Just got off the phone with the vet, with the results of our Myelo v2.0. Remember how I asked that he perform an additional neuro test to video and send to Dr. Grant for additional info when consulting? Well he did. First he said it's really hard to learn much from watching the videos.. it helps to be touching and feeling the horse's response, so Dr Grant couldn't get "that much" information just by watching. (sad, well it can't hurt right??).
BUT, then he said "but I could feel the horse, and man, she is night and day from where she was at her first neuro test a few months ago."
THEN he rated her a "1" or "maybe a little less than" in terms of the severity of her Wobbles!!!
Long story short, she's had such a good response to the high dosage of Vitamin E, that they aren't even recommending surgery at this point!!!! Let me say that again. They aren't recommending surgery. She should continue to improve on the Vitamin E for several more months, plus fitting her up should help and BAM. healthy horse. She probably has some chiro issues that could be fixed, but we'll see.
I don't even know where to go from here! I'm reeling at the thought of not spending $10,000 + to glue her neck bones together! Fancy Barn #1 it is! plus I can afford some serious full time training for a month or two to get her back on track before we go back to some slightly more humble accommodations. I think that P deserves a fancy stall for a few months after having no work and crappy turnout for so long. What a gem she is!
By no means are we totally out of the woods. It won't be super simple or easy to get her moving like a normal horse, but what ever is? I'm just glad we won't be having any more seizures or overnight trips to the vet (for at least a little while).
The Vitamin E effect is pretty profound and there isn't too much puclished yet. Apparentyly my vet and Dr. Grant are friends with the head of UC Davis Vet school, who has been doing lots of big Vit E studies recently and their effect on Neuro horses and nerve damage. He also viewed the films and suggested that surgery isn't necessary given the improvement we've already seen on the Vit E. (!!!).
He did say that there's a huge difference in the quality/formula of certain products, so we're hunting down some super secret excellent product that apparently P will be frosting her grain with for the rest of her life.
Sunshine in Seattle, a new farrier coming to trim our barefoot toes and NO SURGERY!!! What a Friday this is... Man oh man, sometimes life is really, really good.
Here's a short article on the effect of Vitamin E apaprently a lot of the spectacular results haven't been published yet...
UC Davis Vit E study
oh congrats! this is so great to hear! wishing you and pia the very best!
ReplyDeleteVery, very good news!
ReplyDeleteYeah!!! I bet you were so excited when you got that news!! I put Denali on high doses of Vit. E after her EPM wonderfulness. She's back to "normal" so I hope that it helped. She's still on it, but I'm slowly taking her off. Wonder if I should keep her on now...hum.. Good luck!! Yeah! I was going to also mention that I work at a really nice barn in the Maltby area that is $550 a month.
ReplyDeleteI know... how EXCITING is that. I'm so thrilled that I get to actually get back on the beast that I haven't even thought about how slow the process is going to be.. :)
ReplyDeleteRe: Vit E, my vet said that the basic consensus right now is to never take a neuro horse off of it. Apparently it continues to clean things up and prevents relapses... P was on 10,000iu a day.. but now we're down to 2,500iu for maintenance, which is likely where she'll stay..