I bought my Irish Draught aged five nearly six years ago. In all this time he has not been able to work properly, ie. unbalanced, stiffness, lethargy and unexplained low grade lameness. I have sought help from countless professionals, too many to even think about, and have never had a satisfactory answer. Most vets have put it down to his being a big, fat slob, but despite spending most of his life in starvation paddocks and grazing muzzles, because of our inability to exercise him much, he has been unable to be trim. Anyway at 16.1 and being a HW I don't think at 670KG he is that fat.

Last year I spent many thousands of pounds and had him admitted to a top UK veterinary hospital. Yet again they admitted he had lameness problems but were unable to ascertain why.

Although they were unwilling, I insisted on a muscle biopsy for EPSM. When the results came in I couldn't make head nor tail of them and the vets didn't really know what to make of them either. They advised giving him some time off (like five years isn't enough!) and then getting another muscle biopsy done then (!!).


I would very much appreciate if people could cast their eye over the muscle biopsy report and see if they can shed some light on it.

Thanks

......the histopathological pattern of this formalin-fixed tissue is
rather unspecific and does not shed light on the possible aetiological
background. Without further cryosections, pathological storage of
polysaccharides cannot be confirmed nor ruled out. In some of the
smaller muscle fascicles there are some myofibres undergoing lytic
changes that are quite similar to the early acute stages of
myoglobinuria. The relevance of this fibre pathology remains to be
further clarified. Further data on the blood values and urine would be
helpful for any further interpretation.

Histologically this specimen presents with a normal myofibre density and
physiological conformation of the epimysial and perimysial connective
tissue. Moreover, the intramuscular arteries and nerve branches were
histologically normal. Cross-section and profiles revealed a mild to
moderate myofibrocyte variation with multiple, slightly angleoid fibre
profiles displaying a sarcoplasmic homogenisation and increased
eosinophilia. In addition to theses shrunken, possibly atrophic fibres,
there are multiple hypertrophic myocytes with increased sarcoplasmic
water content. Furthermore, multiple fibres present with contraction
bands and some of them appear disrupted in adjacent areas. Apart from
from sub-fascial regions an internalisation of the myonuclei was not
observed. Likewise, other nuclear abnormalities, as well as a
hyperplasia of the myogenic satellite cells and formation of nuclear
dumps and chains is missing. The pre-processing state of sarcoplasmic
lipid and polysaccharides content, as well as mitochondrial structure
could not be readily evaluated due to formalin fixation. Very
occasionally, myophagocytosis was observed within one of the fragments
but there is no sign of an increased infiltration of the muscle by
leucocytes.............

Jackie ; My wife and I know how you feel , we have a Qtr, horse like that and after thousands of dollars we found out she had lime disease and a torn ligament in her rear leg . If Dr. Valentine sees this post she'll be able to help you out , in the mean time though , have you had a blood test for lime ? This can cause the symptoms that you have described . Also , what is his diet made up of ?

Jackie, the person reading this biopsy is not familiar with how to use formalin fixed tissue to find abnormal polysaccharide. The remainder of the text descibes some mild changes that may or may not be significant. Nothing earthshaking is seen regarding abnormalities which is actually a good thing. I think Butch's suggestion regarding Lyme disease is worth considering, although I don't think you have that in the UK. I'd want to see how he was doing after a 4 month trial of an EPSM diet and exercise.