Friday, the vet called me back with an update on Isis’ meds: they should arrive Saturday morning via overnight, morning delivery. Yay! I should have had them on Wednesday, but at least they will be here tomorrow. With any luck, Isis will eat the meds in her food. My vet also said that we should…
Isis’ meds should be here shortly, so I took some baseline pictures of Isis. Her muscling has changed even from the last set of pictures I took two weeks ago. She has lost more muscle over her back. Her ribs are more prominent below her spine. There is a dip there now, where there never…
Pathogenes, a company in Florida specializing in treatments and diagnostic tools for EPM, is sponsoring a study of Oroquin-10, a new treatment for EPM. It’s not a double-blind study, however the company, Pathogenes, has a protocol they are asking owners to follow. Here are the links I sent my vet for the clinical trial for…
The vet came out on Friday. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be there because I had a physical scheduled at the time. (Ever look at the wait time for a physical? Six months. Sheesh.) Any way, my vet called me today at work with information on Isis. She said Isis does look like an EPM…
For most of the summer, I’ve watched Isis just not quite seem right. Whether it was the heat that bothered her or something else (EPM, most likely) that gave her more off days than good ones, one evening in early August she surprised me. My girl was back that evening. She started trotting like she…
Since June, I’ve noticed little things about Isis that didn’t seem right: she was dragging the tips of her back hooves, she was reluctant to trot or move out, and her regular spirited playfulness was gone except for rare occasions. It’s easy to right off these symptoms to other items. Maybe it was too hot…
Last night Isis had a bad day. The weather has been cool and milder, but she was still sweaty. She looked down and not perky when I brought her to the ring. She stumbled with her back legs on the walk from the barn to the ring. She was stiff, dragged her back hooves along…
Insulin resistant horses like Isis have trouble with heat. Insulin resistance is similar to a pre-diabetic condition in people: the horses who have this metabolic issue do not process insulin (and sugars) normally. IR impacts everything else in one giant cascade: IR horses’ immune systems aren’t quite at 100%, heat affects them harder than other…
Nasty weather this week. Temperature hit 98F today (heat index of 109F) and tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be 100F with thunderstorms in the evening. Looks like the girls will have tonight and tomorrow off. Some good news for Isis: The barn owner called me back. Isis seemed to be better around noon. She…
We’ve hit the first heat wave of summer. Two weeks ago the highs some times reached 80. Suddenly, the temperatures are close to 100F all this week. High temperatures plus high humidity means that the horses (and their humans) are feeling the heat as if Atlas’ burden was sudden dropped on their shoulders. Two out…
The first blog post on Ceffyl.net was on April 11, 2004. At that time, I had two horses (Isis and Logan) and four cats (Basette, Ambush, Stella, and Kiesha). Seven years later, I have only one kitty and three horses. I started this blog as an outlet for dealing with the medical issues my cats…
On the way to the barn, the vet called me back. Here is the surprising thing: the vet thinks that Isis might not have had another EPM episode/relapse. (Granted, she can’t say for sure since she hasn’t seen Isis.) She said that she thinks Isis might have had a head trauma. Blindness in horses can…
Yesterday morning around 8:00, Chris, the barn owner, went out to give Isis her morning hay. Isis startled when Chris walked around the corner of Isis’ shelter. Isis was shaking and seemed to have trouble focusing her sight. She was anxious and would not lead unless Chris walked next to Isis. Isis would pull back…
A dear friend of mine lost her mare, Cedars BlueMoon, today. Blue was 23 and, in her day, was a mischeivous, playful, smart little Arabian mare. She was also a 3/4 sister to Isis’ dam, Cedars del Taliah. Blue was a bay with four white socks and a pretty white marking on her head. I…
I had to. I just had to. Okay, maybe I didn’t but it was too cute to pass up. What do you do when you find reindeer antlers and santa hats in the store? You take them out to the barn and put them on horses, of course! Only Kasane was brave enough to wear…