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[RC] [Guest] Rascal's EPM Diagnosis - Ridecamp Guest

Tracie Lowe tlowe2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My vet has told me in the past that he usually does not encourage spinal
taps on horses that he feels has EPM.  He uses clinical information gathered
through a thorough assessment of the horse to make his diagnosis.  Reason
being is that a large percentage of horses (greater than 90% of horses if I
remember right) carry the protozoa in their blood and do not have EPM and if
their CSF is contaminated with blood during collection, the horses' CSF will
be positive as well.    And as we can imagine,my vet said it is very hard to
obtain a clean CSF specimen from a horse, for one reason you have to
penetrate alot of tissue to get to the subarachnoid space, and secondly to
have a horse hold completely still for the procedure is another challenge.
My vet basically said so why traumatize your horse, expose them to further
infection by penetrating their dura, and spend all that money when the
treatment would probally not change. I hope this is helpful and I wish
Rascal all the best in his recovery.

Sincerely,
Tracie Lowe



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