Those of you who have been following along for a while will know about Pie's and Drifter's encounter with the organisms which cause EPM in horses, and their symptoms, diagnosis with the new ELISA peptide antigen test, and their subsequent treatment with a new regimen that is in clinical trials.
Here's the whole saga, for those that are interested in the details of their symptoms, testing and treatment.
When our vet/chiropractor came out last week, she drew blood so they could be retested after their completion of treatment, and I'm delighted to say that their results indicate that the infections are fully cleared - the very low numbers are effectively zeros - for the meaning of these tests, see the link above:
Pie:
SAG 1 - 2
SAG 5 - 2
SAG 6 - 8
Drifter:
SAG 1 - 2
SAG 5 - 2
SAG 6 - 2
Both horses are now completely sound and happy to move at all gaits. Pie has some residual muscle/skin soreness that probably represents nerve regeneration.
I couldn't be more delighted - EPM is a very serious and progressive illness and until recently it was very hard to diagnose and often wasn't caught until the horse was seriously unbalanced, with often permanent nerve damage. The disease was also hard to treat, and the one approved treatment didn't help all horses and was extremely expensive. I'm hoping that this new test and clinical trial will result in helping many more horses who have early stage EPM get diagnosed and treated and return to full soundness.
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