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.

DSLD - My Name is TigerLily

The Song Remains the Same

From the Ultimate Horse Board
Note: No mention of breed, but other horses owned by poster are QH.

DSLD,Info?
Feb 22 2008, 12:22 AM
Any information you guys can give me? Im going to be googeling it but have any of you guys had to deal with it before? I'm worried about my dads horse as he has really long back pasterns and they almost touch the ground if he goes any faster than a walk. Its just bizzar watching his trot and how he moves off his back feet.

We actually know nothing about what he was used for previously..so we have no idea of any injuries he could have had.. We bought him dirt cheap from a guy who was going to take himto auction cause his wife couldn't ride him and they couldn't keep him.

History is the present.

Another day, another story. Another person looking for answers -- and finding them. Only the names and faces change. Here are some selected quotes from a Gaits of Gold Forum post. I've included the links for each quote, but please read the entire thread for all the details.

http://www.gaitsofgold.info/wowbb/forum43/7288-1.html

Tue Mar 25th, 2008 08:38 pm
I recently bought a 14.3 Paso mare 12 years old from a woman who would tell me nothing about her. I suspected right away there were problems she wasn't telling me about.

http://www.gaitsofgold.info/wowbb/forum43/7288-2.html

Tue Apr 29th, 2008 09:43 pm
...today when I finally took her out on trail, she started trying to rear again when we got to a place where she wanted to turn around and go home. I kept her from rearing but she was very balky and suddenly started scrambling backwards really fast. I've had horses go backwards before and they usually just stop when they see they are going nowhere, but not this one! She scrambled back and got her rump under herself and then reared and flipped over.

http://www.gaitsofgold.info/wowbb/forum43/7288-3.html

Fri May 2nd, 2008 07:11 pm
...what bothers me is she was a good horse for a couple of different riders for nearly 10 years...

and

Sat Jun 14th, 2008 01:59 pm
Yesterday I had my lovely white mare euthanized. It should have been done years ago because she has been in pain for such a long time. When she reared over backwards with me, it was not because of orneriness, it was because her hind legs could not hold her up. She was objecting to being ridden and wanted to go back home but it was because she had an advanced case of DSLD (degenerative suspensory ligament disease) also know as ESPA (equine systemic proteoglandin accumulation).

Lady and Freckles

From: http://www.freewebs.com/userl-tidewater/tidewatershorses.htm

Lady and Freckles (Two registered TBs).

Lady was an 18-month old TB filly euthanized due to DSLD-ESPA.









Freckles is Lady's dam, and she appears to have the upright form of D-E. The rescue director says that Freckles shifts her weight back and forth, and as you'll notice, she has a suspiciously post-legged look. The rescue would like to have Freckles ultrasounded to confirm whether or not she has DSLD-ESPA. Please contact them if you can donate a few $$ towards the ultrasound costs.

Answers...

I don't have anything else new to post about, so here's a link to a Question posted on Yahoo Answers from the young owner of an Arab cross asking people to look at pictures of her gelding and tell her if her horse has DSLD. I tried to post an answer (even though the question is a couple of months old); however, Yahoo won't let me post or even vote. Don't know why. So if you have a Yahoo account, please try to post an answer directing the owner over to the DSLD-Equine forum for answers. And don't be too shocked at some of the answers posted in response to her question.

More horses diagosed..

Links and Quotes from other blogs with DSLD / ESPA horses:

http://along-the-crooked-path.blogspot.com/2007/10/around-farm.html

Lacy, my Connemara mare. Sadly, it has been determined that Lacy is suffering from a disease know as DSLD (more recently renamed ESPA).

http://distancerider.blogspot.com/2007/10/is-it-still-possible.html

First some background: I’ve got over 1000 endurance miles now and have done 50s on 4 different horses (my first endurance horse was retired due to DSLD but he sure taught me a lot!).

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=26431623&blogID=306847599

Well after a very long day at work...Liz decided to put her Fresian Nico to sleep. He has whats called DSLD and it's a disease in the ligaments...its really a bad thing i must say.

