A Tentative Diagnosis

So Monday I went out and free lunged Scarlet a bit. I wanted some videos of the tripping so I could watch them back at slow speed. Scarlet walked fairly good when leading him around so I may have allowed myself a small bit of hope that he was better. Trotting put that to rest. He was definitely reluctant to trot off and tripped several times while filming. I’m putting a couple of video links right below this paragraph and I’ll stick the rest at the bottom of the post so you don’t have to be inundated with videos if you do not want.

 

Since he was definitely still tripping and my inexperienced with lameness self couldn’t figure out what exactly was wrong, I decided we needed a vet visit. He needed to get floated and shots anyway so I wanted whatever the earliest possible appointment was. It turns out that that was Wednesday. So I was pretty happy to take the time off and make my schedule work with that.

After a horrible 48 hours of waiting and Scarlet seeming just fine besides not wanting to go faster (ie eating fine, walking well enough etc) Wednesday rolled around and the vet arrived. He listened to me explain what I had noticed and then had me take him to the round pen. As we headed over there, he had me trot away from him. Scarlet tripped a few steps into trotting and got his feet under him to continue on. But ever time he trips I swear my heart stops beating.

We made it to the round pen and he had me wtc both directions. Scarlet was reluctant to go faster but he definitely listened to me and did it. He tripped at the trot to the right. To the left, he looked really really odd at the canter. He was carrying his hind end so far inside so that all his legs were on different tracks.

The vet had us stop and he asked us a couple of questions while we walked back to the cross ties. Where had he lived? (Sacramento, central coast, here) Had he ever been on pasture? (yes) He had his vet tech trot him away and toward us. Then he had her walk him by us and he grabbed his tail and pulled. Scarlet’s whole haunches swung sideways and my heart dropped.

The vet explained that there was something neurologically wrong. He could have collapsed him if he wanted to as he didn’t have the ability to balance. He was interfering in his legs when moving and would lose sensation and couldn’t catch himself other times. What he believes he has is EPM. We took blood to do a full blood test and run the EPM test. The better test is a spinal tap but that is difficult to do as you have to put a horse under in order to do so. So most vets run off of blood tests and physical symptoms.

So we are now waiting to see what happens. The treatment is fiscally feasible for me, but not cheap ($900 for a month of treatment). The vet is pretty positive that EPM is the correct diagnosis (he has had lots of experience in his residency with EPM and its common in norCal horses). Its generally brought on via another immunocompromised state as the body can no longer fight as effectively. The odd weather we’ve been having (cold then unseasonably hot) could be the stress needed to kick it off.

I was feeling pretty good about having done what I could do last night after the vet trip and the ridiculous amount of research I’d read. But Thursday morning I was not feeling as good. I started crying while walking Scarlet around. I had no specific reason for it. Scarlet was still walking fine and he went on a walk around the property with me for ten minutes this morning. But I was worrying about how fast EPM can deteriorate. Its completely variable. Scarlet is pretty good right now and would likely fully recover with treatment if it is EPM. But if he changed quickly what do I do? What if it isn’t EPM? What if I could have caught it earlier? There were a few things thinking back that may have been symptoms of it (difficulty getting him to canter, tiny nicks in his legs that are likely from interfering but I thought were from moving him to a new pen, etc). I was feeling guilty about that and it just all… bubbled up. Luckily, Scarlet is experienced with dealing with my crying and we continued on our walk.

I think I will likely roller coaster over emotions for the next few days while we wait for the blood test. I’ve got a few tentative plans if he gets worse or if the blood test comes back negative. I have a logical limit to where I have to stop paying to figure out what is wrong. I’m just really hoping that the blood test comes back positive because I know what to do then and I’ll have a plan and a good possibility of full recovery. I’m keeping that mindset and making plans for rehab strategies and supplements to support him afterward. This keeps me in a somewhat more positive mindset.

So for now, I’m keeping a very close eye on my boy and waiting for the blood test results. Its great that I’m so close to the barn because going out multiple times a day is so much easier. Also, my friend Holly is checking on him when she goes out. I’m doing what I can. I just need to repeat that until another step opens up.

One sweet thing that happened was I was talking to my husband and thanking him for being so supportive during all this. And he responded “Scarlet if family too.” I just about sobbed myself to death right then and there.

Also, shout out to L. and Karen for being there for my texts and calls. And shout out to Stacie for answering all my questions about her experiences.

Here are the rest of the videos: