Fainting horse

[minerva]

Hi, I am hoping someone can help me with this:
My TB 14 Year old gelding has in the last week had a couple of what seem to be black outs, he starts looking like he is drunk then wobbles and falls over, both times have happened at the gate in the evening when coming in for the night, he has also lost a bit of weight but apart from that he is fine.
We have had the vet to do blood tests and they have all come back absolutely fine and the advice is to watch and see if it happens again, I am pretty worried about him and was hoping someone had experienced something similar
Thanks for reading
Sam

 

[JACQSZOO]

Could it be a form of Narcolepsy?

 

[Chex]

Thats what I was thinking too, I've never actually seen a horse with it though.

 

[Dougie]

thinking the same here, have seen a few horses with it

 

[fernando]

One of the horses at my old yard was diagnosed with narcolepsy, pm me if you want more info

 

[Sags_Deer]

my friends horse did that possibly a tumor?? or narcolepsy

 

[minerva]

Thanks for all the replies, am going to look up narcolepsy a bit more, have only found a small article so far, wondering if that wouldn't show up on his blood tests, the vet reckoned a tumour would have shown up, he is actually quite a lively chap most of the time.
Sam

 

[Dougie]

narcolepsy doesnt show on bloods. the one test i know of is jagging horse with phytostigmine(sp), if the horse is normal the drug has no effect if narco the horse collapses. not nice test but the only one as far as im aware

 

[the watcher]

[ QUOTE ]
Could it be a form of Narcolepsy?

[/ QUOTE ]

sounds most likely, also consider an acute allergic reaction

 

[Loopy_laura]

IM NOT SAYING IT IS THIS!! VET SAID VERY RARE CASE!! your vet may have already checked but maybe ask him if you dont know?

my friend horse was doing that early winter, lost lots of weight and kept just falling to the floor, he would take anywhere between 5-20mins to come round his eyes would roll and everything then he would lay with his head up but still unsteady for up to another 30mins, she had blood tests and everything it all came back fine, then he tested him for lucema and he had got late stages od the diease, and was PTS.

i really hope its not! xx

 

[jesterfaerie]

My lad seemed to have the same symptoms once this winter.
I went to his stable and turned his light on he spoke to me as normal but then seemed to stagger around (didn't fall) and after that was right as rain and has been okay since.
Granted I did not call the vet as he seemed himself, he ate his breakfast and was as excited as ever when I fetched his outdoor rug so I turned him out as normal.
The vet advised me to keep an eye on him as if it happens again they would come out as it could be a sign of a number of things such as narcalepsy (sp?)
Sorry I am not much help

 

[AmyMay]

I had a horse that started doing something similar to this over a period of a couple of months. Bloods etc showed nothing. Of course the massive worry for me was that he was going to do this in the stable and cause himself some real damage.

Freddy was pts just before Christmas 05. Not just because of this, but it was a contributing factor. We don't really know what was causing it. However my vet seemed to think that it could have been something to do with blood pressure crashing. We'll never know. If he had been a younger horse we would have done more investigating in to the causes. But as it was he was permanently unsound and getting on, so the expense would have been unjustifiable.

I would ask your vet to refer you so that you can get to the bottom of this pdq.

 

[minerva]

He's just done it again! that's 3 times in 10 days, that we have seen? have got back on to the vet and will let you all know, thanks again for all the advice I am really pleased you all bothered to reply
Sam
x

 

[Dougie]

let us know how u get on.

us sados are always here 24/7 lol

 

[Loopy_laura]

let us know how u get on.

us sados are always here 24/7 lol

but your not sados, you are all angels that help each other when needed! i think its really lovley!!

 

[Dougie]

thats nice way of putting, i for one spend way too much time on here.....officialy a hho'holic

 

[minerva]

Just thought I would update you, The vet has gone back and checked the blood results again and there is a tiny-weenie oddity with his white blood cell count, so he could have had a virus which has caused temporary epileptic fits, ( as far as I can gather it would be an effect like meningitis?).

So he is now on Steroids (Prednisolone) for 3 weeks and then we will test him again. We have been warned that this is an outside chance but at least it is somthing.

Sam

 

[AmyMay]

Good to get an update.

Keep us posted.

 

[Sparklet]

Lets hope your vet had got the problem nailed and the treatment works.

My last horse had narcolepsy and the main problem I had was that she kept injuring herself when she fell. I had quite a lot of unrelated injuries and it took some time to realise what was happening because she did not collapse in front of anyone.

 

[minerva]

Sparklet, thats what we are really worried about, he is out with his mates all day at the moment and we have no way of knowing if he has fallen or not, he could have been doing it for ages and we just got lucky and saw him, its an awful thought that they can hurt themselves when they are out enjoying yummy grass in the field, I am spending way too long hanging on the gate watching him!

 

[AmyMay]

At least he's in the field though. Could do some serious damage if he was in his stable.

Fingers crossed for a full recovery.

 

[Sparklet]

Hi, try not to worry too much at the moment. Your vet has identified something else and your horse is getting treatment so it is quite likely your horse does not have narcolepsy at all.

Even if he does the best place for him is in the field because there is nothing to bang himself on - my horse tended to fall into things which is where most of the damage came from.

I did have some problems with elbow injuries because the back of her shoes would cut her elbow as she fell but I dealt with that by putting extra large woof neoprene overreach boots on so she had a bit of cushioning. There are things you can do.

Try to not worry too much, really. Even with narcolepsy my girl is now 17 and still living life to the full.

 

[minerva]

Thank you, i will have to stop worring or my OH will make move into the stable for good!