Not the best of mornings...

[Snark]

We keep our neighbor's horses for them (neither husband or wife know that much about horses) and her younger horse has been diagnosed this past week with EPM, Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis. It affects the central nervous system and, among other things, makes him extremely unsteady on his feet. This morning when we went out to feed everyone and clean the barn, we found him down and unable to get up. I have no idea how long the poor guy was down (he was up at 11:30pm and down at 6am). Called the neighbor and told her we might have to call the vet because if we couldn't get him up, he would probably have to be pts. (Ever try to pick up a 1200 lb horse? It ain't easy.)

Got a halter on him and he finally managed to struggle to his feet, after falling on a couple of attempts. I don't know what we're going to do if he's down again tomorrow morning or if God forbid, he falls under the gate or a manger. The disease is moving fast (a week and a half ago he was just stumbling occasionally, now he moves like a drunken sailor and, of course, he's getting extremely nervous because he knows he can't escape any kind of danger.) My neighbor wants to give him every chance, and I can't blame her, she loves her animals and she wants to give the drug protocol time to work (vet said it could take up to six months to cure him, but at least there is a cure now.)

It's gonna be a stressful few weeks, I think, for all of us. *sigh* Please send some good thoughts our way...

 

[Snark]

Oops, stuck this in the wrong place... Mods? Could you move this please?

 

[Roxy's CD]

It is scary to see a horse that's down and unable to get up...

Just make sure when he's out he doesn't have a halter on, just in case he goes down and get's stuck on something...

Could you leave him in a stall overnight? Depending on what type of stall, sometimes it's safer for them to go down in the stall. You know where they are, and if they go down, you can use a lunge line as a pully to help get him up.

I hope he comes around.. It's so sad to see horses like that... they're usually so graceful and strong...

I hope tomorrow morning has a better outcome than today for you Snark

 

[Buddy'sParents]

I'm sorry.

I don't know anything about horses, but I hope he is able to recover, Ihate to see any animal in pain or immobilized.

Sending prayers and good vibrations your way...

 

[Squidbert]

So sorry things are going poopey..
I hope things turn around real soon and you start feeling much better..

 

[Babyblue5290]

I'm sorry I hope the treatment works and he doesn't fall again!

 

[bubbatd]

It's so scary when you see them down !!! We had ours flounder from time to time and had to keep them walking until the vet came. The second they stopped and acted like they wanted to lay down, many went into action. We did lose eldest daughter's horse this way .... the farmer where we boarded decided on his own to turn Blue out in damp spring grasses.......he died in his stall that night without us knowing what had happened.

 

[Renee750il]

You're a good neighbor and friend, Snark . . . That's an awful lot of worry and care to take on for someone else. Hope the poor horse can stay ahead of the disease long enough to give the treatment a chance to work its magic . . .

 

[Snark]

Well, they're good friends and neighbors, too. They were there for me when I lost Rocket, my old Morgan, three years ago. I just hope the medicine will work, the prognosis for most cases isn't very good.

 

[Snark]

Houdini lost his battle with EPM, went down and couldn't get up again. The vet came and said there wasn't anything else we could do for him, the medicine wasn't working. He was buried yesterday near my old Morgan, Rocket and Sis' old mare, Ginger.

 

[poodlesmom]

I'm so sorry!

 

[Roxy's CD]

Awww... I'm sorry, he's in a better place now though...