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!

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Thanks again for taking this journey with us!

Journal of April's Health: July 22, 2009

April’s Journey Continues…

On July 11, April went back to the vet for a follow-up on her PSSM condition. She has been exercised regularly with only Sundays off. Her feed has been moderate (local hay only), no grain and only low carb feed. I'm currently using LMF’s Low Carbohydrate Feed along with Equine Nutrition's Trifecta as a supplement. It’s very important she gets at least 2000 mg of Vitamin D per day.

I had been hand-walking her for 10 minutes per day plus 6 minutes of trotting. We drew blood to determine the AST & CPK Levels. They were as follows: AST: normal range is 100 to 600; April’s was 511. CPK: normal range is 10 o 350; April’s was 240. Yahoo! Now we can increase the exercise.

In the two weeks following the exam, we've had an increase of two minutes per day in her exercise. I’m currently at 20 minutes and will be drawing blood again this Friday to see if we can ride a little this weekend. I can’t wait to get back on her again! I think she’s getting pretty bored herself. This is certainly a long, slow process to get her back on track--her tying up instance was back on May 2. That's eleven weeks and counting...

Check back next Wednesday, July 29, for an update!

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.

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.