Any science bods have access to this research paper on vitamin E deficient myopathy?

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BBP

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Bedford, H.E., S.J. Valberg, A.M. Firshman, M. Lucio, M.K. Boyce, and T.N. Trumble. 2013. Histopathologic findings in the sacrocaudalis dorsalis medialis muscle of horses with vitamin E-responsive muscle atrophy with weakness. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 242:1127-1137

I’m trying to find out what blood serum and muscle levels they classified as deficient in the animals in their study. If anyone has or can access this info I would be very grateful.

I have my vets reference range for blood testing but I don’t know how this compares to the figures in the study or if having a long term low level deficiency can cause the same problems as a short term severe deficiency.
 
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ah sorry for some reason work doesnt have access to the full text. We do have an equine department so I assumed we would do. I can request a copy but will take a week or so. Just drop me a PM if thats any good.

I would email all the authors in the meantime. Authors love sharing their research and may well be happy to talk to you about your horse as its directly related to their area of study. They are usally very approchable and thrilled to hear from you.
 
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Dexter said:
ah sorry for some reason work doesnt have access to the full text. We do have an equine department so I assumed we would do. I can request a copy but will take a week or so. Just drop me a PM if thats any good.

I would email all the authors in the meantime. Authors love sharing their research and may well be happy to talk to you about your horse as its directly related to their area of study. They are usally very approchable and thrilled to hear from you.
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Thanks for trying! and good idea about emailing the authors, I will give it a go.

My pony has been having trouble getting up again. This happened in 2020 as well and both times I have come within a hair breadth of having him put to sleep, as we all know how important it is that they can get up safely. He also had the odd little 'collapse' of his hind end. We thought it was due to calcification of ligaments in his back as he may have something a bit like DSLD. Investigations in 2020 showed damage to his supraspinous, intraspinous, suspensory and sacroiliac ligaments. Vet and I decided to try a months danilon and see what happened. After a couple of weeks on 1x per day I wasn't happy so we upped it to 2 sachets a day. He was way brighter and more cheerful but still not getting up well. I was wondering if I was leaving the decision too late and that I would get up there and find him broken. His neuro tests have been weak. He knows where his feet are, so its not the link to his brain that is a problem, but he struggles to resist tail pulls.

But in both years, as soon as I saw the problems, I also started him on vitamin E (having got slack and stopped feeding it for months because he seemed fine). Now we are nearly 6 weeks post vet visit and yesterday and today he got up perfectly, on all 3 occasions that I watched him. He is resisting the tail pull tests again. He is leaping around, bright eyed and wanting to play and engage, which he hadn't been for ages (he's a very feisty horse, so when he is quiet it worries me).

I've just rechecked my paperwork and in 2015, 2016 and 2020 he was always low on vitamin E on blood serum. I wish I had had him checked this summer. I am going to see about getting him blood tested next time the vet is out so that I can get a reading now whilst he is getting up well so I then can compare is he starts to struggle again. It has been a hot dry summer and he has had very little green grass as he is so fat, so I wonder if that might be why he has got so much worse.
 
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Dr Valberg is incredibly generous on email if you can track down her uni email address. I was surprised at how comprehensive an answer she gave me to a PSSM question. Plus I think she'd find your case interesting
 
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I have just done the conversions for the blood test results that I can find and it looks like he sits on the margin of chronic deficiency at 1.55-1.67ug/ml. I'm sure he had a lower result than that at one point but I can't find it. But if he does have any issue with uptake from blood into muscle tissue that could explain why he can struggle to get his hind end back up maybe?
 
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SEL said:
Dr Valberg is incredibly generous on email if you can track down her uni email address. I was surprised at how comprehensive an answer she gave me to a PSSM question. Plus I think she'd find your case interesting
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I have just checked and I emailed her back in 2020 with this same thing (so I had obviously given it some thought at the time). Looks like the blood results I sent to her were 1.4 - 1.6ug/ml. I never received a reply unfortunately.
 
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BBP said:
I hadn't, that is nrillaint thank you. Especially since we are now 5 weeks into vitamin E supplementation.
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blood testing mine proved that he had no response to natural vitamin E powders, with his level staying resolutely at 1…..he now lives on 20ml (5000iu) nano E,he weighs nearly 700kg…..his levels increased fairly quickly to around 3, but has taken a lot longer to rise any further, but on the latest test was up to 5.4.
 
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BBP said:
I have just checked and I emailed her back in 2020 with this same thing (so I had obviously given it some thought at the time). Looks like the blood results I sent to her were 1.4 - 1.6ug/ml. I never received a reply unfortunately.
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I had a feeling of deja vu writing my post!

Nano E is supposed to be more easily absorbed than the powders
 
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There's a biopsy result floating about on one of the PSSM forums where the hospital has said issues might be indicative of vitamin E deficiency (inconclusive PSSM). I think if he's got a problem getting up then it could be that and if the E is working then highly likely. Do you have your biopsy results from his RER diagnosis? Did they say anything then?
 
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