It’s never easy to hear your horse has a permanent neurological disease that will effect them the rest of their lives. But you learn to accept it and deal with it, just take it in stride. Once you’ve done the testing and received the results it’s time to make a treatment plan for your horse.
When we got the call we were in utter shock. How long had Midnite, my mothers 11 year old QH mare, had this? We didn’t have any previous experience with EPM. Only vague notions we’d heard through our acquaintances. We didn’t have a clue on where to start. All we knew was that her blood work showed ratios that were way out of the “norm” and we had to get them down as quickly as possible.
The two options we were given were 1) Marquis or 2) EPM shake. We chose the latter not because we wanted to – but because it was not feasible to spend $900 a month to treat without insurance (but that’s another story). Once we decided the method we had to figure out how it was going to effect Midnite’s daily schedule. The shake had to be administered on an empty stomach, rather difficult because she’s on pasture board. In the end we came up with a plan to have her stalled for 30 minutes prior to the shake and 30 minutes after the shake. Midnite was less than pleased with the whole tube of paste a day scenario but she got over it soon and it became routine. Because she’s on pasture board she wasn’t used to being away from her pasture mates that long, unless it was her choice. So the boys came in everyday to. In the end it worked out well they all were in during the heat of the day to take naps while waiting. We were very fortunate in the fact that we caught Midnite’s EPM early enough that she didn’t have any major neurological side effects that would have kept her from her from the herd or pasture.
I’ve seen in various magazines that there are “alternative” treatment options for EPM. We were even told once (by a slightly eccentric friend) that we should look into herbal remedies and essential oils to “kill” the EPM protozoa. However even though they may be more economical they are not thoroughly tested. Meaning for us at least that they were out of the question (on their own). We opted to use the EPM shake along with adding a vitamin E supplement (8,000 I.U.s) and an MSM supplement daily.
Whatever you decide to do just make sure you talk it through with your vet and come up with a fool proof plan to get your horse through their treatment.
