My Grey Mare – Journal of April's Health

When will we arrive?

Wow, it's been quite an incredible adventure with April’s Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy (PSSM). I never thought that it would take so much time to get her AST & CPK levels back to normal. Great news! On Friday I drew blood and took it over to Kulshan Veterinary Hospital. Our test results were great!

Blood test from 7/24/09:

Normal for AST = 100 to 600; April was 358

Normal for CPK = 10 to 350; April was 178

Just the results I was hoping for! This was after two weeks of increasing exercise by 2 minutes per day. We got up to 24 minutes (I took Sundays off). This past Sunday we went for an hour and fifteen minute trail ride. There was one hill, but it was short. She seemed to do fine.

She has developed a bit of a cough. It doesn’t seem to be related to exercise, as she hacks when she’s just standing. I’m guessing it’s an allergy. Do they make Claritin for horses? Anyway, I’m keeping an eye out for other signs of fatigue or lethargy. I think the extreme heat wave we’re having right now has something to do with the energy level. I checked her temperature and it was normal, so we don’t appear to have an infection going on. She doesn’t sound congested, just the dry hacks.

I usually get up around 5:30 in the morning and work her so it’s bearable. We go for a 10-minute walk, and then I lunge her at a trot for up to 30 minutes. We're just waiting to hear back from Dr. Sauter on the new exercise program. Gosh, I am so anxious to get back in the saddle again! She is such a fun horse to ride I can hardly wait.

My goal for 2010 is to get in the show pen and make the Northwest Reined Cowhorse Association (NWRCHA) and the North West Reining Association (NWRA) shows. Wish us luck!

Please make sure to submit your stories, share your photos, and even send in some video, if you like. We would love to have some short (less than 5 minutes) videos to share with our readers in the Northwest. See below for reader story and photo guidelines.

Thanks again for taking this journey with us!