Horse Falling over - advice please?

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ColouredFan

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Hi,

Two posts in here is not good is it!!!??

Anyway I have a retired mare that was mine and my sisters PC/BSJA horse, she is believed to be an ex racer and she came through the sales as an 8 year old when we bought her. she is now 20 and retired due to COPD.

The last 10 days she has started a very worrying behaviour, she falls down, not completly over, but it looks like she totally looses her balance and she seems to catch herself half way down and then all wobbly legged she stands up again the first time her belly hit the ground before she got back up. she has done this twice now and was very wobbly another time when our 2 YO bumped into her playing.

Once she gets up she seems very worried and snorts alot, but seems able to walk and trot around fine.

The vet is coming to see her next week just wondered if anyone had experienced this with their horses or if anyone knows what might be wrong?
 
An old horse horse of mine did this several times - and I was always very worried that he would do it in the stable and really damage himself. He was an ex-steeple chaser. The collapses were sudden and without warning. He was checked initially by a vet very quickly after the first episode and nothing was found.

Unfortunately coupled with some other problems that he had we decided to have him pts.
 
Did the vet not find what it was? She is still very happy in herself and at the moment is a very good influence for my horse on box rest. I havent seen her fall in the stable and as she never lies down inside I'd know if she had as her wood chip bedding sticks to her side. She has rubber mats so I hope she doesnt injure herself if she does fall in the stable
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Did the vet not find what it was?

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No. However, we did not want to spend a packet on diagnosis (sorry that sounds awful I know....). He was examined and had bloods taken, but that was it.

He was well within himself, but did have real issues with his feet and the onset of chronic arthritis - so this was just another issue on top of others. Bless him, he was the sweetest lad. But the collapsing for us was the final straw.
 
Is she relaxed when she falls?

It sounds kind of like narcolepsy. A girl I went to PC camp with had a pony that had it & if allowed to relax she would hit the deck while ridden.
 
No when I saw her do it the 2 year old was following her around as she was trying to find her a place to roll, when she gets back up she is very upset and wickers and snorts and comes over to the fence to us.

Thanks Amy-May, Yes i can see why you didnt investigate further, her only other issue is COPD and this is very easily managed so not a problem really.
 
Does your horse lie down to sleep. The most likely cause of this behaviour is exhaustion. Horses need to lie down to sleep properly, although they are able to doze standing. If musculoskeletal pain (most often from the hocks) prevents them from doing this then they can start to fall asleep on their feet.

Narcolepsy is very rare in horses.
 
Yes I very often see her sleeping in the field and she sleeps standing in her stable. we have started bringing her in at night and out during the day last thursday as my horse is on box rest and the othertwo horses are on a rota so he isnt in on his own, however the first fall was before we changed her routine and the second one was on sunday.
 
Narcolepsy isn't all that rare at all. It is just that it isn't so common that people talk about it very much. My horse has epilepsy which is said to be exceptionally rare, and while I accept that true epilepsy ( as opposed to a seizure or two) is rare, it is nothing like as rare as vets and text books would have us believe.
 
Hi ColouredFan

This may seem a little out of the blue but I am emailing from Maverick TV. We are currently developing a brand new show, commissioned by Channel 4 (hoping to be aired early 2011) about strange and unusual conditions or behaviours with animals.

Your query about your horse seems to be a potential feature, if this still an issue you are having trouble with? Would you be at all interested in featuring in our programme? This would see you horse receive treatment from some of the best vets in the UK.

If you are at all interested, please give us a call on 0121 224 8314 or email your story, along with your number, to animals@mavericktv.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you soon,

Kind regards

Tom
Researcher
 
ColouredFan said:
Yes I very often see her sleeping in the field and she sleeps standing in her stable. we have started bringing her in at night and out during the day last thursday as my horse is on box rest and the othertwo horses are on a rota so he isnt in on his own, however the first fall was before we changed her routine and the second one was on sunday.
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Does she get to lie down to sleep regularly? I looked into this for a horse I knew with a similar problem and apparently horses do not get REM sleep if they're sleeping standing. The don't need anything like the amount people do - something like less than an hour in three days, if I remember correctly - but the do need to get it regularly. Many horses will not sleep properly unless they have another horse to "watch" although apparently horses in closed stabling don't have to be able to see each other to work out a "herd" sleeping rotation.

