My Grey Mare: The Journal of April’s Health, Continued

PSSM Testing Follow-up on 6/4/09

Well, I finished the regime of 10 minutes of hand walking daily, plus working in 2-3 minute increments up to 6 minutes of lunging at a trot. The morning of June 4th, April’s exercise was to increase to 9 minutes of lunging. I hand walked her, and then lunged her for the full 9 minutes. She is pretty fit, so it seemed easy for her. She wasn’t the least bit out of breath, nor did she act at all lame or sore. That was at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday morning.

At 11:00 a.m. I drew a blood sample per the vet’s instruction. It took me three tries. April jumped every time I stuck her. The first two times I either dropped the syringe (because I jumped too!), and the second time I bent the needle. The third time was a charm, but April had pretty much had enough by then. She was fairly tense (so was I), but we managed to draw 6 cc of blood. That afternoon I ran it over to the veterinary clinic for testing. All this to save a call of $35 and hauling her in to the clinic.

When Dr. Sauter called me later on, the results were disappointing. April’s CPK levels were actually higher than the 2 weeks prior (now at 437), though AST was lower (826). Normal for each is 10-350 and 100-600, respectively. It’s so disheartening when I’ve worked so hard to get her ready for competition. The money for training and lessons is basically for naught this year.

My questions that need to be answered are these: What if her levels were normally high before the incident? Could the stress from being stabbed with a needle three times affect the results?

She will be in the care of my friends as I’m leaving for a 8-day trip to California. I’ll keep updating and let you know what I’ve discovered. If anyone has any feedback on this topic, please email me at karen@nwhorsesource.com or post a comment below.