My Grey Mare: Journal of April’s Health

PSSM (Tying-Up) Part 2: The 10-Day Checkup

From Tuesday, May 12th

At April’s initial emergency clinic visit on May 2, Dr. Sauter recommended we take a hair sample and send it to The University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. We now have the results back from the test. April tested positive for Type 1 PSSM (Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy). It was determined she had one parent with the mutant gene.

Her blood drawn on this 10th day indicated her CPK and AST levels were still above normal. Dr. Sauter had me continue on the program of hand-walking April for 10 minutes two times daily with turnout. He also suggested I start looking for a feed that was appropriate for a PSSM horse. I had been feeding LMF’s Super Supplement Grass Formula. After talking with the helpful people at LMF, we changed her to LMF’s Low Non-Structural Carbohydrate Stage 1 ration. I’m also supplementing with Equine Nutrition’s TriFecta to make sure she is getting enough Vitamin E each day. It’s critical to make sure she’s getting the calories and protein necessary to give her the nutrition she needs when we start her back in training.

Management of PSSM will mean changes to her daily life. Through a specific diet and training regime, we can manage this condition and she can lead a fairly normal life. 

Follow-up

We continued hand-walking for another week. We will take another blood sample in 10 days, which will give us an indication if she’s ready to return to work. As we concentrate on other sources of protein and energy, we’re avoiding starch (such as lush green grass). We’re assuming that a combination of a little lush pasture, returning to work after a couple of weeks off, vaccinations, teeth floating and a biopsy of a tumor all contributed to this episode. Dr. Sauter referred to this as a “perfect storm.”

Join me next week as we get the results of the second blood draw. We’re getting her started this week on LMF’s Stage 1, Equine Nutrition’s TriFecta, and continuing with grass hay but no pasture grass.