Fudge’s EPM Rehabilitation

In the same vein as “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til its gone,” you don’t know how UNHEALTHY your horse is until you’ve seen him get better.  It took six months for me to realize how sick the horse had been when we bought him.  It has now been one year since he completed treatment for EPM, and I think we might be about topped out. 

The natural trimmer, Dawn Willoughby commented on him when she was out in February.  The vet and the dentist commented on him when they were out earlier in March.  WOW! This horse looks great.  His coat is exceptionally glossy without oil or silicone.  His eyes are bright.  He trots out with a twinkle in his eye (and mischief in his head).

FUDGE is feeling better!

It has taken one full year for this horse to turn around.  Good nutrition, no stall time, low stress, and trimming his feet.  I am not as worried about a relapse now.

If you are dealing with EPM, you need to realize how low your horse’s immune system is.  Your horse is broken.  Take the time to fix him before you plan your next outing/show/hunt.  It will take longer than you believe.  It will take longer than your vet is willing to tell you.  It takes more than one month of FDA drugs, nutrition, trimming, and money.  It takes time.

I’m about as late with this post as I usually am with the Christmas cards each year.

The quick update is that Fudge is slowly getting better, but is not ready for prime time yet.  When ridden on dry level ground, he doesn’t have any mis-steps.  Taken out in a slick mud farm field, his rear end is all over the place.  He has learned to compensate for the loss of feeling and proprioception in his rear feet - to some degree.  When you add in terrain that is tougher than usual, he can’t compensate for it.  We are riding him for short walks to try to build up his muscles.

I just trimmed Fudge today, and his feet are looking better.  The shape is getting round, the sole is becoming concave, and the thrush is better. 

We have added another type of slow feeder to the paddock, and the three horses really seem to like these.  I’ll get pictures up soon.

When we purchased Fudge in January, his papers were ‘accidently’ left at the broker’s home both times we went to test ride him.  This raised a small red flag, but we would have the papers before purchasing the horse, so I let it slide.  I was looking for a particular attitude and demeanor in the horse, more than the breeding.  We did ask about the HYPP issue, not having seen the papers.

As things began to unravel with the health of Fudge in the first week of ownership, we were focused on finding the problem.  It wasn’t until the EPM blood test came back positive, and the broker said, “Your horse, your problem,” that we began to get concerned about who Fudge really was.  If the broker had been less than honest about the health of the horse, his demeanor, and pecking order, did we even have the horse listed on the papers?

I pulled out the papers again, and noticed that the broker ad had listed the horse as black, even when the papers had shown him as brown.  By this time it was May, and Fudge had shed out to a Bay.   Hmmm.  The diagram for white markings showed white on thee legs, Fudge has a small amount of white on the fourth.  The white on one leg was not quite right according to the diagram.  Hmmm.  Hmmm.  If Fudge was not the QH on the papers, who was he?  Did we care?  The short and long answer were YES.  We already knew that Fudge’s true personality was much different than the horse that we thought we were buying.  Once we killed the protozoal infection, his level of energy came up, and he is not the best match for my daughter.  What if Fudge was a HYPP positive horse?  We needed to find out.

I called AQHA and ordered a DNA test.  It took about 4 weeks to arrive.  It sat on my desk until the nagging questions began again.  I sent in the hair sample, and in about three weeks AQHA called.  We do have the horse bred and named IMA FUDGEAHOLIC TOO.  He has no Impressive in his line, so he cannot have HYPP.  Along the way we have also learned that the AQHA papers for many horses are ‘not quite right’.

I took Fudge for a third, short test ride since January, to gauge his improvement.  He is slowly getting better, but still trips often.  I have videoed the rides, and on review of the last one, noticed another reason he might be tripping.  More changes are coming for Fudge.  Stay tuned.

A friend and knowledgeable horseperson stopped by the other day.  We went out to look at the horses, and she was concerned over the muscle atrophy on Fudge’s rump.  She said, “You’re letting this horse go to waste!  He has no muscle on the rear.  You need to get on and ride, ride, RIDE.  Build that muscle back up.”

I tried to gently suggest otherwise, but she wouldn’t hear of it.  Fudge looks like he is in good health, he feels good, and isn’t in pain.  Why would I not ride him?  My friend was trying to help with what she thought was a simple problem; muscle atrophy caused by non-use.  

Fudge’s atrophy is caused by a lack of connection between the brain and the muscle.  The nerve damage limits the ability of the muscles to move correctly, or for the horse to know when to move the muscle.  This is a very different issue than loosing muscle from lack of use.  Understanding this difference is important to rehabilitating the horse.

Rehabilitation must first work on the connection between the brain and muscle, until the horse has control of that body part.  Giving the horse 24-hour turnout to gently exercise allows him to use the muscles as he is ready, and for longer periods of time.  Slow ground work exercises will also help the horse activate muscles in a safe way.  Until there is connection between the brain and the muscle, building muscle mass may not even be possible.

One article suggests that nerve damage can be repaired at a rate of 1″ per month, up to one year.  After that time, the window of opportunity to reactivate the muscle is lost, and remaining damage will be permanent.  If the horse had EPM for a length of time, the extent of the nerve damage may be too wide, and the window too short, for the body to repair.  There are also anecdotal stories of spontaneous resumption of muscle awareness two years after EPM.  The key is realizing that recovery is a slow process.

During the horse’s time-off, muscle atrophy will certainly occur due to lack of exercise.  The safety of both horse and rider must be taken into account when deciding to resume riding, even at a walk.  Don’t let someone pressure you into ridding the horse if they don’t understand the reason for the muscle loss.  If you begin riding the horse before he is able to comply with commands, you set the stage for stress and relapse.  A horse that has relapased will have a much longer rehabilitation time than one that is given time off.

I have only ridden Fudge once since his diagnosis in January.  I was on him for five minutes in early April to test for deficits after two months of treatment.  At a slow walk he just seemed out-of-shape.  Slow trotting a wide turn, his rear end fell out and he stumbled badly.  Since then we have only hand walked him, and given plenty of turnout.

We are trying to engage his mind without stressing his body, through gentle ground training and desensitizing.  We have found that Fudge has had little exposure to bicycles, objects like tarps, or loud noises.  He seems more balanced at this point, so we loaded Fudge and the Mustang on the trailer for a very slow, 5-minute drive to the local park.  We were able to work  on stream crossing, standing for a sponge bath, and wooden bridge crossing.

It became very obvious stepping down from the bridge that Fudge does not know where his rear right hoof is, in relation to his body.  He hung half off the bridge, searching for the ground with that leg.  It may only have been a second in length, but it was enough to tell us that Fudge is not yet safe to ride.

On the way home we heard him take a misstep into the side of the in the trailer when we made a slow turn after a stop.  Fudge’s rehab is going to be much like the trip home…very slow, listening to the horse, a few mis-steps, and a lot time caring for, but not riding the horse.