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 Post subject: EPM
PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:43 am 
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Joined: Wed May 27, 2015 10:20 am
Posts: 515
I received this email from a woman with a filly with EPM:

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I have a young 15 month old filly who has just been diagnosed w two different EPM protozoa. She's at the University of Georgia Vet School Clinic right now, and they started treatment this week w Marquis and Banamine, which she will get for 4 months.

I know that the EPM protozoa attach themselves to the spinal cord in the neck, causing lesions ... and these lesions can cause permanent neurological damage. The Marquis kills off the protozoa, and the Banamine is an anti-imflammatory to keep the inflammation reduced as the dead protozoa are flushed out of her system. Other than daily doses of Vitamin E (a neurologic / spinal cord / nerve protectant) they are not giving her anything else. I will pick her up and bring her home sometime next week, and continue her treatments at home.

Here's a little history >>
When she was 2 or 3 months old (early summer 2009), she was knocked down and stepped on by a mare at the breeding farm where she was born. Her breeder saw that happen, and her Ataxia (neurological imbalance and unsteadiness) started immediately. She called her Vet to come out, and he drew the blood work for EPM, which came back as a "weak positive". They gave her the 60 day treatment with Marquis, and she showed signs of improvement. But the question was never really resolved as to whether her imbalance issues were from the EPM, or from being stepped on. I bought her "as is" with a huge price reduction, at the end of the summer 2009 and she was shipped from Illinois to my place in January of 2010. Its about a 14 hour drive (??) and when she got here, she was down in the trailer, and subsequently down in my paddock for another 36 hours. (Just recently, I found something online about how trailering / hauling EPM horses compromises their immune systems and makes them worse !!!) My Vet gave her Butte and Banamine, and she got up on her own. It was a snowy icey winter, and my paddocks are not the smoothest in the world, and she kept slipping and hurting herself. I built a small paddock in my front yard (the most level piece of ground I have) and moved her into that ... but still, when she would try to turn around, she'd go down on her butt. I moved her to a boarding stable early in the early summer and she improved immediately -- being able to run, brake herself to a stop, and cut corners without wipping out. But still you could tell she was not 100% okay, so I wanted X rays -- thinking she had an old injury from when she was stepped on. Could not find a Vet w portable X ray equipment, so I got a referral and made an appointment at U of GA. Down there, they diagnosed her w Wobblers or EDM, w an Ataxia grade of 3/4, and told me that the norm was to euthanize horses who were a grade 2/3 -- a full grade level better off than SenSee. They did NOT think she had EPM, but AT MY INSISTENCE, they drew the bloodwork and sent it to UC Davis. It came back last week as a "strong positive" with the 2 different protozoa. They started the Marquis/ Banamine treatment at once, but are still painting a very bleak picture for her future, telling me that the Marquis will NOT take her to the point of total healing -- that it will only "stablize" her condition, by killing the protozoa that she has in her body, but that the spinal cord damage from the leasions will never go away ... ...... so .... Im hoping and praying to find something that will help eliminate the lesions on her spinal cord -- and anything that I can do to boost her immune system, while she is on the Marquis treatment, and beyond. Any input would be a huge blessing for my little SenSee. She's too sweet and too young and too beautiful to be going thru this -- and I will NOT give up on her without fighting like a crazed wild woman.

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 Post subject: Re: EPM
PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:47 am 
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My sympathy for your bad luck and that of your filly. I have long been impressed how similar the malarial P. falciparum is to the EPM's Sarcocystis neurona. It has been my theory that how the Sarcoystis n. gets across the blood/brain barrier is that the Sarcocystis parasizes the red blood cells and/or white blood cells. These infected cells can then pass the brain/blood barrier very easily and carry the parasite along with them! If I were you, I would think very seriously about trying sodium chlorite on her. I have a webpage devoted to the subject and which may be viewed at:

http://racehorseherbal.net/naclo2.html

You should note that this sodium chlorite therapy was accidently stumbled upon by a S. American explorer treating malaria! I would bet it could be equally effective for EPM! I would also consider combining it with DMSO to help it cross the blood brain barrier.

Lastly, I have been a student of an old vet, Dr. W. Belfield that use to practice in California. He had formulated some remarkable protocols and successful treatments on dogs using intravenous Vitamin C megadoses. He has had some excellent success treating spinal cord damaged dogs with Vitamin C iv. Vitamin C is very important in all types of immune system functions and in repairing damage in structures that are made up of collagen. He has treated canine spinal degeneration very successfully with Vit C. I see no reason why it would not work on the horse. I know, Vitamin C is still to this day very controversial, but from my experience, it is extremely valuable and the reason why vets and MDs look down upon it now is they simply do not know how to prescribe it, nor use it. I would have your filly on massive doses of Vitamin C! Hopefully you can find a vet that will give it IV in megadoses, if not, then at the very least you should be supplementing her with it yourself! I would not go with just any type of Vitamin C, but Liposomal Vitamin C and make it yourself! Only Liposomal Vitamin C can get directly into the blood stream and go directly to the liver and the cells which need it. The digestive juices of the equine GI tract will greatly hinder the use of plain old vitamin C. You can read about it at these pages:

http://racehorseherbal.net/let.html

http://racehorseherbal.net/vit_c.html

NOTE and this is important, you should not use sodium chlorite and Vitamin C at the same time! Vitamin C will deactivate sodium chlorite. I would probably allow a 24 hour period between each treatment type.

You might also consider as a last ditch effort dilute Hydrochloric acid therapy. I have done some work on this. Agreed this is a shot in the dark, but if sodium chlorite fails. It might be of use:

http://racehorseherbal.net/hcl.html

Feel free to contact me and keep me informed how things go!

good luck,

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