E.p.s.m

[rachelk]

Equine polysacaride Storage Myopathy

Just wondering whether anyone has heard of this condition?
In my search for ossifying myopathy and stringhalt
I found a really informative american site for draft horses and although i had never heard of this condition before my horse seems to display alot of the symptoms listed. The vet, Beth Valentine (who has done extensive research on the topic) suggests that horses suffering from EPSM are placed on a diet which aims to decrease starches, soluble carbs and grains and increase fat and fibre until approx 20 to 25 % of total calories of the horses intake are gained from fat.
Has anyone heard of any ill effects caused by feeding soy oil?
The site is at http://www.ruralheritage.com and is really worth a look!

[Bebe]

I have no personal experience of this although I did add 300ml of oil to my horses feed last winter to help her gain weight and she had no side effects from this and at one point I thought it possible that my horse could have EPSM, although we've since ruled it out.

I do try to feed in a similar way to the EPSM diet, without the huge amounts of oil though, simply because I think it is a healthy diet for horses (little sugar, lots of fibre).

There is a lot of info on the veterinary board at this site:
http://www.ultimatedressage.com/phpBB/index.php

[rachelk]

Thanks Bebe I'll check that site out:)

[Lgd]

EPSM is poorly recognised in the UK, although it is also sometimes referred to as PSSM over here. My friend's Fell Pony suffers from it but the hassle of the diet has been worth it.

Basically what happened with him is that he was competing in affiliated dressage (qualified for the Elementary freestyle finals in 1999) and was just starting Medium classes in spring 2000 when she started having what appeared to be behavioural problems with napping and refusing to do some of the lateral work which he had previously had no bother with. All the usual problems of saddle, teeth, musculoskeletal problems ruled out. To cut a very long story short he regressed to the point that by Spring 2002 he did a Prelim class HC and could not score even 50%.

I happened across some info on EPSM and big bells started to ring as it sounded a lot like him. His owner found as much info as she could about it and discussed it with our vet. The only 100% way of diagnosing it is by muscle biopsy and apparently EPSM horses can have problems with anaesthetics. The vet suggested trying the diet, give it 6 months and if it didn't work then at least it had been tried.

By this time he could not back up, had difficulty engaging the hind leg, was very stiff and resistant generally in all his ridden work. Would sweat with the smallest amount of work and had to be clipped all year round even though he did not have a particularly heavy coat. Grumpy and withdrawn in the herd. Difficulty in holding his hind feet up for farrier and even to have his feet picked out. Once we knew what to look for it was also noticeable that he was starting to develop 'holes' in his muscles. He would also have funny little attacks where he would tremble and be obviously not right in himself. Most often occured if he had been out all day once the grass was poor or if he had scoffed all his hay and stood for more than an hour without food. If he was given food it would resolve quite quickly. He also needed huge amounts of food to maintain his weight - and this from a pony who was previously restricted in his grazing because of excessive weight gain.

He is fed on alfalfa cubes, plus oil and VIT E & selenium supplement. Turn out as much as possible. Avoid tiring him excessively. Avoid letting him get cold.

After just 10 days on the diet there was a noticeable improvement, much less withdrawn, more relaxed. It took about 4 months to really see the full benefits but he is now coming back into full fitness. He is needing much less food to maintain his weight, muscled up again, has no problems with the farrier and he is working comfortably again at medium level without the tantrums. He has to warmed up very slowly and in the cold weather has to start with a fleece rug and quarter sheet on and then cooled down carefully and kept warm after work. If all continues to go well he may start competing again this year. The excessive sweating has stopped and from starting the diet in early summer he was not clipped until his winter coat came in fully in October.

We have discussed this now at some length and the one thing that has come up is - how many horses labelled with behavioural problems have this disorder, bearing in mind that he had all obvious (and many less obvious) physical causes ruled out and was well on his way to being labelled as a 'problem' horse.

It is also interesting that researchers are now linking ERS (equine rhabdomyolysis syndrome, azoturia) with the EPSM set of disorders and horses with ERS seem to respond well to the EPSM diet.

[Lucy J]

sorry to drag up an old thread, but how did this pony get on in the end? my mare has had similar issues and we have just started a high oil diet - she is not fed blue chip dynamic, hi-fi lite tiny bit of speedi beet and 1.5 cus of oil in each feed. the vet, after reading some info on EPSM thought it was worth trying diet before getting her in for bone scans to see of she has an Sacroillaic problem.

[Lgd]

Until about 4 weeks ago BJ was doing very well, back in full work and now working at Advanced level at home. His owner was planning to bring him out again this summer at Medium and Advanced Medium once we got to our new yard (we are her transport).

Best laid plans and all that :rolleyes: - nothing to do with the EPSM - he got into a fracas in the field and must have fallen badly. Vet reckoned he had injured his rear end and possibly trapped the sciatic nerve, unfortunately the pain has triggered a stress laminitis so he is on box rest and bute at the moment. The chiropracter has treated the back end (as best he can with the laminitis) to at least relieve the original cause. The Vet is coming to review him on Friday, although he is moving around the box a lot better and becoming quite cheeky again, and the pulses in the feet have diminished considerably.

[Lucy J]

hiya, sorry, not been on the board much. thanks for the reply, sorry to hear things not going well, our 4 legged friends can be such a liability, i hope hes on the mend now. ciara has been on her high oil diet as well as blue chip dynamic for her joints and seems to be doing much better.