fits in horses?

[weesophz]

this has been nagging at me for ages. a couple of years ago my horse gave himself a fright in his stable and took some sort or fit. he went totally stiff and toppled over and his whole body was shaking for about 10 seconds, he then got up and went back to chewing his hay as if nothing had happened. it terrified me but as he seemed okay and never had anything like that happen again i didnt call the vet. ive noticed when he panicks or knows he has done wrong he goes rigid but he has only completley fell over that one time. anyone else had something like this or knows why it could have happened?

please dont think i was being negligent not calling the vet when the incident happened, like i said, he got up and was completely fine and i checked him over and there was nothing physically wrong with him.

 

[fatpiggy]

Hi Weesophz,

It is possible your horse simply had a panic attack and effectively fainted or he could indeed have had a partial seizure. In the latter there is always a trigger and a standard neurological test is to push the horse's head up and back by his chin. Think what happens when a horse is startled - up goes his head!

Not all seizures cause the animal to fall down. They just aren't like what you see in say humans, or dogs, with all the thrashing about on the floor. Most aren't even unconscious while the seizure is in progress. Just because he was shaking while he was on the floor still doesn't mean it was a seizure - I watched someone faint once and they twitched away like mad.

Given that he hasn't repeated his falling down, I would just treat him like as though he was just highly strung and keep him out of stressful situations as best you can. Some horses do have a genuine seizure but it is a one-off. Some of us aren't so lucky!!

PM me if you like.

 

[weesophz]

a standard neurological test is to push the horse's head up and back by his chin. Think what happens when a horse is startled - up goes his head!

will give this a shot, and hope he doesnt fall on me haha. hes gave me so many scares, just now he has a bad fracture to his radius and when i went up tonight to feed him hed managed to gouge a bit out his pastern, hes a nightmare! thanks for your help, its reasurring to know it was probably just a panic thing rather that him being epiliptic or something!