New Johnny Post

This is a picture of Johnny and I when I was 17.
I got a call on Friday from a vet at the U of M who talked to a vet at Ohio State who is apparently one of the tope researchers for EPM in the nation. He worked developing both the Marquis drug and the Navigator, both of which Johnny has been on. He game me two options...either finish off the one-month treatment, get an evaluation (neurological), and in a week if he's worse do three weeks of double-dosing Marquis or 3 weeks of single-dosing Navigator, or just do 3 weeks of either the single or double dose of the respective drugs and then do a Neuro exam, which is what I'm choosing to do. At this point nobody can really help me with my horse and it's a little dissapointing when I've gone so far and now nobody has any idea of what to do with him. On the plus side, he's still pain-free, although bored out of his mind, and his laminitus hasn't come back.
Flirt had a dental appointment today, and she is doing well. I am hoping that she simply wasn't chewing her food enough or drinking enough and that's the reason she's been colicing so often.
Also, I am going to be listing my watercolors on eBay, so I can raise some money to pay off some of these huge vet expenses I keep accumulating...
Here's the first one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7386792797

A new update.

A very fuuny thing happened yesterday. Johnny relapsed and is now very ataxic. He is still on Marquis. So I called his local vet, the vet for the Marquis, and went to the U to talk to his vet there, and none of them have any idea what is wrong with my horse any more. Dr. Johnson at the U offered some insight and is going to get ahold of her friend in Florida who works on more EPM cases than she does, to see if he knows what might be going on with my horse. He shouldn't have relapsed while on the drug, but he also shouldn't be going back to normal if he's having problems with arthritis in his cerival vertibre.

A small update

Johnny seems to be doing alright, although he is still doing some leaning. Flirt now keeps him company, as she is also on a diet of soaked complete feeds (no hay) due to her incessant colicing. She has an appointment next week for teeth floating.
Johnny has another 4 weeks of Marquis left before the nest spinal tap.
I also have a website now where you can order a few horse gifts, where the proceeds benefit Johnny.
http://www.cafepress.com/equineelegance

Flirt's update

Flirt came home yesterday. She seems to be doing alright, although she got a fever and is now on antibiotics. The vet thinks that because she had am impacation for so long, her gut actually leaked and caused some toxcity. This could have occured from the impaction lasting too long in one spot, or if she had swallowed a rock, or from the scar tissue from her previous surgery, or from a tumor. So I put her on soaked complete feed ONLY and I'll watch to see what happens. If she colics again it is very likely that she has some scarring from the scar tissue that is causing her to colic, she has a rock stuck in there, or she has a tumor. In any of those cases surgery would be the only option, and I don't know that she would make it through surgery like she was able to 4 years ago. She's now almost 23 years old, and has had a pretty stressful life until I bought her (even afterwards, because of the colic surgery and all her recent colics). So this is her last chance, and if she colics again she'll be put to peace at home, where she's most comfortable.
Johnny continues to improve. That Marquis is working a lot faster this time, and hopefully he'll make it through his EPM relatively alright.
The picture is a picture of Flirt and I the day after one of her colic boughts. She actually went back in to the vet the following day for colic, so she was probably still colicing.

An update

Well, Johnny seems to be doing alright but Flirt, my mare, is back at the vet for colic again. I may have to put her down. She keeps colicing every few weeks and if she's not better by tomorrow I will be having her euthanized. I love her so much. She's my show horse, and my riding horse when Johnny is out of comission, which has been a lot recently.
Johnny seems to be doing mildly better back on the Marquis drug. I hpe her continues to improve.

Today's update

Johnny's last day of the Navigator drug was Monday the second. Within 48 hours he had relapsed. That same day (wednesday) I put him back on Marquis, at the vet's recommendation. Less than 12 hours later, he had developed laminitus, a sign that it is very likely that he still has EPM and is not suffering from other neurological damage. He will be on Marquis for at least a month, then will have a new CSF tap done, and then we'll take it from there.