Chances of owning two DSLD/ESPA horses?

Here's an older discussion from CotH involving those who have owned or knew someone who owned more than one DE Horse.  Horses listed in the discussion include Appy, TB, TWH, Arab, & Peruvian.

Another Sad Story

Here's another horse euthanized due to DSLD-ESPA:  A Sad Story

Esmeralda is a Paso, a Peruvian breed of horse with a smooth swaying gait. They are charming animals, but their breed is prone to DSLD, a disease where little tears form in the ligaments, but do not repair with the same elasticity as before. Eventually a horse with DSLD cannot walk or stand. They are in constant pain. There is no cure.

While this is tragic for the family, I hope they find some peace and comfort in knowing they allowed their beloved mare to pass away peacefully and with dignity.  Until the research provides us with more answers, that's about all any of us can do.

Mariposa Lazo - 20 May 1985 to 15 June 2005

Another one gone.

wolflahti: Mariposa Lazo - 20 May 1985 to 15 June 2005

Mariposa Lazo - 20 May 1985 to 15 June 2005


It’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining for the first time in weeks, the sky is a clear blue, and the wind is warm...

And my horse is dead.

...

She is twenty, not really that old, even for a Peruvian Paso but she suffers from DSLD, degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis (equine connective tissue disorder).

...

Good-bye, Mari. You were as good a horse as anyone has a right to ask for.

And from the comment section on this blog:

Alisandro was calling for Mari every fifteen minutes or so throughout the first night, but now that it's a few days later, he seems to have accepted that she's not coming back - at least not anytime soon. He too is a Peruvian Paso and likewise has early stages of DSLD, and he made himself quite sore pacing the fence that first evening.

Goodbye Marimba

The day we put Marimba to sleep, I woke up thinking about Tina, my dog, who missed her 16th birthday by two weeks. I rescued her at six weeks old, and she had been with me ever since. It was the first time I had been faced with making *that* kind of decision. I found it odd that upon waking, Tina was the one in my thoughts instead of Marimba, but there she was.

Goodbyes are never easy, especially when they are final. Worse yet is the goodbye we must say when we made the decision. I made the choice not to end her life, but to end her pain. We like to think they'll be better off. We say goodbye dear friend. I love you. I will miss you. But whether or not they understand us, we don't know. There's regret, a very heavy heart, and a void left where there was once joy.

Marimba's final moments were spent here at home with me and my husband saying Goodbye. My vet offered to load Marimba on the trailer, take her away, and euthanize her at the clinic. But I couldn't bear the thought of her final moments being afraid in an unfamiliar place with strangers. It is important to say goodbye. And so we did.

Death is Nothing at All
by Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918)

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I, and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
that we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect,
without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you,
for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just around the corner.

All is well.

Goodbye Marimba. I love you. I miss you.

Paso Finos affected too!

2007 post from the American Paso Fino Boards.  Kudos to them for having an open discussion:

http://www.americanpasofinos.com/forum/showpost.php?p=152765&postcount=6

More Paso Fino owners have been showing up on the D/E (shortening
DSLD/ESPA for equine systemic proteoglycan accumulation) yahoo list
lately with positive cases. Along with a lot of other breeds. Latest
one a Percheron/Morgan cross. There is currently a DSLD positive Paso
Fino at a rescue here in WAshington state who's 38 yrs old! I was
amazed the old fellow's still around.


Just to add re symptoms:

early symptoms often are vague- slight 'offness' in gait, fetlock
swelling that might come and go, resistance to work in a horse that's
normally a forward mover. Fetlocks don't always drop, a good number of
horses remain pretty upright or even contract up. One of my Peruvian
cases dropped, the other's angles actually contracted over time. And a
lot of evidence now that tendons are affected as much and sometimes
more than suspensories. My gelding also had very loose skin, something
some but not all seem to show. Latest thinking of researcher Dr.
Jaroslava Halper at Univeristy of Georgia is that it's systemic
connective tissue disease similar to Marfans disease in humans. It has
to progress to a certain point before it can be identified in the legs
through the current diagnostic protocol, which can befound at the link
posted or also at Dr. Mero's site, dsld.org. The protocol includes flex
tests and ultrasounds by a vet who needs to know where and how to do
the measurements.

