Elderly Cushing's Pony....

[3OldPonies]

Didn't want to read and run.

I just wanted to say OP that you sound like a wonderful caring owner and are trying harder than a lot people probably would to keep your little mate happy and with a good life. If you do decide that it's time that he trotted over the rainbow bridge to a pain free place I for one would support you.

Having lost a dearly loved shettie I know only too well what you mean when you say the little 'un looks so vulnerable all on his own. So all the best and take care.

 

[Becks01]

Didn't want to read and run.

I just wanted to say OP that you sound like a wonderful caring owner and are trying harder than a lot people probably would to keep your little mate happy and with a good life. If you do decide that it's time that he trotted over the rainbow bridge to a pain free place I for one would support you.

Having lost a dearly loved shettie I know only too well what you mean when you say the little 'un looks so vulnerable all on his own. So all the best and take care.

Thank you 3OldPonies, your reply made me a bit teary!

 

[fatpiggy]

Southern Comfort, they vary from shorter, milder turns to full on seizures that need the vet and a concoction of drugs.
In a milder one she goes a bit vacant and stands stock still, sometimes starts to list behind but manages to arrange her legs to prop herself up, sways a bit like a drunk but doesn't go down. We've notice her ears twitch and sometimes she'll slightly shake her head like she's got a fly on it.
The bigger ones are more dramatic to watch. She loses all sight as her brain spasms and she drips with sweat and staggers around, sometimes goes down but gets back up. She always heads for the stable wall and once she's found it props herself up against it. She can hear me talk but can't see me but we have a good relationship so she responds to my voice.
from what I've learned through the FB group, seizures are common but vary horse to horse in how they behave or show. Before we knew my mare was having seizure we did think she was having mild colic as she had colic surgery 12yrs ago so it seemed the logical explanation when we found her bed disturbed, water bucket spilt and cuts and grazes wher she'd obviously been down.
My learnings from her experience are that they are seasonal - this is the bad time of year with the beginning of October being the worst so I think they are linked to the seasonal increase in ACTH levels and tumour activity.
I would definitely recommend the FB group, its global so there's a huge range of experience and advice there

That all sounds VERY familiar. My mare's epilepsy was most likely to break through the drugs in the early spring - her seizures were caused by her hormones. The pituitary gland is the Fat Controller unfortunately which is why it causes so many problems when Cushings is on the march.

Seizures are indeed WAY more common than vets would have you believe. I have records of cases from all around the world and I can count the number of horses that collapse totally a la what we would think of an epileptic seizure, on my thumbs. They are almost exclusively partial seizures but of course that is what makes them so dangerous, to both animal and nearby humans. The horse brain has incredibly strong firewalls to prevent seizures from happening in the first place, and from spreading to affect the entire body which would mean total collapse. One thing I learned quickly though is to take them very seriously as the can progress from being a bit vacant to falling over in a very short space of time. Every seizure causes microscopic brain damage and the brain becomes more and more trigger happy. Prevention is always better than cure (since there isn't one).