EPSM advice please

[nphillips]

Hello - please excuse long intro but I would be very keen to hear any advice / tips (or success stories relating to EPSM horses and future prospects).

My mare tied up just before Christmas. It was really quite a severe attack but with none of the traditional factors so my vet suspects she is EPSM. The more I read the more convinced I am..

- the only reason I have her (she is very nicely bred oldenburg / tb that would otherwise have been too expensive for me) is that she was supposedly impossible to break - I bought her last march at 6 and she had certainly had a few people try and fail and was a very frightened mare. It did take a LONG time from March to August before she was ridden but we did do it although she is still super sensitive - I have heard that this is a sign of EPSM

- she doesn't seem to find it easy to adjust her balance when farrier is shoeing her behind (I thought she was clumsy :-( )

- she REALLY struggles to balance herself in canter - she seems better out on a hack and obviously she has only been in work a few months so I had only just started to inctroduce canter in schooling really but she seems to have to lean right down on the bit and almost charge rather than engaging her hindquarters and carry herself

Anyway she's been on ERS cubes since Xmas she's been back in ridden work now for a month but I have been taking it very slow as paranoid so no canter and all seems good except for the fact that since she's been back in work she is extremely fresh and sharp she has 3 x the energy she had before and is much more spooky and sensitive and prine to launching a bout of bucks if something suprising happens.

I am only feeding about 2/3 of a stubbs scoop of ERS cubes a day with Selenevite E and electrolytes which she takes happily in her water. She has a low energy haylage as I don't have mains water at the stables so soaking hay is really very difficult.

I have looked at the rural heritage site which sugegsts that I should be feeding additional oil but she is such an incredible good do-er I am paranoid she'll put on weight (she had to wear a grazing mask this summer).

Any advice of suggestions would be very welcome. Has anyone else noticed ERS cubes sending their horse off the wall?

Nikki

 

[Scarlett1980]

Please, please, please call the WINERGY care line on 01908 226626.

They are amazing and actually seem to have cured my ESPM mare. I talk about their new diets on this all the time and can't thank them enough for their help and support.

All of their feeds have been scientifically proven to work and they will work with you and your vet to find absolutely the best solution for your individual horse. They even formulated a feed especially for a friend of mine so they knew it was perfect.

The feed I am on combines everything the ESPM horse needs, balanced fibre sources, high oil, high vit E and selenium and it is all carefully formulated by them.

If you email winergy.equilibrium@effem-equine.com they will get straight back to you.

In my opinion you can try loads of other feeds that claim to work or that people recomend but this is the only one that has evidence and research to back up what they claim.

Good luck x

 

[Marnie]

Its funny, the ERS pellets actually chilled my mare out! She went from being joggy, pulling, spooky etc to calm and chilled but still with enough energy. Along with the pellets she was getting ad lib hay.

To be honest, it just sounds like she is feeling well which is why she is more energetic. If she is a good doer, does she need the additional feed, could she not be maintained on haylege with possibly a supplement to meet mineral / vitamin needs if required? I am not sure how this would affect an EPSM horse, perhaps contact Dodson and Horrel or one of the feed companies for advice - it sounds as though Winergy could certainly help.

 

[Mahali]

High fiber-diet, addiotional oil, try 100ml per day, start with small quantities, Vitamin E in high levels combinated with a littele selenium, high magnesium, you can also use speedi beet, it is ideal for EPSM-no starch-no sugar, pasture is o.k. in most cases.

 

[sqippa]

My boy has EPSM and has been on a high oil diet since oct 2005. He is a 16hh Clyde x welsh (we think) weighs about 640kg. He gets Alfa oil (or light in the summer) a handful of fibre nuts (to tempt him) and a total of 700ml of soya oil a day. He has vits and mins with elevated vit e and selenium and has been doing fantastically. He really was suffering for 9 months before we were able to diagnose him and had undergone evry investigation thinkable. He is now sooo much better although he is in the middle of a hiccup (expect those despite diet change although they will become less frequent as time goes on....he hasn't had one for around 10 months!)

I am interested in the info om Winergy and will contact them myself however if your horse has got epsm then you really do need HIGH oil as the rural heritage site descibes. My boy is a very good doer but hasn't altered since being on the oil diet...it seems to have no impact!!!

Good luck and stick with it.