Another Case of DE

From the Horse.com Forum
13 y/o Peruvian Paso
http://forum.horse.com/tm.asp?m=767749&mpage=1

I am wondering if anyone has experience with dsld horses. I have a Peruvian Paso mare that is around 13 years old and has been having some issues. She started about 5 years ago and then stabilized with a barefoot natural trim. It seems as if things have been progressing and she is having more troubles walking with her hinds- very dropped fetlocks and tight muscles, walking wide, ect. I have the vet coming out today, but wondering if anyone had any other ideas.

Lessons Learned

A horse owner wrote Don West regarding her DSLD-ESPA diagnosed Peruvian Horse. She didn't get a vet check and believed the owners when they told her the horse was "out of condition." You can read her letter here on Don West's website. (Note: This letter and reply were written four years ago. There is more information on DSLD-ESPA available now than there was then.)

In his reply, Don West states that DSLD is found in many breeds.
TRUE! There are many members participating on the DSLD-ESPA Equine Yahoo Group, and they own various horse breeds affected by DSLD-ESPA.

Don also states in his reply that Paso Finos don’t seem to have the problem. Sorry Don, there are owners of DSLD-ESPA affected PFs on the DSLD-ESPA Equine Yahoo Group, also.

For those with recently diagnosed horses: Members of the DSLD-ESPA Equine Yahoo Group are trying a few experimental treatments (treatments--not cures) with some success. If you have a horse with DSLD-ESPA, please consider joining the DSLD-ESPA Equine Yahoo Group and participating in these trials.

Regarding the "Misdiagnosis" article referred to in my 9 Dec 07 entry: The comments below are observations made by Gordon DeWolf, PhD, and are published here with his consent.

********************************

Guest Post

********************************

Recently I was referred to site called Friends of the Peruvian Horse. This site purports to provide the general public with accurate information about Peruvian Horses.


I do not claim to be knowledgeable about Peruvian Horses ¬ but two sections of the site disturb me greatly. The section entitled History seems to be not as carefully researched as it should have been and the site entitled Research Articles seems to be somewhat misleading.


It would seem to me that a website purporting to promote the Peruvian Horse breed should be scrupulously accurate.


My comments on those two sections follow:

The history of the Peruvian Paso Horse, its ancestry and relationship to the Paso Fino Horse.

The horses sent to the West Indies for breeding after 1493 came, for the most part, from the districts of Spain called Andalusia and Estremadura.


Both the modern Andalusian of European and all horses of Spanish extraction in the New World are descendants of the sixteenth-century Spanish jennet, the type of horse then bred in the provinces of Estremadura and Andulacia.² Deb Bennett, Conquerors, p. 159).


The Barb did enter into the ancestry of the Jennet. However the jennet was the product of Barbs crossed onto native Spanish horses, beginning about about 800 AD. (the time of the conquest of Spain by the Moors) The jennet, which was imported to the New World, was what we would, today, call a grade horse of mixed Barb and native Spanish horse ancestry (Deb Bennett, Conquerors, p.130) In general the jennet could both pace and trot. (Deb Bennett, Conquerors, pp. 195-196)


(The Andalusian (as we know it today) dates from well after the takeover of the Spanish throne by Charles 1 of the Netherlands.)


Starting in 1493, horse breeding farms were established in all of the new Spanish colonies in the West Indies and Central and South America.


Nicaragua was settled around 1524-5. Horse breeding began with horses from the farms in the West Indies. These were the horses, raised on the breeding farms in Nicaragua, and Panama that were imported into Peru, beginning with Pizarro in 1531. They represent the same base stock which subsequently became, in Central America, the West Indies, and northern South America, what we now call Paso Fino. Most subsequent importations of horses into Peru were from these same Central American and West Indian sources.


In 1536 Argentina was settled and Spanish horses established there. In 1539, 40 horses from the Nicaraguan ranches were exported to Argentina (Deb Bennett, Conquerors, p 186). By 1830 Argentinean mules (and presumably horses) were driven across the Andes and sold in the horse market in Lima.


In about 1560 it is recorded that there were about 4,000 mares in Peru. Presumably there was then no pressing need to import more horses.


