How do you manage your PSSM (or other myopathy challenged) horse

The diet doesn't hurt and is cheap. It would be my number one action for your horse. Tight bum muscles plus his breeding make him a very, very likely candidate.

I would go straight for alcar, 10g a day, buy on eBay by the kilo, about 37 quid a kilo atm. Plus vitamin E. That's a complete cure for both of mine.

If that does nothing in three weeks, I would change the oil for 500ml a day oil, building it up graduallyc and see what that does instead.
 
Tangaroo said:
When you say selenium test do you mean blood test?
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Yes. But I would also order some natural vitamin E (forage plus have it) and supplement. There is quite a complex relationship between vitamin E & selenium which is why you get the joint supplement in the feed stores. Personally I'd prefer to know my horse is deficient in selenium before supplementing because it is toxic. Vitamin E on the other hand is not toxic - it's just your wallet that suffers if it isn't needed & the chances are your horse isn't getting enough in winter anyway.
 
Thanks for all the advice. Is there a cheaper vit E than equimins oil? I have bought that in the past and know it was expensive.
 
Tangaroo said:
Thanks for all the advice. Is there a cheaper vit E than equimins oil? I have bought that in the past and know it was expensive.
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There are two types of vitamin E, and in tests both work. Natural, which is very expensive, and synthetic, which is a lot cheaper. The problem is that synthetic is only half as effective so you have to feed double. So it's no cheaper to use.

I'm afraid those of us that have to feed it just have to bite the bullet and pay the price.

I prefer powder, it's easier to handle, and I buy it from Progressive Earth on ebay.
 
Mine also suspected PSSM2. Gets fed alfalfa pellets, Alfa A Oil, speedibeet, copra, micronised linseed, salt & Equimins Vit E oil. Not given a balancer any longer or hoof supplement as they seem to make him symptomatic. Ad lib hay and exercised every day. If not ridden for a day or two then very quiet hack to village at walk first day back ridden. He seems fine on that.
 
Tangaroo said:
What are your horses sypmtoms carolineb?
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He tied up badly last year at least twice, probably more times - his symptoms were literally just felt like he had no energy. First horse I've ever had tie up. Now i know basically what was/is wrong with him, he is like a different horse. He was very spooky, had rock solid bum muscles, felt very odd when you first got on him. He was on Pro Hoof which I now believe makes him symptomatic (when I stopped feeding him it, he felt normal to get on again and then when I started feeding Forage Plus Winter Balancer he went odd again and back to normal once I stopped feeding it).

Now he barely spooks at anything (his spooks were quite major esp. when cantering along he could do a 90 degree shoot off to the side with no warning at all), his bum muscles are very wobbly - you can slap them and they just wobble, he is far, far happier in himself. He hasn't tied up since but I am also much more aggressive about his management. He has a blanket clip, not fully clipped like he was last year, he goes out every day, he is ridden every day although will have a day off after hunting, if he has had a day off he will then have a very quiet walk out the next day. He has a big concrete yard to walk about it in if kept in during the day. Once you've got the management sorted out, its easy to do. Its just finding what is right for them in the first place and not being afraid to take things out of the diet and try new things.
 
Thankyou. Thats interesting. My boy is an irish cob and he's very slow and behind the leg. Takes a while to warm up and is always better when coming home. He perks up when jumping but finds it hard to maintain his canter for any length of time and finds hill work hard. The physio came this week and says his bum muscles are very tight and has given me exercises and told me to do pole work with him. Ive decided to get the vet to blood test him and they are coming friday so that will be interesting. It was whilst i was googling 'tight bum muscles' that i came across the PSSM thread on here. (I know googling is a bad thing). Theres probably nothing wrong with him but as he's only rising 6 i would hate to be asking him to do things he finds hard due to a problem rather than just his age, if that makes sense
 
Tangaroo said:
Thanks for all the advice. Is there a cheaper vit E than equimins oil? I have bought that in the past and know it was expensive.
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you get what you pay for with vit E. I worked out that the equimins was the cheapest at around £19 per month for 8000iu.
 
So... how is everyone's myopathic horses getting on?

It has been a steep learning curve this winter for me and T. It's hard to believe that a year ago I had hardly a care in the world, other trying to get that blasted right canter down pat, we were both whizzing along quite nicely when a period out of work, then back into "intensive" training in hot weather seemed to trigger the symptoms, and ever since it has been really tough going.

