I have a 22 year old quarter horse that came up severly lame approx 4 weeks ago, constant rocking from foot to foot. Prior to the lameness he appeared slower than normal and laying down more often,at that point he was on turnout 100% of the time, and has been his entire life. Years ago he had an incident that was thought to be founder, but at that time he was on dry lot with no access to grain or anything, but was treated and recovered. Our vet assumed lyme disease and we treated with doxycycline syrup orally after an initial IV dose. His symptoms got worse to the point where he wouldn't stand more than a few minutes at a time. We treated for 3 weeks, then took xrays of hoofs, all showing nothing. He is now stall bound, laying 95% of the time My vet mentioned possible ESPM, but didn't want to do a biopsy yet. My horse started doing a little better as soon as we cut out the doxycycline syrup (high sugar content). His regular diet was 1/3# Strategy, 3 scoops Palatech (max dose for hypothyroidism) daily dewormer and merit equine mineral supplement. Severe winters here put them on grass hay (free choice) for about 7-8 months per year but he's turned out unless severe storms prevent it, pasture turnout on grass starts June first at very slow increments. He's overweight. So my vet did not want me to have anything other than hay and a small amount of strategy just to get him to eat his meds. Anything insight you can provide, would be helpful.

Laurie ; We've had a qtr. horse with a high lyme count and she's still not right after 3 years , but you should test to see what the count is , we tested ours 6 weeks after first 30 days of treatment and than every three months so we knew where her count was . We now only test her once a year, her count is so low that they consider it non-existent, But spend the money and get the test , have it sent to a good lab too , Cornell is where we had ours sent , Kentucky is good and I'm sure there's a good west coast lab . I'd get a blood workup done , if he's over weight it may be sugar (IR) that's causing the problem , but I'd be having a second opinion from another vet done . I'm not into having treatments done without testing first , it may cause more problems and hide the real cause . I'm sure Dr. Beth will answer this post , she's very good , listen to what she says . Good Luck .

One other thought for a horse that shifts weight while standing and lays down a lot is equine motor neuron disease (EMND)which is due to vitamin E deficiency, but EMND horses typically lose muscle rapidly once they show signs and so being overweight doesn't really fit there. Wouldn't hurt to give a high dose of vitamin E supplementation, at least 5000 IU vitamin E per day, though. I am still most worried about laminitis that may not be showing up well on radiographs. It can be particularly difficult to detect laminitis when the coffin bone sinks overall without rotating. Ask your veterinarian to send the radiographs out for consultation. Ask if you can increase the dose of thyroid medication, and try to add even just 1/2 cup oil per day to his feed to see if this makes a difference. Good luck, and do keep us updated.

Chance is still down most of the time. After 2 days with 1/2 cup of oil he had a really good day where he was up for about 4 hours that day, actually went outside and walked in the pasture a little bit ( no access to grass ). But the last few days he's back down most of the time. He gets up quickly when we plant his front leg, he knows we want him to get up. He did have the lyme test done which came back negative, I believe it was sent to a lab in Lansing, U of Michigan. He did seem to slightly improve after stopping the doxycycline syrup. He doesn't seem to respond at all to bute or banamine either. My vet did send the raiographs out for consult to a vet of the U of MN which she thought there might be a very slight rotation but not enough to cause him as much pain as he seems to be in. As far as another vet, we are extremely rural but not in a farm community, I am not sure how I would get a consultation here. I will start some research on EMND and see if it seems to fit. Any opinion on the blood test they do at U of MN for diagnosing EPSM? Thank you for your input.

Sounds like you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by increasing his oil intake gradually until he is getting about 2 cups oil per day. Worrying about his weight right now doesn't sound like the major issue! Glad to hear the radiographs were evaluated by an expert. As to the genetic testing at University of Minnesota, it will pick up about 75% of EPSM (what they call PSSM) Quarter horses, so negative results don't rule it out. Positive results are very specific, though. If his muscles don't seem to be wasting away rapidly EMND is less likely, but high doses of vitamin E (you can use the gel caps sold for people) can't hurt, either. Fingers and toes crossed that he starts to improve!