Atypical myopathy

H

Hynder

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Hi everyone,

I wrote with other equine professionnal industry a warning about atypical myopathie.

It's a very terrible intoxication and just few horses survived. You have this illness in your country too (I am french) and I spoke with poor owners who lose their horses unfortunately.

This article is share with vets and we hope , it could help in prevent and to face this horrible problem.

Thanks all, and take care your beautiful horses :o

http://dexterity.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=c701e76939ad949d3a50fbc5b&id=5e10bea8d0
 
The equine atypical myopathy (EAM) is an intoxication due to sycomores maples’ samares. This flying seeds commonly named “helicopter” (in France at least) are deadly. The toxin inside samares attack the muscles of horses, the respiratory system, the cardiac system and the postural muscles.
Most of the times, a quick death is hardly avoidable when symptoms appears and animals typically die in 48 hours.

My young horse, Cali, 4 years at the time of the facts, join the 15% of horses who survive this. An exceptional case for the vet team who followed him, until this case, they had 100% failure to heal from EAM.

A descent into hell
The discovery

Cali has hay at its disposal, he shares it with 6 other horses, and it’s true that one of them is dominant and so, monopolized it. But my horse looks good, healthy, he doesn’t lose weight so I don’t worry about this detail.

He grazes peacefully, all is perfect in a perfect world.

I didn’t come the day before. My young horse don’t have complementary ration but it’s okey for me, he can eat grass 24/7 in his field.

Two days before, I jumped with him, it was a really good working session.

This morning, something is wrong. When I come near him to take him to the stable, I discover a very bad facies, totally depressed. He neighes weakly when he sees me. I say to myself “Gosh ! Is he 20 years old or what ?!”

By examining him more closely, I see him sweating a lot, breathing hard and with the head down. I put him the halter but I am hesitant. This look very serious. He comes with me few meters and stop walking, stiffened, unable to move forward again. His mucous membrane are really red, particularly inside eyes.
It’s a vital emergency. I don’t know what he has, or what’s happening but I am sure, it’s a vital emergency.

We are saturday, I call all veterinarians I already know. A young vet answer me, I explain to him as accurate as I can the symptoms I see. Cali has 36.2°C in temperature and there are little “helicopters” on the ground, the same that you see when you are in your break time outside when I was in primary school.

During this time, even in his poorly state, Cali keeps eating. He looks very dehydrated, his skin stay folded when I pinch it.
He eats all his ration while waiting for the vet who will take about 45 minutes to come.
The horse has difficulty to swallow but he stays greedy. His flanks gurgle, he makes a dung.
While waiting for the veterinarian, I try to gather my knowledge of equine illness. I see these “helicopters” on the ground which seems strange to me. It looks like this mysterious atypical myopathy story. But I stay calm and think it’s impossible that my horse caught this unknown disease. It’s kind of dying from a gastroenteritis, impossible!
Anyway, the vet arrives soon and he will heal my horse.

Ignorance when you hold us…

The vet arrives, auscultate Cali and he quickly makes a first diagnosis : the atypical myopathy.

I do not take stock of the situation. The superhero veterinary is here now, so my horse is safe, right? The practitioner, him, looks at me with a serious look : “Do you understand what I just say? Vital prognosis is engaged.”
 
Repatriation

In two kicks, my young horse is transfused. He had two perfusions quickly, coal and clay syringes, anti-inflammatory. He urinates very dark. When the vet see that, he is now sure of it, it’s the EAM (Equine Atypical Myopathy).

He takes a blood sample and rush into the veterinary clinic.
The horse can’t be transported to the clinic. It’s up to us to watch him and we will, while the veterinarian, on the other hand, will “bring the clinic to the horse”.

For me, all went a little bit fast. I don’t really understand what is happening while my fiancé is painfully carrying the perfusions up in the air to rehydrate my horse. The perfusions become empty very quickly, ones after each others, like if we were trying to rehydrate a dry raisin. My poor horse is more and more absent.
200 meters separates us from the nearest box, and the night is coming quickly…

The long periple starts.

We stop every three strides, rewarding the horse with hay, it’s a pleasure for him to eat it. Walking is painful for him, I push him while my fiancé pull him. We took more than two hours to cover the full distance. Now the horse is in a box, exhausted. We look closely after him this all night.


Death and life

The day after, my animal is more and more absent. The hours pass and the evil seems to take more and more over him. My horse don’t reacts anymore. His head is very low. His lips, his nostrils and his face are swollen due to all the perfusions’ water. We pull up his head to try to decrease this unwanted effect, his head weighs very heavy. Decidedly, he is no longer himself.

I can put my fingers in his mouth, ears or eyes, this does cause any reactions from him. His eye are inert, the eyelid is heavy. I go behind the horse and tighten his tail in my hand. It is so flabby like if he has no vertebras anymore. It’s in this state that I come back to my home two hours, to eat, take a shower, warm up a little bit, while my fiancé is keeping an eye on the horse with kindness.

When I come back, Cali is always in a vegetative state, here in flesh but not in soul, without vital energy. My partner looks disturbed, the horse has a strange reactions.

In reality, horse has spasms. His ears tackle against his neck like pointed horns, the head passes within the verticality, his eyes twitch at each contraction. It is no longer a sick horse, it is disease disguised as a horse. An ugly theater scene, a remake of The Exorcist but in reality this time.

In front of this sad show, I take the decision to call the vet and stop this macabre scenario. I'm afraid that muscle tetany will take me short and that it will stifle under my eyes my friend with four legs.

When the veterinarian comes, he hesitates. He is too pessimistic to ignore euthanasia but, he still has hope and he decides to wait a few more hours, as long as the horse is standing, we keep fighting!
He lets me a small syringe. The promise for me that when the time comes, my horse will not suffer.

We stay with him one more night.

My heart leaps up at every sign of weakness in the forelimbs. His limbs looks to be weakening but he is still well standing.
I crush him bits of carrots that he refuses to eat since 24 hours now. I take it to his mouth, no reactions, below his nostrils for him to smell, no reaction, to his mouth once again, his big misshapen lips finally takes a small bite, the day begins.
 
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