Much like my own hypothyroidism ("oh it's only a tablet a day and you'll be fine" pah!), T has been difficult to manage with diet changes alone, probably because she was on a low carb (starch and sugar) diet for a good 6 months prior to diagnosis which made no difference to symptoms)

I've had to learn how to become a rug layer-er which really goes against my usual grain of "native pony = hardy = rain sheets only" I never though I would be needing 450g of stuffing to keep my well 'ard pony comfortable in our protracted cold spell in January.

She's had almost 3 months off work, but I've been able to start slowly (slooooooowly) bringing her back into work this week, starting with lunging for 10 mins. I thought we'd be walking, but T has had other ideas and is quite happy to trot without any insistence from me. Fingers crossed, at the moment everything is OK with no overt muscle fatigue/spasms after working (which, we are doing wrapped up in her medium weight turnout rug). Osteopath + massage therapy is booked in for 24th, so I'm not planning to ride or do any more strenuous work until then. Oh, she is having her toes looked at by a "proper" barefoot trimmer this weekend, which I'm really looking forward to. She's always had rock crunchers, but her feet have a tendency to run forward if left to their own devices.

Diet has been (and still is) an uphill battle.

I'm going to have to go back to soaking hay, even if it is just her overnight hay - poo! I'm waiting for the results of the analysis of the farm hay, and will bug the YO if I see him tonight.

Alcar didn't make any difference to her at all, so once this packet is finished I won't be buying any more.
I'm eternally grateful that my Equimins Vit E oil is just about finished, and I can go back to powder... it may be more expensive, but I'd happily pay that than have to faff around with a viscous oil that sticks to *everything*

Although T has had small amounts of micronized linseed for a long time, once the amount increased she didn't react very favourably, so I removed it from her dinner and replaced it with a blend of canola (rape)/sunflower and linseed oil, and she promptly started turning her nose up at dinner. So that is now out of the window too, and I'm going to try linseed oil (rather than the micronized linseed).

Other than that she is getting

1kg dry weight St Hippolyt Glyx Weise Palatin heucobs (as part of her forage ration) soaked
1 measure Pro Earth ProLaminae+
1g selenium
100ml unrefined sea salt
1 small mug of BOSS
25ml rosehip
2 medium carrots

Next on my list of things to try is the addition of milkthistle seeds (great detox/antioxidative "powers" plus high in vit E) and then the addition of specific amino acids (lysine, methionine and threonine) to try and halt the rather amazing muscle melting we have going on (coupled with decent work of course!)

Oh, and also the addition of boswellia and glucosamine (without the combination of MSM and ginger) for joint support as she is awfully clicky at the moment.

Fortunately she is not a particularly fussy eater (which is great!), but once again my locker is going to resemble something of an apothecary!

I'm hoping that the warmer weather, plus longer days enabling more exercise will really help, and I've got my fingers crossed that we can keep in work this year!
 
Are you sure about that selenium? I thought that RDA for a horse is HALF a gram of selenium yeast. I give mine half that or they blood test too high. So mine are on one quarter of one gram of selenium yeast a day.

Sorry you are having such problems. Mine are fine and dandy on Alcar, Vit E, selenium, magnesium, copper, zinc, salt and brewer's yeast in straw chaff. One gets some oats, both have add lib timothy haylage.
 
ycbm said:
Are you sure about that selenium? I thought that RDA for a horse is HALF a gram of selenium yeast. I give mine half that or they blood test too high. So mine are on one quarter of one gram of selenium yeast a day.

Sorry you are having such problems. Mine are fine and dandy on Alcar, Vit E, selenium, magnesium, copper, zinc, salt and brewer's yeast in straw chaff. One gets some oats, both have add lib timothy haylage.
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Yes, to the selenium. T blood tested under LLN for selenium, and I was advised by my vet to feed 2g per day for 3 months and re-evaluate (there is 1g in the ProLaminae+). The re-evaluation is due at the end of this month.

Our land is notoriously deficient in selenium - half the horses at the yard are on one type of selenium supplement or another for maintenance.
 
My mare isn't so good. Hard to tell whether the arthritic hocks are causing the sore back or the stiff muscles in the back led to dodgy hocks.

Her bum muscles are so still right now her ears go flat back when you touch them.

I'm away for a week, but her body worker is due out when I'm back and then we're scheduling in steroid injections into the hocks. I'm not looking for miracles - happy hacker would be fine.

My semi-retired p1 draft is bumbling along happily. Hates the mud, but if he was my only PSSM horse I'd be wondering what all the fuss was about.
 
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