflammation reduced as the dead protozoa are flushed out of her system. Other than daily doses of Vitamin E (a neurologic / spinal cord / nerve protectant) they are not giving her anything else. I will pick her up and bring her home sometime next week, and continue her treatments at home.
Here's a little history >>
When she was 2 or 3 months old (early summer 2009), she was knocked down and stepped on by a mare at the breeding farm where she was born. Her breeder saw that happen, and her Ataxia (neurological imbalance and unsteadiness) started immediately. She called her Vet to come out, and he drew the blood work for EPM, which came back as a "weak positive". They gave her the 60 day treatment with Marquis, and she showed signs of improvement. But the question was never really resolved as to whether her imbalance issues were from the EPM, or from being stepped on. I bought her "as is" with a huge price reduction, at the end of the summer 2009 and she was shipped from Illinois to my place in January of 2010. Its about a 14 hour drive (??) and when she got here, she was down in the trailer, and subsequently down in my paddock for another 36 hours. (Just recently, I found something online about how trailering / hauling EPM horses compromises their immune systems and makes them worse !!!) My Vet gave her Butte and Banamine, and she got up on her own. It was a snowy icey winter, and my paddocks are not the smoothest in the world, and she kept slipping and hurting herself. I built a small paddock in my front yard (the most level piece of ground I have) and moved her into that ... but still, when she would try to turn around, she'd go down on her butt. I moved her to a boarding stable early in the early summer and she improved immediately -- being able to run, brake herself to a stop, and cut corners without wipping out. But still you could tell she was not 100% okay, so I wanted X rays -- thinking she had an old injury from when she was stepped on. Could not find a Vet w portable X ray equipment, so I got a referral and made an appointment at U of GA. Down there, they diagnosed her w Wobblers or EDM, w an Ataxia grade of 3/4, and told me that the norm was to euthanize horses who were a grade 2/3 -- a full grade level better off than SenSee. They did NOT think she had EPM, but AT MY INSISTENCE, they drew the bloodwork and sent it to UC Davis. It came back last week as a "strong positive" with the 2 different protozoa. They started the Marquis/ Banamine treatment at once, but are still painting a very bleak picture for her future, telling me that the Marquis will NOT take her to the point of total healing -- that it will only "stablize" her condition, by killing the protozoa that she has in her body, but that the spinal cord damage from the leasions will never go away ... ...... so .... Im hoping and praying to find something that will help eliminate the lesions on her spinal cord -- and anything that I can do to boost her immune system, while she is on the Marquis treatment, and beyond. Any input would be a huge blessing for my little SenSee. She's too sweet and too young and too beautiful to be going thru this -- and I will NOT give up on her without fighting like a crazed wild woman.