News Flash! Author Leslie Guttman on HRTV Wednesday (7/13) at 12:10 p.m. talking about Equine ER.

In the previous installment of this excerpt from the new book Equine ER, the myelogram (a special X-ray) performed on Piaff, a Dutch warmblood gelding, showed he did not have wobbler syndrome. That meant the illness he’d had for more than a year remained a mystery. Below, Part 3.

Piaff was purchased by his current owner (who prefers to be anonymous) in The Netherlands in the fall of 2002 with the intention of using him as a dressage horse. When he first came to the United States, the horse was a nervous wreck. Everything stressed him out, from his neck being touched to the sight of the dust mop used to clean the rafters of his stall. His owner didn’t know how he was previously treated, but it didn’t appear to be well. With patience, he relaxed, becoming more trusting, less anxious.

Piaff was striking to everyone who saw him Ð his size, the shimmer of his coat, the lightning bolt blaze down his face. As he matured and calmed down, becoming more expressive and communicative, people were drawn even more to him. It was true animal magnetism.

Back at Rood & Riddle, after the myelogram, Piaff could not get up for seven and a half hours. The stress of the trip from Wisconsin, the anesthesia from the myelogram, and whatever disease he was suffering from had left him too weak to move. The owner came back down to Rood & Riddle. When she saw how weak he was, she thought, “OK, we’re done.” But then, some light. The cerebrospinal fluid taken at the beginning of the myelogram showed he was positive for antibodies against the parasite, Sarcocystis neurona, which causes EPM. Now, Dr. Steve Reed, Piaff’s vet at Rood & Riddle, had a treatment course