Narcoleptic Horse??

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Redlet the Nedlet x

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A friend's horse appears to have Narcolepsy but it hasn't been diagnosed. He is a 13yo TB, he colicks mildly fairly frequently and the Narcolepsy is only really apparent during his episodes, though it has happened a couple of times without the addition of colic, including once under saddle.

Has anyone else known or owned a Narcoleptic horse? What experiences have you had with it? Do you know what caused or triggered it? Neither the owner, any other liveries or I have ever had any experience with it before so any information would be very useful! Thanks :)
 
Ive not known one personally but read about one a few years ago. He was big warmblood type, he did dressage and aslong as his rider kept his brain engaged he didnt fall asleep. she actually said that in the very hot weather it was good because he would sleep untill he was to be competing where as the other horses were too hot and bothered! he was kept in a barn with lots of straw and bandaged up at night so he couldnt hurt himself.

not sure i agree with it though =/
 
We have a mildly narcoleptic horse on the yard, she doesn't do it when ridden thankfully and it is very mild. She's sort of dozes off over her stable door mostly (which looked normal till the vet diagnosed it).
 
One of my livery horses, who died this spring, was narcoleptic.

He was a threequarter TB who'd been a dressage horse (he was about 23 when he came here as a light hack). Our horses are all kept out 24/7 but they have access to barns at will. In the 3 years he was here he never lay down ONCE (that any of us or the surrounding niehgbours saw), though he rolled for England, so there was no underlying problem there.

It always manifested itswelf when he was being got ready for a hack. He and whatever other horse was being ridden would be in the stable yard, and we came to the conclusion that what brought on an episode was that he felt secure, soothed (having just been groomed, and lulled by human chatter etc. Suddenly his knees would start to buckle, he would lose his balance, and if we hadn't reacted very quickly each time he would have gone down.

It happens SO fast, and the vet's first tentatvie diagnosis was that it might be a brain tumour. But there wwere no other symptoms of anything, and he lead an otherwise absolutely normal life.

I think the reason that this horse in particular never lay down (as for a snooze) was that he associated it with a feeling of unbalance, legs all over the place, people shouting at him and being hauled up. We had just hatched a plan, which sadly never materialised because the poor chap broke his leg and was PTS, that from then on he would always be saddled in the barn which has very deerp bedding, rather than on the concrete outside, that he would not be tied up - he didn't need to be as he adored being groomed - and that we would just let him crash and see what happened.

The lady who rode him is a veterinary nurse and her vets were very helpful. It is a condition which IMO is very neglected in the UK, but there are some iinteresting studies in the US and Australia which you can Google. Also have a look at some of the videos on YouTube and the narcolepsy sites. They do seem to follow a very stereotyped pattern.

I never saw this horse have an episode except when he was being groomed, saddled etc, or tied up. (We could never let him just stand while we made final preparations for a ride - hats, openeing the gate etc. - as he would tend to buckle. He always had to be kept on the move, once saddled, till his rider was mounted. Then absolutely fine.

Hope this is of some help. I have a document on narcolepsy which I'm in the process of typing up for someone else (can't remember the source but it's academic and interesting). If I find it I'll PM you and then, if you want, email it to you.
 
I had one. She was very highly strung (Han x TB) and the episodes were brought on by extreme stress. For instance, she fought the dentist like a demon, then, as soon as she was done, she'd just fall asleep, closed eyes, droopy bottom lip and more often than not knees would buckle and as previous poster, we'd have to wake her up quick so she wouldn't fall over. She never did it whilst ridden and we thought she was just shutting down so she wouldn't have to cope with the stress - until she was actually diagnosed.
She was put down aged 22 with Cushings disease.
 
There's one at our yard, an older tb.
I think it's triggered by stress in his case and he has a very deep bed with high banks so he doesn't injure himself. However he did come in from the field recently with an injury that the vet believed was due to it happening in the field and landing heavily on hard ground.

Other than that he is hacked out and is healthy and happy/.
 
