79% Case Fatality, Four Months With No Meaningful Change, and Why Prac

Published veterinary literature reports a 79% case fatality rate in horses with sidewinder gait and notes a poor prognosis for function and life. That is the kind of statistic that changes how difficult cases are approached.

It also changes the business and relationship realities around those cases.

In the case shared by Dr. Patricia Seebach, a 25-year-old mare had gone roughly four months with no meaningful change under prior management, including treatment for presumed EPM and steroids. The horse was not improving in a way that changed the trajectory. The costs, stress, and uncertainty continued.

Then EquiTecs taping was added within Dr. Seebach’s broader treatment approach. According to Dr. Seebach, the mare showed improvement before the first appointment was even over. Within about three weeks, the horse was moving dramatically better, spinning had stopped, the hind end was no longer coming up to meet the front end, and medication weaning had begun.

That kind of change matters clinically. It also matters because owners are under financial pressure and practitioners are being asked to deliver realistic value in increasingly difficult cases.

When owners are stretched thin, practical support matters. Not because it is cheap. Because it is accessible, useful, and capable of being added earlier in the process.

For practitioners, that means being able to offer realistic support in difficult cases, especially the ones that are often treated like write-offs. The practitioners who can offer practical next steps in hard cases build stronger trust, deeper loyalty, better referrals, and healthier businesses.

This case is not about hype. It is about documented contrast. Poor prognosis. Months with no meaningful change. Then visible improvement after practical support was added.

Watch the short case video to see the difference, and explore the full interview for the deeper clinical context.

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