Sqip

 

[Mahali]

oil has the 2,5x more energy than the same weight in grains...
so if your horse is a little bit "too much" horse, you should give less oil. 640kg is the weight of a warmblood..., 800ml is much oil-similar to 2,5kg grains - in energy content...

 

[Lottie7]

My boy also has EPSM and I reiterate what Squippa has said. He is a very good doer - being warmblood with a dash of Clydesdale. The high oil did not make him put on weight and in fact he looked trimmer. Also, it did not give him masses of extra energy despite people telling me it would blow his brains. When he was eventing he had 2 pints of oil per day. Nowadays he has just one pint. I mix this with Alfa A Lite and Saracen Releve (as he likes the texture of a mix feed). He also has the necessary supplements. The Winergy help line sounds very interesting and there is constant research and new products coming onto the market.

The problem with canter also sounds familiar. My horse could not canter with a rider. He would buck, bunny hop, change legs behind every single stride. He could canter a 20m circle fine on the lunge though. Also, when jumping a course he would pop the jump OK (his passion) and then buck, bunny hop, change legs until about two strides away from the next jump. This could easily have been interpreted as behaviourial if we did not know him better. I must stress though that his sore "episodes" would come and go over the years. Sometimes for months he would be fine (although he always moved very slightly short on one hind) and we would think we had got to the bottom of the problem (either new saddle, physio, medicating the hock, etc, etc). Then we would be back to square one again - but with hindsight these episodes were linked to his feeding (like increased starch when eventing or spring grass).

You may find the higher sugar content in grass affects her. When he was competing my horse was muzzled from spring.

Sound like she is a very lucky horse to have found you. So many of these horses are written off both medically and psychologically. It's really trial and error with the feeding - expect those hiccups that Squippa mentioned - but we'll be here to stop you tearing your hair out.....

 

[Horseymum]

Hi. I am also the owner of a newly diagnosed EPSM horse. I am introducing her to oil having started at 50 ml twice a day and am increasing it by 50ml a week (split between her two feeds) and have been told that she will ultimately need 480 mls of oil for each 450 kg of bodyweight so as she is a Hanoverian we have got quite a way to go! Being a doom and gloom merchant I was very downbeat when I got the diagnosis but she is certainly a bit better than she was and most importantly seems happy in herself. It is interesting to see that some of you have referred to their horses as having if you like a "crisis" now and again. I asked my Vet whether it could flare up and then settle and he said they didn't know much about it yet (which I think meant HE didn't know much about it!) but having read what you have said I am a bit reassured now. Good luck with your horse.

 

[aimeerose]

my mare has also just been diognosed and we are starting out on the diet - am trying alfa-a iol, oil and i think winergy as they are very helpful.

good luck and it seems that horses going off the diet (or rather the oil in the diet) at first is normal so dont panic!!

its also interesting that people have said about having 'ups and downs' which is what my mare has and why i think its taken so long to work out what may be causing the problems.

 

[siennamiller]

my horse has been on the diet since june, he has had undiagnosed EPSM for 4 ish years so it is taking a while but we are seeing an improvement now. I think it may be taking longer as he out of work (due to my pregnancy) as regualr work helps.
He is on spillers happy hoof, saracen releve, vit e and selenium and 1 1/2 mugs oil per day.
It is a better way to feed your horse rather than giving him loads of grains etc which are not natural!
xx

 

[nphillips]

I have just got my PC back from Dell - nightmare terrible service so only just reading all your really helpful advice...

Thankyou so much I feel MUCH more positive and, given the way my mare is now moving (honestly now she's really got the old 'big money trot' that her breeding would suggest but that she never actually had before I think the temperament I am dealing with now is probably her true self when she's feeling fresh and so will just have to go back a few stages and get things back under control on lines / in the school before we venture out on roads again. .. it's going well so far she is much calmer in the village in hand and working well in the school on long lines or loose.

I will definately call Winergy - at the moment I am having trouble feeding more than 200ml oil a day as she won't eat the chaff unless there are enough nuts in it. As I was worried about the EPS cubes just from an energy point of view these are now Hi Fibre cubes which she prefers and literally just a handful but with the electrolytes, selenevite e aswell there is only so much oil I can hide in her feed until I can get her eating more chaff. I am starting to up the chaff now (it's D&H fibregy which also has lots of soya oil in it) so fingers crossed we get there in the end.

She's upto about 45 minutes light / medium work now without any recurrence so fingers crossed I think we might be on the right road at least.

Thanks again for all your help, I'm really glad I joined the forum.

Nikki