When you’ve exhausted all your resources and drained your back account, trying to find what is wrong with your horse, then what do you do? You dig a little deeper, research longer and keep asking questions. You get told you are crazy, your horse has got the better of you, and mostly you are making stuff up. You consider euthanasia but the good days come and you are left feeling hopeful and yet still frustrated. 

Here is the story of my beloved Tuned up Whiz it, aka Whizzy.  Her current diagnosis is PSSM type 2 via biopsy and n/P2, n/Px n/MYHM via EquiSeq DNA testing.

I met Whizzy the fall of 2009, she was 4 years old. Her price was way out of my range due to her breeding and intense training to be a reining  horse.  Whizzy just could not spin in one direction fast enough to meet the needs of the owner. She needed to move her fast as she had already bought another 2 year old. I took her on trial and I had x-rays that revealed some changes in her right front hoof, my farrier thought it no big deal. I  made a super low offer and the lady said yes, Whizzy was coming home. Little did I know that Whizzy would be a learning journey into the world of muscle disease not only for me but her story has reached all over the globe to help countless horses. 

Prior to this time I had owned hundreds of horses and trained and restarted troubled ones. This was to be my last horse, I was 54 at the time , we would grow old together and cruise our beautiful trails and working on being a bridle horse, a dream I had for a very long time.   Little did I know at the time that my dreams would all come crashing down in the very near future. 

Things started to unravel little by little, in 2011 Whizzy was  Injured during a training session, left front, lots of stall rest and pasture time. 8 months to recover, looking back now  it was a tie up not an injury as we never found anything wrong via the normal means and she could not recover because of time off and most likely all the wrong things in diet. I believe she was having repeated episodes during the layoff. After the 8 months I had a short period of time that she felt awesome and I was living high on my dreams again with my golden girl. 

Then in April 2012 she was cast in her stall at midnight, luckily found by my daughter who lived at the barn.  That was to be the beginning of the end of any dreams I had with Whizzy, looking back I am positive she tied up that night and got herself hung up. Lots and lots of body work, we thought maybe some fractured ribs, she could not seem to recover. She would come out of her stall dead lame and I would put her in pasture but then in pasture she floated like a super star. But then later in day she would normally go psycho and come up dead lame. The lame not lame pattern and extremes to high anxiety would continue and make vets, farriers and myself go totally crazy, nothing ever showing up with diagnostics. Every shoe type was tried to no avail, I fired so many farriers thinking they all were lousy. 

She started to have minor twitches on her chest; there were odd muscle patterns on her sternum area. Her udders swelled up and she started acting like a stallion. Later blood tests revealed high testosterone but no granulosa cell tumor or any other reason why she had testosterone. Later vets said perhaps her body was producing testosterone to cope with pain, who knows. Later on I thought perhaps soy in her diet, but really don’t know for sure.

The symptoms that started to manifest and seem odd and unexplainable; her temporal muscles were absolutely huge, at one point like the size of my fist. Around the same time there would be days that I could barely get her halter on, then on some days easily slide up to hole #4. Someone suggested sluggish lymph system and so we tried herbs which helped but the swelling would come and go.  She was starting to get bitchy about me touching her udders or stomach areas by this time I had already treated for ulcers a few times. Her neck was touchy, we x-rayed that also and found nothing, she made growling type noises when eating with head down. 

During this time she was getting hard to saddle, she worried and moved around, she acted like she had never seen a saddle before and even worse with bridle, eyes wide open she would act like I was going to beat her. Getting on her she was also very tight and bothered but once on board and given a job she was fine although stiff as a 2 x 4, nothing I had ever done would change that. Her canter felt horrible, side to side and then then forward. The only thing that kept her somewhat okay was CranioSacral therapy. She could not be touched by chiropractor. Had to be sedated for acupuncture, we used Bowen therapy with some success. 

Then I finally witnessed her first major muscle episode, at the time had no idea what I was witnessing. I thought she was being stung by bees and her whole left rib cage was in full spasms. I was researching every day trying to piece things together, was starting to have some tests done, even though she was young we tested for Cushings because of high testosterone, had hair analysis done, kept coming up empty. My one vet just told me she had an attitude; she had my number and was playing me. I actually let those words persuade me to put her in training for 30 days. It was horrible; she tried her heart out but was in panic mode every time she got touched, nothing got better, only got worse. Whizzy has forgiven me for those 30 days, but I don’t know if I can forgive myself, I really let her down at that time. 

