No. 133. Sharon May Davis discusses Equine Complex Vertebral Malformation (ECVM)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- Sharon’s passion for horses was first noticed when she was caught riding a bush horse at 4 years of age. She would climb up the front leg and haul herself up onto the back via the mane proud as a peacock. She still doesn’t know to this day how she survived, but by 14 she was working with racehorses and riding competitively in the show ring and winning up to Open Minor Royal classes by 18.
Her desire to understand the biomechanics of the horse led her down the path of dissections and research and if that wasn’t enough, she built horse skeletons where students could move the limbs so to have a better understanding of the leg in motion. This became a critical factor when she rehabilitated or assisted in the selection of horses for performance riders in Australia and overseas. Her keen eye for detail saw her involved with horses that became or were already the Australian Champion in 8 different disciplines, with some competing at WEG and or the Olympics.
With Equine degrees and a number of other qualifications in tow, Sharon’s research and published scientific papers have seen her lecture around the World as a key note or guest speaker at numerous events. So with this in mind, Sharon will be speaking on one of the current topics associated with her research - Equine Complex Vertebral Malformation (ECVM), or the Congenital Malformation of the 6th and 7th Cervical Vertebrae.
I finally got to hear her speak on this subject! Thank you so much! I had to put down my beautiful 5 year old APHA paint gelding with the C6 malformation of the missing left transverse process. They couldn’t radiograph the C7 but after listening to this and going back and watching all the video I have of him I’m pretty convinced he must’ve also had the malformed ribs and C7. Oh, he also had Wobblers in three cervical joints. He had all the classic signs that she shows here; the proprioception and ataxia in the front legs, tilting his head to the side, very strange muscle formations and reaction in his neck, shoulders, forearm, girth, etc. He also had pinched in elbows. I tried to donate him to our local university vet school but it was a holiday weekend. Just like she said, he was amiable and always tried to be a good boy. He did, however, have some habits that I’ve never seen in a horse, I.e. constantly moving his head, he was BUSY and never stopped moving his head! Oh, his palmar angles were 0 degrees and -2 degrees and his coffin bones were very crooked and high on the outsides. From his pole to the middle of his rib cage down to his front feet, he was “wrong.” I took this boy to two highly regarded sport horse “lameness” expert vets and both missed it. A little backyard, catch-all vet focused on the neurological issues and from there went to my favorite vet, he confirmed the Wobbler’s and two other vets in his practice found the ECVM of the C6. At that point they told me not to ride him and to put him down. I took him home, scheduled the appointment with a local vet, turned him out in a huge pasture, fed him a whole bag of peppermint candies (his favorite) and the next day my dear friend took him for me as I just couldn’t. I estimate I had about $40,000 in him (with no insurance) between purchase price and all the vet diagnostics. Oh, he passed his pre-purchase before I bought him🤷♀️. I share my story with all my horse friends and acquaintances and stress the importance of radiographing the whole neck (and back) during a pre-purchase exam.
Wow, sorry you and he had to experience that!
I've just finished a functional anatomy course and was tempted to do my final large assignment on ECVM. It's crazy how prevalent this seems to be and yet widely unknown. (If some of your vets or professionals didn't recognize it, how many farriers would even be aware of it though they certainly deal with hoof abnormalities.)
Was your horse a registered Paint? If so, what bloodlines, may I ask? (I have registered Paints.)
Super interesting. I hope studbooks will oblige breeders to test and prevent that is going worse. But a lot of money is involved, will be a hard trip.
Thank you it’s pretty horrific to contemplate what it all means
Fascinating talk thank you. I can think of several of the horses I have owned in the past and several horses that are still on the ground that most likely have this malformation.
So many horses seem to be 'lame' these days...
This is an amazing presentation! Not only is ECVM so well explained but so are how to diagnose it and what can be done to prevent its spread. Very well done!
Thank you so much!!! Eye opening. My favorite webinar yet.
Incredibly informative and eye opening webinar - thank you so much Sharon & Wendy. And thank you to HH for sharing their story - so sorry for your sad journey, but appreciate the warning and advice.
This was FANTASTIC! I can't believe I missed it live! Just a little tip, when guests play their videos, if you have them lower the video quality, it may not be as clear of a picture, but it will usually play smoother.