Another Quote from Fugly Horse of the Day! and a Comment

Fugly Horse of the Day!: Genetics: It's really not like playing roulette!: "Significantly, HE STAYED SOUND to get a zillion points - which to me is a HUGE reason to breed to him. If you want soundness, start with soundness."

Recently, I read a post on the DSLD Equine group which referred to a report that keeps circulating via the internet. I included the link to the report because I think it's important that people should be able to recognize it immediately for what it is and what it is not.

It IS a report that questions the existence of DSLD/ESPA and challenges the current research.

Although it includes a reference to NAPHA on the title page, it is NOT a report approved by NAPHA, nor can it be found on their website (at least I haven't found it--I did read in their minutes that the report was presented and NOT APPROVED).

Certain websites are circulating this report as a NAPHA report which includes the names of committee members whose contributions were not used nor were they consulted when the report was finalized. These members were upset that not only were their contributions ignored, but the report contains only one viewpoint. They asked to have their names removed. However, the report on the website above still contains their names on the Title Page. Also found in this report is an eMail from an individual who was not asked (nor did they give) permission to use their name or eMail. It's very easy to create a copy of the document and remove the names, eMail, and reference to NAPHA. The only reason I can see for not doing so is because it makes the report seem credible. That said, one website circulating this report did remove the eMail and names from the Title Page; however, the Title Page still says it's a NAPHA sub-committee report. (Technically, I guess that is true, but where is the statement that says NAPHA did NOT approve this report?)

As for the report itself, read it if you like, and keep in mind that

1. Dr Mero's work was peer reviewed before publication,
   
2. Drs Halper and Cothran are internationally known, recognized, and respected for their research. I can't imagine that they'd risk their reputations to research something that doesn't exist. (Would you publicly humiliate yourself in front of your peers?)
   
3. Respected magazines such as THE HORSE, HORSE JOURNAL, and EQUUS have published research findings regarding DSLD/ESPA. Yet, not one of these magazines has published the "report" found circulating on the internet.
   
4. USEF (or the United States Equestrian Foundation--which NAPHA is registered with) helped fund Dr Halper's latest research.
   
5. The AQHA funded Dr Halper's groundbreaking research on tendon and ligament cellular development (involving proteoglycans) in horses.

So, world-renowned researchers, highly esteemed magazines, and organizations such as USEF and AQHA, or some "report" floating around the internet. Who do YOU believe???

PLEASE, if you're breeding or buying, do your homework. Check out siblings, sires/dams, grandsires/granddams, etc. as far back as you can go. My mare (a Nat'l Reserve Champion by the way) didn't show any signs/symptoms of DSLD/ESPA until she was 15 years old. Keep in mind when you're researching the pedigree that this is a systemic condition...look not only for lameness, but early deaths, unexplained illnesses, etc. Because the bottom line is this: Whichever side of the research you're on, the quote from Fugly is applicable. "If you want soundness, start with soundness."

High Suspensory Ligament Injuries in Horses

Interesting article on suspensory ligament injuries. Note the last sentence in the quote below. I wonder if any of the nonresponsive horses were examined for DSLD/ESPA according to Dr Mero's protocols.

High Suspensory Ligament Injuries in Horses: "While shock wave therapy is able to help most of the non-resolving cases, there are specifically difficult situations. First, older horses seem not to respond as well to therapy and in my experience seem prone to re-injury. Second, horses with hind limb high suspensory injuries are often career threatening. While the horse can return to a reasonable degree of athleticism it is often at a lower level than where they were at the time of injury. And finally, horses with progressive chronic dropping of the fetlock are often not responsive to therapy."

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

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

Paso Fino horse suffering from DSLD-ESPA

on the Fugly Horse blog. Click and scroll down to read/view picture.

Another story of heartbreak

Long, but worthwhile reading IMO.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/PPasoRescue/message/732

DSLD Entry From the FuglyHorse Blog

And now a few words about DSLD

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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