I excercised a horse that was later diagnosed with this. He was a warmblood that was a good dressage horse, but had been an eventer in his youth (although even the YO said she wouldn't have fancied taking him cross country!). Considering he was a dressage horse he was the most idle, lazy and appalling hack, only the owner wanted him to go out to keep him exercised as she couldn't ride every day. He was fantastic in the arena when he was doing dressage, which he obviously loved.

When hacking he could hardly put one foot in front of the other, it was no pleasure. He was about 13 and he was very laid back, and in the end he was diagnosed with this,
although the owner continued to ride him, they had to watch he didn't fall over as he dropped off to sleep. He died of colic about 12 months after diagnosis, but I wonder if it was coming on for a longer time?
 
Personally I would have the horse put to sleep. Friend was seriously injured when her horse collapsed on top of her as she was hanging his hay net up. She felt his narcolepsy was so mild and predictable she could handle it but was actually shutting her eyes to frequency and severity.
 
We used to have a horse at moreton morrell college that has narcolepsy. She loved her work but when stood in the line up, you wouldn't wanna stand still for long as she can fall asleep. She would mainly fall in her stable and when it started to get serious she would then panic ones she had come around from her doze and was then pts
 
Rose Folly said:
One of my livery horses, who died this spring, was narcoleptic.

He was a threequarter TB who'd been a dressage horse (he was about 23 when he came here as a light hack). Our horses are all kept out 24/7 but they have access to barns at will. In the 3 years he was here he never lay down ONCE (that any of us or the surrounding niehgbours saw), though he rolled for England, so there was no underlying problem there.

It always manifested itswelf when he was being got ready for a hack. He and whatever other horse was being ridden would be in the stable yard, and we came to the conclusion that what brought on an episode was that he felt secure, soothed (having just been groomed, and lulled by human chatter etc. Suddenly his knees would start to buckle, he would lose his balance, and if we hadn't reacted very quickly each time he would have gone down.

It happens SO fast, and the vet's first tentatvie diagnosis was that it might be a brain tumour. But there wwere no other symptoms of anything, and he lead an otherwise absolutely normal life.

I think the reason that this horse in particular never lay down (as for a snooze) was that he associated it with a feeling of unbalance, legs all over the place, people shouting at him and being hauled up. We had just hatched a plan, which sadly never materialised because the poor chap broke his leg and was PTS, that from then on he would always be saddled in the barn which has very deerp bedding, rather than on the concrete outside, that he would not be tied up - he didn't need to be as he adored being groomed - and that we would just let him crash and see what happened.

The lady who rode him is a veterinary nurse and her vets were very helpful. It is a condition which IMO is very neglected in the UK, but there are some iinteresting studies in the US and Australia which you can Google. Also have a look at some of the videos on YouTube and the narcolepsy sites. They do seem to follow a very stereotyped pattern.

I never saw this horse have an episode except when he was being groomed, saddled etc, or tied up. (We could never let him just stand while we made final preparations for a ride - hats, openeing the gate etc. - as he would tend to buckle. He always had to be kept on the move, once saddled, till his rider was mounted. Then absolutely fine.

Hope this is of some help. I have a document on narcolepsy which I'm in the process of typing up for someone else (can't remember the source but it's academic and interesting). If I find it I'll PM you and then, if you want, email it to you.
Click to expand...

Thanks that was really helpful :) that sounds very similar to my friends horse, last time he did his 'narcolepsy thing' he was colicking mildly but he only laid down a couple of times, never rolled, looked at his flanks, and kicked his belly, though these were the only symptoms of his colic. Otherwise he just had his head practically on the floor, his eyes shut and his knees buckled but we kept him upright to stop him, though after that his hocks started buckling and nearly fell through the back wall of his stable.

He hadn't even been in his stable 5 minutes when we heard him hit the floor and, like the horse you spoke about, he never lies down unless he's colicking. Also, when he was being tacked up he had a bit of an episode, though I didn't see it. Apparently when his girth was being done up he seemed very tired and his knees buckled, so this may have been the same trigger also. We don't quite understand why he does it when colicking because presumably he'd be in pain, not tired..? But as for the Narcolepsy document, that would be really helpful if you could PM it to me once you're done :) Thanks x
 
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