Hi all!
Just wanted top introduce myself and my horse.
Dancer is an almost 21 yr. old homebred appendix QH. He started showing symptoms of EPSM as a yearling (mainly dragging his hind feet) and progressed to unexplained back soreness and reluctance to back as a 2 yr. old, trouble cantering under saddle plus back soreness as a 3 yr. old along with a bit of stringhalt-like movement. My overall impression was some kind of general weakness in his hindend.

Also, after colic surgery in 1997 for an epiploic foramen entrapment, he started having what I thought to be mild colics. Although he seemed to respond unusually fast to banamine (usually 10 min. after IV and he was fine). I now believe these "episodes" to be muscle cramping and pain, just not a full blown tying-up episode.

I had several diagnosis over the years from EPM, EDM, loose stifles etc. None of these really seemed to hit home so under saddle I just did whatever he told me he could do. Which was actually quite a bit! He did dressage (eventually schooling elements of second but only showing at training where he would score 8s on gaits!), show hunters, eventing and foxhunting albeit all at a very low level. He eventually let me know he was uncomfortable jumping so we stopped that. Last year, he let me know that trailering was getting difficult so he stays home now.

When he was 13, I read about EPSM. I thought his symptoms corresponded so I emailed Dr. Valentine and started him on the diet, intending to do the muscle biopsy. He did improve on the diet but also gained quite a bit of weight. At that point, I stupidly talked myself out of a diagnosis of EPSM thinking that after all the years of trying to figure out what was wrong, this just seemed too simple.

I still kept him on a diet with some fat however. Shortly after this, he started having exercise intolerance during hot weather (mainly increased respiration). Vet was stumped but we started treating for inhalant allergies with little success. I even tried him on a feed designed to help horses with allergies. It was basically a ration balancer that was to be mixed with oats. Well, he crashed on this diet and began loosing weight, showing lameness in his front feet and even stumbled at canter and flipped over me!

I immediately went to a full EPSM diet of soaked beet pulp, oil and Buckeye gro-n-win. He rebounded quite well! This was March of 2006. I had the muscle biopsy done in April and he was a mild positive.

He has now been on the diet 2 full years. I've added alfalfa cubes to his mix and he is now getting 2 1/2 cups soy oil/day (he is approx. 1100 lbs.) He is doing super!! I noticed him trotting across the field the other day and my jaw dropped. I had not seen that springy trot for years! I had forgotten that he could move like that! And my farrier had no trouble trimming his hind feet last week.

He did start to have frequent muscle pain episodes again last fall and I believe he was being sensitive to the sugars in the grass. Since wearing a grazing muzzle, he has been fine.

And since he is a homebred, his parents? His dam was my TB mare and she showed no symptoms and died at age 24. His QH sire, I believe, did show symptoms. He was treated for both EPM and ulcers (colic/discomfort symptoms) later in his life (he lived to age 29). But no western blot was ever done to diagnose the EPM and he was not scoped for ulcers. He also had a history of tying up and difficulty cantering once he reached his teens. So my deduction was that he also had EPSM.

So thanks Dr. Valentine for all your help! I am still kicking myself for not pursuing the EPSM the first time around but I'm glad we are on the right track now.

Colleen, thanks so much for taking the time to tell Dancer's story, and to update me on his progress. This is great news, and stories like this can really help other horse owners and their horses. Keep up the good work, and enjoy him!

Thanks Dr. valentine!

One of the still puzzling aspects is that his exercise intolerance during hot weather has not decreased. Now, he is ok at rest (which was not the case a few summers ago) but still gets a high respiration during work. His respiration rate is now lower (about 30-40 breaths per min. versus 50-60 at the highest after only a few minutes of trotting and sometimes even walking) but he is still basically unrideable in warm weather.

Because it has gotten better, my thoughts were that it is connected to his EPSM, but I'm not sure. Any other thoughts from anyone?