xwaitandsee_eventing
08-07-2005, 01:14 PM
For anyone who read one of my first posts here as a member of CC, you know I mentioned my horse has a condition called EPSSM, or Equine Polysachaaride Storage Myopathy.
Have any of you ever seen/had/heard of a horse tying-up? For those of you who do not know, tying-up is excruciating cramps usually in the hindquarters and loins of the horse in question. Because the horse is in such terrible pain, they begin to sweat like crazy (think super fat pony asked to do a four star event sweaty), their breathing becomes quick and rather shallow, their urine becomes a dark yellow, they are reluctant to move, sometimes they tremble; and in extreme cases, the horse simply collapses. In March, my horse severely tied up. Not to a point where he collapsed, but he was trembling like a leaf. I had longed him for 5 minutes, just sort of letting him pick the pace. I hadn't ridden him in three days, but he had had regular daily turnout in a roomy pasture. The usual causes of tying-up did not apply to my horse. He was in excellent shape, his muscles hadn't been overstrained, his Vitamin E and Selenium levels were normal, so what was wrong?
EPSSM
EPSSM is a disorder some warmblood/QH type horses are born with. They are incapable to use the usual starches and sugars that one would find in the stereotypical feed a horse would recieve. Because they cannot use the sugars, they build up on the muscles, causing muscles deterioration. This explained why my horse's( being a Cheval CanadienXTB gelding that looked like a Warmblood) hind end looked like that of a pathetic underweight pony, but his neck, body and chest fit his breed. So, what happens is the horse ties up, usually quite severely.
In short: it is almost like a type of diabetes, except it affects the muscles.
How do you feed a horse with EPSSM? You replace starches and sugars with fat. Oil, Rice bran, hi-fat products, vitamins and alfalfa cubes are the best. We removed the starches from Teddy's diet, and he got better very quickly, but as soon as we put starchy stuff back into his diet... BOOM, it happened again. He's now on soaked alfalfa cubes and oil, hay and pasture.
This sounds like a death sentence doesn't it? I'm an eventer, and my horse has the mind of an eventer: MUST WORK. But how do you event with such a 'delicate' muscle condition? You wait until all the built-up sugars are gone, and you keep them away with diet therapy and regular exercise. This usually takes approx. 4 months for the horse's system to rely on fat, but you can ride them lightly to moderately in that period of time. Once the sugars are all gone, the muscles actually thrive on hard workouts, which is good news for me and my beloved Teddy :D
The only thing about EPSSM is that you cannot know 100% that they have it without doing a muscle biopsy; that is going into surgery and removing a large chunk of hindquarter muscle to do tests on it. We suspected it because his symptoms didn't match up with anything else, and its a good thing we figured it out. Teddy is now doing well, he's slowly recuperating, and had been order by the vet to put on 250 lbs. Rough life, your doc telling you to gain weight eh?
Hope this helps anyone. Remember, the signs of a EPSSM-y horse are
-loss of muscle tone in the hindquarters, despite regular workouts to build it up
-chronic tying up
-sometimes the horse is inexplicably irritable
-in some cases, the horse just can't seem to have a good, balanced canter.
And to treat it... Remove all sweetfeed, grain and beet pulp from the diet and replace it with a feed with lots of fat, and add a type of oil. Horses usually like vegetable oil the best.
Thought people might like to know, knowledge is power right?
hugs and kisses from Kate and Teddy Bear
Have any of you ever seen/had/heard of a horse tying-up? For those of you who do not know, tying-up is excruciating cramps usually in the hindquarters and loins of the horse in question. Because the horse is in such terrible pain, they begin to sweat like crazy (think super fat pony asked to do a four star event sweaty), their breathing becomes quick and rather shallow, their urine becomes a dark yellow, they are reluctant to move, sometimes they tremble; and in extreme cases, the horse simply collapses. In March, my horse severely tied up. Not to a point where he collapsed, but he was trembling like a leaf. I had longed him for 5 minutes, just sort of letting him pick the pace. I hadn't ridden him in three days, but he had had regular daily turnout in a roomy pasture. The usual causes of tying-up did not apply to my horse. He was in excellent shape, his muscles hadn't been overstrained, his Vitamin E and Selenium levels were normal, so what was wrong?
EPSSM
EPSSM is a disorder some warmblood/QH type horses are born with. They are incapable to use the usual starches and sugars that one would find in the stereotypical feed a horse would recieve. Because they cannot use the sugars, they build up on the muscles, causing muscles deterioration. This explained why my horse's( being a Cheval CanadienXTB gelding that looked like a Warmblood) hind end looked like that of a pathetic underweight pony, but his neck, body and chest fit his breed. So, what happens is the horse ties up, usually quite severely.
In short: it is almost like a type of diabetes, except it affects the muscles.
How do you feed a horse with EPSSM? You replace starches and sugars with fat. Oil, Rice bran, hi-fat products, vitamins and alfalfa cubes are the best. We removed the starches from Teddy's diet, and he got better very quickly, but as soon as we put starchy stuff back into his diet... BOOM, it happened again. He's now on soaked alfalfa cubes and oil, hay and pasture.
This sounds like a death sentence doesn't it? I'm an eventer, and my horse has the mind of an eventer: MUST WORK. But how do you event with such a 'delicate' muscle condition? You wait until all the built-up sugars are gone, and you keep them away with diet therapy and regular exercise. This usually takes approx. 4 months for the horse's system to rely on fat, but you can ride them lightly to moderately in that period of time. Once the sugars are all gone, the muscles actually thrive on hard workouts, which is good news for me and my beloved Teddy :D
The only thing about EPSSM is that you cannot know 100% that they have it without doing a muscle biopsy; that is going into surgery and removing a large chunk of hindquarter muscle to do tests on it. We suspected it because his symptoms didn't match up with anything else, and its a good thing we figured it out. Teddy is now doing well, he's slowly recuperating, and had been order by the vet to put on 250 lbs. Rough life, your doc telling you to gain weight eh?
Hope this helps anyone. Remember, the signs of a EPSSM-y horse are
-loss of muscle tone in the hindquarters, despite regular workouts to build it up
-chronic tying up
-sometimes the horse is inexplicably irritable
-in some cases, the horse just can't seem to have a good, balanced canter.
And to treat it... Remove all sweetfeed, grain and beet pulp from the diet and replace it with a feed with lots of fat, and add a type of oil. Horses usually like vegetable oil the best.
Thought people might like to know, knowledge is power right?
hugs and kisses from Kate and Teddy Bear