What we, today, call Paso Finos and Peruvian Pasos have developed from the same basic stock. In the West Indies the original Spanish stock was interbred with horses brought, during the colonial Period, from New England and the other British Colonies. In Colombia and the rest of Spanish America, the original Spanish stock was apparently relatively undiluted. Most differences in appearance between Paso Finos and Peruvians are due to difference in climate and hence animal survival up until the early 1800s, and to stylistic selection since that time. As a note, what the Peruvians call termino is a characteristic inherited from the jennet. In Colombia, it is regarded as a fault (Deb Bennett, Conquerors, p 218). In Spain there are (or were) a few lines of Andalusian where it was perpetuated (Sylvia Loch, The Royal Horse of Europe, P. 118).

Friends of the Peruvian Horse, Research Articles

Any meaningful scientific investigation must, to begin with, determine what single thing it is going to investigate. And any meaningful critique of a scientific investigation must critique the particular investigation and not something else.

(1) The phenomenon which has been called DSLD is a degenerative breakdown of the suspensory ligaments and tendons in two or four legs that is not the result of trauma. It is clearly shown in ultrasound scans, and does not "heal" with time (as shown by further ultrasound scans). In early stages it may appear to go into remission (sometimes for periods of months or years), but it always recurs. It is likely that most or all of the so-called cures of DSLD (cases which have been originally verified by ultrasound examination) represent these periods of quiescence which are simply normal in the development of the disease. Use of special supplements or therapeutic hoof trimming has no effect on the progression of the disease, whether or not they have a palliative effect. True cure can only be determined by a change in subsequent ultrasound exams.


DSLD appears to be the end result of physical and physiological changes in an animal, brought about by over production of proteoglycans in the whole body. Depending on the individual animal, the course of the bodily changes may be rapid (the animal showing classic DSLD at an early age) or slow (the animal showing DSLD at an advanced age ¬ 18-20 years or even later). Biopsy of the nuchal ligament is the best way of confirming the diagnosis before classic lameness symptoms appear.


(2) DSLD is to be distinguished from suspensory desmitis which usually occurs in one limb as a result of trauma or excessive stress, which does heal with time and may well not recur under normal use of the horse.


(3) A third phenomenon, related to the first is the determination that all horses with bilateral or quadrilateral DSLD (upright or dropped form) have a hypo production of proteoglycans which, among other things, interfere with normal healing or repair of suspensory tissues.


(4) Horses with bi- or quadri-lateral DSLD may not express the symptoms until the suspensories are stressed. It can, however by detected, in asymptomatic animals, by the use of an ultrasound examination.


Horses which are developing the disease but which do not show symptoms (asymptomatic) will fail a flexion test either on a pair of legs or on all four legs. Horses failing the flexion test on at least two legs should be given an ultrasound test on both legs following the protocol of Dr Mero.


(5) Bi- or quadri-lateral DSLD may first be expressed with an episode of slight, ill-defined lameness which responds to a month or more of rest. The period of normalcy which follows the rest period may continue for many months, until the ligaments are stressed again. This period of apparent normalcy may give the impression that the problem has been cured. Subsequently, lameness may appear in the other pair of legs.


(6) During the periods of normalcy, between episodes of lameness, the horse may be conditioned to perform normally. For example, my horse (for at least two years) could be conditioned to do 5-6 miles per day, 5 or 6 days per week, at about 5 mph for months on end. One day of 8-10 miles, however, would produce a bout of lameness. That amount of condition would be quite enough to allow a horse to compete successfully under show ring conditions. In other words, asymptomatic horses are perfectly capable of performing in the show ring. To put it another way, just because a horse performs well in the show ring does not mean that it does not have the beginnings of DSLD.


Sometimes this period of normalcy may be prolonged by medication which masks the pain, but does not slow the progression of the disease.


It appears that none of the "cures" instanced in either paper were confirmed by ultrasound analysis.


(7) The phenomenon called DSLD seems to be an inherited problem, and inherited in a manner that strongly suggests that it is caused by a single recessive gene.


With regard to the FRIENDS OF THE PERUVIAN HORSE RESEARCH ARTICLES the proposition is made that what has been called DSLD ¬ or what might properly described as bilateral degeneration of the suspensory ligaments - has been used by some people to give the Peruvian Paso breed a bad name.