Around July of 2014 I asked a vet that had come to the barn what she would think would be wrong with this list of symptoms, Muscle twitches, lame not lame, high testosterone, fat forehead, and  a few other things. She said PSSM and cushings. So I found the PSSM forum and thought, YES this is it, she has PSSM. So I had her tested right away for type 1, sadly it was negative. I was devastated and did not know what to think. It was a few months before I would understand that there was a type 2 and that I would need a biopsy, this was prior to EquiSeq. In the mean time I x-rayed some more, put her on Regumate to control testosterone, after ultrasounds and blood test to rule out tumors. I checked her for insulin resistance, ruled out lyme disease, did lots more body work, muscle energy work. 

Finally a year later I had a biopsy done, had to go through several vets to find one that would do it local. She came back Mild type 2 PSSM, my vet emailed the report and that was it, no help from her.  I had my answer though and immediately did the diet recommendations Dr. Valberg had spelled out on the written report. Problem is that things got worse, way worse. She was tying up all the time, she became insanely spooky and scary to handle. She would be fine one minute and then losing her mind the next. I gave up trying to ride her cause getting her ready was just too  much stress on both of us, I would try on occasion and it would be so horrible. I would try working her without saddle in morning and then come back later in day and try with saddle. I would lunge her first thinking she would be warmed up and then try and put saddle on but she would always amp up after 10 minutes and then come up dead lame. I just did not understand that her amped up times were most likely when she was in full spasm. One of my videos shows her running around me and she is in full spasm but at the time that video was taken I did not realize this. 

Then entered EquiSeq, they were asking for horses that had biopsies and positive for type 2. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain, I was in a place where I was ready to put Whizzy down, there was no quality of life and I was scared of her on some days. September 2015 I had blood drawn to send in as part of the study along with several other horses I owned at the time. December 2015 a diagnosis of n/P2, I felt like I was getting some answers. However it was another year before I would get another part of her diagnosis which answered some more questions. During that year I still struggled to keep her going, still tying up all the time, on average every 2 months. The Facebook groups were a lifeline but it was also very confusing with so much information that much of the time was conflicting, there were also the people who told me I just had a horse that needed a more experienced handler. It was a very sad and lonely time but I was determined I was going to find answers and help my girl get back to normal. 

She was diagnosed on November 2016 with a Navicular Cyst, in the hoof of the leg that was always in spasm. In December  of 2016 I get  another report from EquiSeq with diagnosis of n/Px, Whizzy was the first horse to ever receive that diagnosis. I was  hoping this information could help me manage her and it was. Paul Szauter at EquiSeq said since it was most likely affecting her calcium channels that dantrolene should help, and it did.  In January of 2017 with the help of dantrolene I was able to exercise her without tying up, she went wild and it was worrisome watching her waiting for her to get crippled, but she didn’t. She started doing better after I understood more of what was happening in her body and not trying to push her through it. In April she had a mild episode and since then has been managed without these episodes. It was still a few more years later that I got the final (I think final) diagnosis of n/MYH1 (IMM or MYHM) gene and that really answered some lingering questions. Since EquiSeq had Whizzy’s full DNA sequence on file, when IMM was able to be diagnosed via DNA they notified me of this final part. You see Whizzy seemed to have both RER and NER she would have episodes with exercise but also without.  There were copious amounts of supplements tried and failed. There were thousands upon thousands of dollars spent on body workers. I have always been holistic in my approach to taking care of horses but Whizzy has been on regumate, dantrolene, robaxin, previcox, pentosan, and ace to try and manage her. I am happy to say she is mostly drug free now, she needs previcox for her navicular but her muscle disease seems to be mostly managed. Have not seen her have any episodes in a few years although I know they can happen in her stall when no one is with her. Many will say this disease does not exist, that the diagnosis means nothing because it’s not yet peer reviewed. For Whizzy its means everything, it literally saved her life. Is she rideable, no, would some people have kept her alive this long, probably not. I had the ability and was able to and so I fought to save her, she has been my second heart horse, my best teacher, and on many days she has saved me. I call her my  “stop and smell the roses” horse. She makes me slow down, take time, just be, and enjoy the beauty all around me, which of course also includes her! I try and be a lifeline to those in the same shoes I was in, an encourager, a supporter someone who understands and listens.  I encourage everyone I talk with that has horses suffering and have no answers to get the DNA test from EquiSeq. Then I encourage listening to those that have gone before them to try and manage with the knowledge we now have gathered through experience. And most important I tell them to listen to your horse as they are not bad, they are not trying to ruin your day, they are just hurting.