PSSM people, I need your advice please!

[Ellietotz]

What I did was take her off literally all feed. Then added one thing at a time. If I felt she improved with it I kept it. I made a note of some of the behaviours I thought were related and counted how much I was seeing them. I checked how much she tracked up or eventually overtracked in a relaxed in hand walk. I liked her muscles to see how soft they were. Everything she has now corresponded with a improvement in these things. If I really wanted to test it Is take her off again and see what happened! But I daren't.

You are conducting an experiment of 1 unfortunately.

I found balancers made The Beast worse.

She now gets.

Weighed and measured soaked hay.
Turnout. Tracked in summer.
Big trug of top chop zero to keep Hangry at bay.
1 cup of speedibeet with handful of top chop zero.
5000iu vitamin E in summer ~8000iu in winter (basically a level measuring spoon in summer and a filled to overflowing measuring spoon in winter)
Magnesium Oxide 5g I think... 1 measure.
ALCAR 1 forage plus measure.
Equimins DeTye and Drink.
Salt 3 teaspoons.
Free access to Himalayan salt lick AND a mineralised salt lick.
Worked every day. 10 mins in walk warm up, 5 mins in walk cool down every time.
Back massage pad almost every day usually before sometimes after work.
Over-rugged.
As soon as I can do it it'll be 24/7 Turnout all year. But at the moment she's in overnight ( very large stable though )

Everything on there has made a positive, observable difference.

You do just have to not panic and keep trying stuff in a systematic manner. It's hard when your horse is sore though.

Thanks for replying.

So the ALCAR should arrive today. Shall I give the vitamin e another week before starting it to see if that makes a difference or not?

 

[PapaverFollis]

That might be wise. I gave each thing I tried a few weeks before adding anything else and if I wasn't sure if there was a positive difference I ditched it to see if there was a difference when it was taken away... that's how I ended up off all balancers. FWIW I was desperate to add everything all at once but MrPF kept me right because the budget was stupid tight at that point as well. I had to be sure what we were giving was working and worth buying. The work and over-rugging I started straight away and I actually think they are my most important players.

I think mine is PSSM1 though so if ours is PSSM2 you will get a different management result.

 

[paddy555]

are you on FB? if so I would suggest you join the PSSM groups on there and start reading especially their files sections.

Slow down, you have made one major change ie vit E. give it chance to work. If you give alcar at the same time you will have no idea what has worked or caused a problem. All these horses are different. The diet yours ends up on (if this is problem) will be tailor made for her. Many of us have success with one thing in common ie vit E. It doesn't work for everyone and it doesn't work for every PSSM 2 diagnosed horse. Some have had results very quickly some it takes longer. Give it time to make a difference.
As PF said, for mine the overrugging and to a lessor extent the work (or at least allowing 24/7 wandering) were the biggest players.
Mine didn't have alcar to start with, then he did and it made a difference and then it no longer made a difference so I stopped. Every horse is different. When you get shod start exercise extremely slowly and exercise daily and see if by adding that in you make a difference.

 

[paddy555]

we went straight onto the full PSSM regime (without alcar) as we were pretty sure before we started. We had the blood test results to back up muscle problems, we had had the tying up, had done the physio route, and had vet advice that PSSM was the route to consider next.

 

[Leo Walker]

Thanks for replying.

So the ALCAR should arrive today. Shall I give the vitamin e another week before starting it to see if that makes a difference or not?

YES!

 

[Ellietotz]

Here are the blood results if anyone can interpret them...

 

[SEL]

I didn't know you could test for PSSM2 by hair sample but according to Equiseq you can..

Post #79 Casey gives you the details....

 

[SEL]

Muscle enzymes look fine.

 

[PapaverFollis]

How likely is PSSM if CK and AST are normal? Are they only high after a full on tie up or do they stay high under normal (unmanaged) conditions?

 

[paddy555]

How likely is PSSM if CK and AST are normal? Are they only high after a full on tie up or do they stay high under normal (unmanaged) conditions?

for mine CK was over 2000 when tested a month after tie up. AST was also raised. We tested 4 weeks later and it was around 1400 and a month later around 1000. AST raised each time.

 

[Leo Walker]

Surely given the level of muscle soreness they should be raised even if its not PSSM and is down to something else? I am not a PSSM expert though so have no idea really.

 

[ester]

That would be my presumption re if that is what her making her actively currently sore you’d expect something. But I guess doing pre and post exercise bring up a couple of mild cases that were ok resting.

 

[Casey76]

Both of mine have raised CK and AST (about 2x ULN) even when apparently asymptomatic.

Increased CK is indicative of muscle damage.

I would expect some increased CK from continual muscle contracture even without overt damage.

I would have a vitamin and mineral panel done. Deficiencies in zinc, selenium, magnesium and vit E can also produce muscular symptoms.