Four points need to be made. (1) DSLD is not the only physical problem in the Peruvian Paso breed. Over the past 11 years I have had full pre-purchase exams done on 6 Peruvian Pasos, who were apparently sound at the time of the exam. Only 1 of the six proved to be truly sound. I must explain that I was seeking a horse able to compete in competitive trail trials. This requires a horse that is physically and mentally sound. The first horse quickly developed episodes of ill-defined lameness. Subsequent ultrasound exams showed deterioration of the top portions of the suspensory ligaments in both front legs. Over a period of 5 years the lameness increased until, eventually, it was not possible to keep the horse comfortable with drugs, and he had to be put down. The second horse failed the flexion test on three legs. Whatever the nature of his problem, he was not sound. The third horse had OCD in one front leg. The fourth horse had deterioration of the latissimus dorsi muscle on both side of the spine. He also had some sort of physiological problem than made it impossible for him to put on weight. The fifth horse had multiple bone spurs in two hooves. The sixth horse vetted sound and has remained sound for four years.


So, in my experience, 16 % of the horses examined had DSLD, 83% of the horses examined were unsound in one way or another, and only 16% proved to be sound. 16% of horses turning out to be sound on a thorough examination does not speak well for the soundness of the breed. Let me reiterate that all of the horses examined appeared to be sound to the naked eye, and when ridden, at the time of the exam.


(2) Sweeping serious physical bred problems under the carpet will not make the breed more attractive to potential buyers. Selling supposedly sound horses, but horses which are actually unsound, to people new to the breed tells new buyers and prospective new buyers that the people who sell (breed) Peruvian Pasos are either ignorant of their breed, ignorant about horses in general, or are not reliable people with whom to do business. Such people do the reputation of the breed far more harm than those people who acknowledge the breed problems, continue to own and use truly sound Peruvian Pasos and extol the virtues of truly sound horses.


(3) Most, if not all, technical journals expect that the papers submitted for publication will be written by be people knowledgeable in the particular field being discussed, ¬ and those papers are submitted for review to other persons knowledgeable in that particular area of the field for review of facts and conclusions. Snide comments and innuendos about other students in the field are not tolerated. It is expected that an author or a reviewer will provide full and complete data (verifiable facts and figures to substantiate his/her conclusions.


It does not appear that any of the authors of these two papers have expertise in matters veterinary ¬ nor does it appear that people knowledgeable in veterinary medicine have reviewed these papers. Further, it does not appear that the authors have differentiated DSLD from other causes of lameness.


(4) No figures are given as to the number of horses diagnosed with DSLD by verifiable ultrasound examination. No figures are given as to how many horses recover from verifiably diagnosed DSLD ¬ and this recovery verified by ultrasound examination and /or biopsy. No data is presented as to the subsequent use of the allegedly recovered horses. No data is given as to the length of time the verifiably, or allegedly, recovered horses remained sound. No figures are given as to how many horses showing DSLD as verified by ultrasound exams, had developed that condition by poor nutrition, poor farrier care, poor training, poor riding, or any of the other alleged causes of DSLD. Neither are figures given as to the ultrasound verified recovery of these horses.


Lacking ultrasound verified figures, the speculations detailed in these two papers are merely unverified conjectures which serve no useful purpose.

ScienceDirect - Journal of Equine Veterinary Science : Diagnostic criteria for degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis in Peruvian Paso horses

ScienceDirect - Journal of Equine Veterinary Science : Diagnostic criteria for degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis in Peruvian Paso horses

Peruvian Pasos are NOT the only affected breed

http://forums.ablackhorse.com/lofiversion/index.php?t19968.html

The entire horse community needs to be informed, unite, and fund the research to eradicate this disease before it's too late.

Getting rid of DSLD-ESPA (horses that is)

Hmmm, a couple more links:

http://www.bluebonnetequine.org/about/contact.htm

http://www.topix.net/forum/city/eubank-ky/T0D2905NHMTM83DHU/p2 (scroll down to last post)

Could this be a trend? Note on the equine rescue website it states:

Crimson was donated after developing Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis (DSLD).

And here's a quote from the second link:
The breeders in Peru would cull horses that had any defects by shooting them. They would not sell them or even give them away because they did not want these faults in either gait, confirmation, or temperament passed down. Breeders in this country get rid of their culls in a different way, they sell them to some unsuspecting person. At one time I thought the Peruvian Pasos were probably the safest horse to buy. I have changed my mind completely though since DSLD is very common in the Peruvians now.