Thanks for the tip!
@@surefootequine you're welcome, hopefully it works for you :)
A must see for every horse breeder...
This was fascinating! My favorite webinar yet!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
So glad this scrolled back through my feed. I don't know how I missed it the first time around, but it's incredibly informative. I'm glad the research into the genetic link has kicked into high gear.
Glad you found it!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much for sharing such wisdom Sharon! Look forward to attending one of your necropsies one day. Thanks Wendy for hosting such educational webinars :)
This answers so many questions.
Fascinating and very worrying
Agreed.
This was such an important and fascinating webinar!!! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you! This was incredibly informative!
Excellent webinar :)
this is great. thank you so much for sharing all this knowledge ❤
A fabulous talk I have learnt so much thanks very much for your information.
Superb !
Thank you soooo much for this extreme educational video !
Great webinar!
Interesting! My father was the manager for a dairy bull stud that served New Hampshire and Vermont; this stud basically started artificial insemination in dairy cows in New England before it was sold to Eastern A.I. in Ithaca, N.Y. This vertebral malformation wasn't an issue at that time. (the 50s & 60s).
Thank you so much for sharing this! I learned a lot here. Too bad the videos don’t show the described movements. Zoom just kills video with its data compression.
Where can I find better quality video showing affected movement patterns to really learn to see this?
www.ecvmallbreeds.com/
Thank you so important
Fascinating and very worrying. How do we track the Thoroughbred lines? Are there any lines that don't have these two stallions Eclipse and Polymelus or their descendants in them?
Just to show how prevalent he is in bloodlines, after one of mine was diagnosed, I traced two of my TBs back 10 generations. Polymelus came up 28 times in one of them and 32 times in the other. I'm doubting there are any lines without them.
Eclipse and Polemeus were not heavily used in WB breeding if at all. Does Sharon have any idea how this disease could have proliferated in WB books? Could it not be a shared ancestor of both TBs and WBs?
You can find more info here: www.ecvmallbreeds.com
So, my horse is an Arabo-Friesian, she's 82,81% Friesian and 17,18% Shayga/OX and she is diagnosed with C6C7T1 malformation
You might want to go to www.ecvmallbreeds.com and let them know.
@@surefootequine did so when she was diagnosed
@@surefootequine She's just 4 yrs, has not been under the saddle or broken, has also small stepdefect, spinal compression and ataxia, possible OCD between c6 and c7, parathesis in the hind limbs, especially from the hock to the hoof, even using water on her in that area can be too much at times. Tried to train her muscles with special way of lunging and aquatherapie, atrophy appeared on her left neck (C6) and overreaction on her whole body, we couldn't touch or brush her. Immediately stopped her training, 2 weeks later she was touchable again. Now almost 2 months later the atrophy has disappeared. Since then she's done nothing anymore, since 2 weeks she's 24/7 outside, looks well and is happy but outside her small herd she's not comfortable at all. She listens but it's not easy and have to be alert all the time being with her, even though she's harmless and very sweet. I thought I could maybe try to do some groundwork with her or take walks but starting to wonder if all that is possible or even fair to her. Putting her down seems so cruel at this moment as she's looking so great. When you see her you wouldn't notice something is seriously wrong with her.
@@ib6593 It's heart breaking. There is no treatment and as I understand it, typically the behavior only gets worse with time. :(
I have a question, but I just noticed this was 3 years ago. It’s that case scalenes gate? Isn’t that conundrum normal anatomy?
Just curious, if there has been anything observed in the teeth of these individuals? (Thinking of interrelationships of muscles between head, neck and chest.)
From Pam Eckelbarger: Yes. A researcher in Germany, Katharina Ros, presented a talk on last summer’s cervical vertebrae webinar in which she reviewed her research correlating changes in the teeth relative to the different variations of the C6 malformation. I hope she plans to publish!
With the smaller foot is there a strong correlation with club foot or high low syndrome
My question too -
What are some of the symptoms to look for
Go to this website to learn more: www.ecvmallbreeds.com
What can be done to help a horse who seems to meet this description?
Do you have any additional research papers on ECVM?
www.ecvmallbreeds.com
I now think horses that self mutilate may have this, thoughts?