EPM


This is one disease that causes a great deal of fear and confusion among horse owners and veterinarians. This Neurologic disease is causes by a protozoan parasite that migrates from the intestinal tract to the brain or spinal cord. It is normally found in the feces of possums and armadillos and when they defecate on pastures where horses graze ....they can become exposed.
A very high number of horses are seropositive in the US (about 60% in Florida) but few develop clinical disease. EPM typically has three characteristics 1. Ataxia 2. Atrophy 3. Asymmetry. In other words 1.they stumble 2. have muscle wasting 3. uneven distribution. As the organism replicates in the neural tissue more nerve cells and fibers are damaged causing the neurologic signs.
A complete neurologic exam by a skilled Internist is needed to arrive at a neuroanatomic diagnosis. Once the location of the injury is found then you can better determine the cause. Many neurologic diseases can look like EPM and vice versa so other tests are frequently employed. The main test in use today is a CSF/Spinal tap where a special needle is inserted into the spinal canal and some of the fluid is removed for testing. Specifically we test the fluid for an increase in antibody production to the organism Sarcocystis neurona. If this is positive and the neurologic signs are consistent with EPM , you should begin treatment. If there is blood contamination of the sample then the results can be skewed due to high antibody levels in the serum. The treatment today consists of using a drug called ponazuril or Marquis. This is a 28 day course of treatment that to date has been quite successful. If your horse is stumbling or has focal areas of muscle loss then you should alert your Veterinarian right away so treatment can begin.Technorati Profile

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Purina feed recall announced-Aflatoxin confirmed

Image
There have been several horse show signs of acute liver dysfunction recently while eating Purina feeds. The company seems to have jumped on this quickly and found an aflatoxin (mold toxin) contamination from one of their suppliers. It only affects 3 of their plants and the North eastern United States.The following states are under the recall, Connecticut; Delaware; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New York; North Carolina; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; South Carolina; More info on Aflatoxins can be found HERE . " Aflatoxins are potent toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, immunosuppressive agents, produced as secondary metabolites by the fungus Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus on variety of food products. Among 18 different types of aflatoxins identified, major members are aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is normally predominant in amount in cultures as well as in food products. Pure AFB1 is pale-white to yellow crystalline, odorless so...
Read more

How Horses could help fight "BIRD FLU"

Image
Horse serum has been used for years as a souce of "gamma globulins" (anti-bodies) for many species including man. Now a group of scientists in China are using antibody fragments from horses to fight the H5N1 virus. "The researchers included Jiahai Lu, PhD, of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. They're among experts worldwide working on bird flu treatments." The article is in MedicineNet.com and was written by Miranda Hitti from WebMD. "First, the scientists prepared H5N1 virus in hen's eggs. Next, they immunized horses to make antibodies to H5N1. Lu and colleagues took fragments of those antibodies, mixed them with H5N1 virus, and then spread the mixture on plates holding dog cells. Dog cells were only exposed to H5N1 or the horse antibody fragments. For comparison, other dog cells were left alone, without either H5N1 or the horse antibodies' fragments. The researchers checked on the dog cells every day for the next five...
Read more

Headshaking Syndrome....Just the facts

Image
( angelfire cartoons ) Just to set the record straight....this is a SYNDROME. That means it is a condition with multiple potential causes that has a unique set of symptoms. In this case the symptom is head shaking, this is either horizontal, vertical or rotary and frequently resembles a nervous twitch. Sometimes this is so uncontrollable that the behavior becomes almost manic and dangerous. Over the years many different causes have been attibuted to causing head shaking syndrome, including (1) ear mites (2) allergic rhinitis (3) ocular disease (4) Trigeminal neuritis (5) dental disease and (6) photic headshaking. One, from the fever swamps of the internet , links it to vaccines ( see my previous post about my thoughts on holistics) One older study noted that these horses were frequently over 8 years of age, Throughbred or Warm Blood, owned by 40+ year old women used for hunter/jumper or dressage. Additional studies have linked this to the time of year (seasonal) and most recently, to b...
Read more