If You Ride Your DSLD/ESPA Horse, be Prepared

for comments like this one found in this forum. Scroll about halfway down the page. Look at the picture with the caption It was painful to see this poor Peruvian

Video: 1981 Peruvian Paso mare affected with DSLD - ESPA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FshquBJVeBw

Diagnosis & Symptoms

The first time I noticed something wrong with my mare, she seemed to be a little "off" in the rear. Nothing I could put my finger on, but I recognized something wasn't right. I thought she might be getting arthritis as she was 15 y/o.

The first two vets who looked at her couldn't find anything wrong with her. The third vet said she was off in the front, not the rear. The fourth vet diagnosed her with EPM and I paid several $ for Marquis treatment. When she didn't get better, we saw the fifth vet who correctly diagnosed her with what was then called DSLD.



Symptoms
As previously stated, the first thing *I* noticed was the subtle change in my mare's gait. However, after speaking to other owners of horses with DSLD/ESPA, I realized that she displayed some symptoms before the gait change...I just didn't recognize them. It was much later that her fetlocks/pasterns began to drop. This was a very painful time for her.

After a bit of research on the internet, I discovered that dropped fetlocks or dropped pasterns aren't the only symptom of DSLD/ESPA. Sometimes, horses with DSLD/ESPA have their fetlocks or pasterns contract upwards instead of dropping.

Below is a list of symptoms copied from the DSLDequine.info website (Thank you Bunny). Text in red indicates symptoms (in no particular order) that my mare experienced.

Symptoms include:

Sudden onset of heat & pain and swelling in suspensory branches and/or whole fetlock area. Body of Suspensory and/or tendons may also be painful to palpation. Horse may refuse to walk at this stage. Some horses show no lameness at onset, some become severely lame. Often laying down and moaning showing a false colic is present during onset. This is a painful time for the horse.

• Unexplained lameness
• Stumbling and tripping
• Leg cramp, frequent stretching of leg, frequent stomping (not caused by flies landing), lifting leg high and holding, biting at suspensory branches
• Maybe one, two or all legs, may seem to move around from leg to leg in early stages. After onset will be bilateral.
• Heat & swelling in fetlock area, maybe localized on inside or outside of fetlock or could be whole whole fetlock area.
• Soreness in Suspensory ligament on palpation especially in the suspensory branches.
• Enlarged Suspensory ligament and in the suspensory branches.
• May also be lumpy along suspensory.
• Palpation of suspensory may feel so tight and hard like an over stretched guitar string about to snap. Or may feel enlarged and mushy/soft.
• Laying down a lot and trouble getting up, dog sitting before standing.
• Reluctance to move once up but seem to work out of it with time
• Back pain/soreness or soreness/stiffness in hips.
• Digging holes to stand in with toes pointing toward hole.
• Sitting on fences, buckets, rocks
• Horse may become irritable, change in attitude
• Pasterns may be horizontal during weight bearing, or maybe upright with no sign of dropped fetlocks.
• Sweet potato fetlocks- fluid filled, odd shaped overly large fetlocks.
• Dropped pasterns
• Windpuffs in the fetlock area. May show no lameness at this stage.
• Walking wide in rear legs is often seen when rear legs are affected first.
• Stiff robot like movement.

Occasional Symptoms include: (these symptoms sometimes appear before suspensory ligament is affected)

• Broken crest
• Sudden onset of severe allergies to fly spray, bug bites, total body hives for unknown reason
• Extremely sensitive to touch, white hairs grow in areas that were touch sensitive.
• False colics -- laying down and moaning but not rolling, looking at flanks, but normal gut sounds.
• Shifting weight from foot to foot with toe stabbed into ground.
• Sudden loss of weight and horse appears to look older than its age.
• Some horses with ESPA show very loose skin along with premature aging.
• Refusal to walk downhill.
• Change in horses' normal gait, short striding, an unusual hopping gait.
• Refusal to canter.
• Landing toe first when moving
• Stabbing toe into ground while moving.
• Fetlock knuckling over.
• Extreme rope walking, braiding
• Refusal or difficult to pick up feet for farrier, pulling away, falling over when farrier picks up feet.
• Falling over or falling into stall walls, leaning on walls or fences for support. (Many times these horses are misdiagnosed as EPM or WNV or neurological with this symptom.)
• Change in conformation to coon footed post legged stance.

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