TREATING PSSM

It has been several weeks since I've sold Louie, my quarter horse with PSSM. Thankfully, the weight of his health care is no longer on my shoulders.

He has gone to a home who is fully aware of his condition and has assured me that she has high hopes of being able to stabilize his condition.

There are a few things I have learned in my many months of dealing with his condition. I will try to recap as succinctly as possible. If you have a horse with PSSM, I highly suggest you sign up for the yahoo discussion group for more information and support.

First and foremost, I suggest going to a vet that has some knowledge on PSSM. Sympathy is one of the best comforts. It's like having an immune disorder and everyone thinks your crazy until it has been diagnosed and treated. Elusive as it may be, it is manageable.

Dr. Hoge, a veterinarian from Murrieta has been that saviour for me, in many instances.

He contacted the premier University for studying horses with PSSM, the University of Minnesota Equine Center. Although previous tests done on Louie led Dr.Hoge to diagnose Louie with PSSM, we couldn't be sure untill we did the muscle biopsy. Again, symptoms can be quite elusive and migrating in form.

The results came back with a positive test for type I PSSM. This was (relatively) good news in that is wasn't the more severe form of PSSM and we were hopeful in that it would be manageable.

Manageable is a relative thing. To keep a PSSM horse in good health, they need to have regular turnout, regular and steady exercise with long periods of warm up. A steady diet of free feeding a low starch grass hay and high fat feed. (a challenge can be in giving large turnouts with no access to high starch grass, which is of the deep green variety) This alone has made it almost impossible for my lifestyle and what I was capable of tolerating as a horse owner.

Another supplement I discovered along my search was something called ALCAR. Acetyl L-Carnetine aids in synthesizing the sugars in the muscles and helps keep sugars from being stored, causing the "tying up". (You can read up on it using the link above.)

OK, so not only is it good for the horse with PSSM, but it's great for ME! Many of the horse owners on the yahoo discussion group were attesting to using this stuff themselves and getting great results. I have to agree! Not only am I burning fat faster, but I feel energetic and alert. Check it out on Bulknutrition.com and make sure you do your own research on it first to ensure you won't have problems with it.

Louie is a magnificent, kind, beautiful and very well trained horse. I wish him the best in his future as well as his kind owner who has devoted her time and energy to getting him healthy and giving him a good life.

If you have information regarding PSSM and wish to share, please comment below.