I know you said the problem started before you started the new routine, but that doesn't rule out GG's suggestion of an ongoing pain issue. The similar sounding horse I knew had quite severe hock problems which, combined with some other tensions in his life, meant he lay down less and less until he wasn't laying down enough.

The one horse I knew that seemed to have "text book" narcolepsy wasn't generally unbalanced, he had very specific situations that triggered it. The other suggestion in his case was a circulatory problem which caused him to "black out" periodically when he was in specific situations/positions but a definitive diagnosis would have been very difficult at the time.

The three horses I've known with seizure disorders were definitely uncoordinated during their attacks and disoriented afterwards. In all cases the seizures started out relatively minor - so much so they were only really obvious in retrospect - but fairly quickly progressed to the point where there wasn't much question!
 
The one horse I knew that seemed to have "text book" narcolepsy wasn't generally unbalanced said:
Absolutely true! Seizures often cause more seizures and they also cause microscopic brain damage which doesn't exactly help. Anyone suspecting their horse has had a seizure needs to ignore the usual "wait and see" advice. It can all escalate horribly.

TBH, this sounds like a horse who is struggling to get down and back up again, possibly causing some pain and distress. My old girl has arthritis in all sorts of places, uses only 3 legs to get back up and staggers about a bit afterwards until she has got herself sorted out again. She only lies down in her stable so spends 6 months of the year feeling very tired, and has been known to collapse when she goes too deeply asleep on her feet.
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Hi
I noticed your thread, and wondered how you've gone on with your horse? As I think my pony may be suffering from a similar thing. She is a Welsh Sec A. I have had her since a yearling, she is now 24 yrs old. She was poisoned with ragwort as a youngster and vets said we would more than likely lose her at a fairly young age, but she has proved everyone wrong :) She has a mild case of cushings, and suspect she has a mild case of RAO, but she has always been fit and healthy with no major problems. However, she appears to be falling over! I am not sure whether she is awake, or asleep when she does it as I have only seem her do it once or twice and she stops herself so quickly from hitting the floor that by the time I look at her face she is awake, and wondering what has happened! Another girl on the yard has seen her do it a couple of times in the field, but today she has done it for the first time in her stable whilst my 7 year old (Super lightweight) daughter was sitting on her. Her legs just gave way and she attempted to lie down, but then decided against it. Does anyone know if this is a common thing with older ponies? Or if it is a serious thing, as I have never known it happen to any others I have known. Thanks very much. x
 
Sounds very much like a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA).....a temporary drop in oxygenation to a part of the brain....common in older animals (and people). The temporary drop in oxygen can cause faints, partial faints and unsteadiness/ temporary, transient one sided weakness....any of which could be what's happening with your horse. There can be different causative factors....and it's possible the cause can be controlled with medication...so my advice (FWIW) would be to consult your Vet.
HTH
 
With a horse in its 20s I'd get an ACTH count done for Cushings. You can print a voucher off at talkaboutcushings.com which will give you either a free lab test or £15 off the lab test. Obviously you'll still need to pay your vet for callout and taking blood (which needs to be frozen within 2 hours so plan visit accordingly). One of the lesser known symptoms of Cushings is ataxia. Worth having the test done for a few quid to rule out the easy things before you start on the harder ones.
 
Your horse falling like that is just like my old mare (18 years old), she was an ex hunt horse and suffered from COPD, laminitis and started just 'almost' falling over but not quite. She was diagnosed with narcolepsy, which steadily got worse in her case until she was retired. She did get a little distressed when it happened, because I think it was a shock for her. I thought it might be rare but I have heard of a few horses with this illness, but of course, your vet will need to investigate. Good luck!
 
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