Should I be concerned? horse dozing off and falling over.

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midi

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I don't know if I should be worried or not..
lately the horse I exercise for a friend has been dozing off ( as he usually does) but falling over when I tack up and groom, or whilst waiting around before riding.
His head begins to sink and he sways and then his front legs give way, hes never fallen right over but I can see it happening if hes not woken up.

Looks very much like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sThUgIYNezw

he did it twice today and when it happens its like he's totally out of it.
First time his legs buckled and he nearly went down and second time his head started to sink into my arms until his owner came over and he woke up a little.

Once hes up and moving hes fine?
I wonder perhaps hes sleep deprived as he lives on his own, so can never full relax and fall asleep? ( I don't agree with this situation but what can you do really)

Does anyone else have experiance with this? hes not ill I hope? :(
 
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Vet out definitely not normal behaviour hate to say it but could be brain related? How is breathing when it happens? How well is exercise tolerated?
 
My mare used to do this and she was not kept on her own. We suspected she had a mild case of narcolepsy. It would happen hen she was quiet. Fortunately it never happened when I was riding her but if we were stood still (eg. Whilst chatting to my instructor during a lesson) I would feel her start to sway and wouldvwalk her on immediately nd she would then be OK.
 
Thankyou for the replies.

eggs said:
My mare used to do this and she was not kept on her own. We suspected she had a mild case of narcolepsy. It would happen hen she was quiet. Fortunately it never happened when I was riding her but if we were stood still (eg. Whilst chatting to my instructor during a lesson) I would feel her start to sway and wouldvwalk her on immediately nd she would then be OK.
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Hm yeah this also happened before, after I got on and stood there chatting, but like you say is fine once asked to walk on.
I have no idea if it happens in the paddock at all.

Surreydeb said:
Vet out definitely not normal behaviour hate to say it but could be brain related? How is breathing when it happens? How well is exercise tolerated?
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Breathing is no different, its like hes so chilled he goes to lala land but when it first happened it really scared me.

He is incredibly lazy and has started to nap lately out hacking which he never did before, idkk ugh.
If he was mine i'd have the vet out and what not already most likely but as hes not, Idk if should have a sense of urgency and worry to the owners as otherwises hes totally fine and happy? or appears to be.

I guess because I'm the only one currently excercising him, I notice the things they don't?

Perhaps it is narcolepsy, is this something to really worry about? or something to accept unless it became dangerous like randomly falling asleep even when active, aka whilst riding.
 
I would be worried about heart condition or brain problem. I wouldn't be riding until vet checks out as would be worried would happen and he would fall whilst being ridden
 
As you've suggested, exhaustion is the most common reason for this, but the cause of this is usually hock spavin. The horse finds getting down/up painful, and is unable to sleep properly. Narcolepsy does occur, but is far less common. I find most confirmed cases respond well to steroid injections in the hocks and steady work too encourage the joint to fuse.
 
My yearling falls asleep whilst he is eating nothing like the video though I would tell the owners to get the vet out doesn't seem normal to me
 
We have a horse on our yard that did this-she was diagnosed with narcolepsy. She went dozy &near collapse when anything relaxing is happening(tied up waiting,tied up to groom,snoozing over stable door,standing in field). Fortunately she never went down with her owner but it is a v dangerous condition if u continue to ride them without addressing it. She is now perfectly normal but is on 24 (human) tablets a day to combat it. Please get your vet out if u suspect narcolepsy-horse could go down whilst ridden,or with people near it and injure them and/or itself. :-/
 
Venevidivici said:
We have a horse on our yard that did this-she was diagnosed with narcolepsy. She went dozy &near collapse when anything relaxing is happening(tied up waiting,tied up to groom,snoozing over stable door,standing in field). Fortunately she never went down with her owner but it is a v dangerous condition if u continue to ride them without addressing it. She is now perfectly normal but is on 24 (human) tablets a day to combat it. Please get your vet out if u suspect narcolepsy-horse could go down whilst ridden,or with people near it and injure them and/or itself. :-/
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Will it get worse?
I've never had any problems whilst riding but like you say it only happens when hes relaxed.
I've seen him snoozing in the field fine before but otherwise I don't know if it happens any other time.
I'll tell the owners about narcolepsy concerns.

Thanks :(
 
A few years ago one of Tim Stockdale's horses was narcoleptic but it showjumped to high levels just fine. You just need to rule out it being anything else and make sure it's the type that doesn't happen when the horse is active.
 
I think the frequency of the near-collapses began to increase just before she was diagnosed,yes. We had an emergency vet come to her once(for something unrelated) who was not from her usual treating practice and he was (rightly or wrongly,his opinion) utterly against any narcoleptic horse being ridden-said it was too dangerous in his view,regardless of her medication. Horse's usual vet is perfectly happy for her to be ridden whilst her tablets manage the condition(which they do). Is v imp that she never misses any tablets tho and condition can be bit worse in warmer weather/summer-tablets can be reduced by 2 a day in winter. Recurrent bouts of colic are sometimes common in
narcoleptics too. She has had no colic since on medication tho.
 
I have a mare who suffers from Equine Sleep Disorder.

It is caused by not having enough REM sleep (I can't remember but think the vet said she should have 20 mins out of every 24 hours) and they can only get this lying down, which is something she doesn't do often, she is a very nervous girl.

Her mind and body would essentially argue about sleeping, and she would be stood snoozing and then she would start to sway and her knees would buckle. Never really a problem unless I saw her close to a fence then we would carefully wake her up.

Unfortunately with her it did develop into her having seizures. A livery was around one day and was able to video it so I could send it to the vet. They came out to see her and confirmed she wasn't having strokes and it was her body just shutting down to be able to get the rest it needed to survive essentially.

The vet said I could continue to ride her and she has never gone down or had a seizure when ridden.

This could be entirely different to what this horse is suffering with, but I do think it;s important to speak to a vet.

Until my mare was diagnosed there were some serious possibilities of illness that needed to be ruled out and I imagine to be on the safe side, it's a good idea to do the same with this horse.

Good luck x
 
I agree with calling the vets to rule out anything else. When we were concerned about my mare doing this we did a sleep investigation where we filmed her and recorded how much she was laying down- both normally and flat out. The vets decided she was getting enough of both so labled it as narcolepsy.

She will only do this at rest though, never tacked up or with a rider so the vets were fine with me continuing to ride her. We've had her 16 years now and have never seen her fully go down, she always wakes up as the knees buckle.

She quite often props her neck or bum on something to keep her up.

Interesting someone else mentioned heat as she usually does this when its warm.

This is what she does:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWcdrMqn6Ow&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0oapiaqn1o&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDDJYQdhphQ&feature=relmfu

DSC00100.jpg
 
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That looks like the one Tim Stockdale had (cute photo by the way! :) ) He showed me round his stables once and just warned me not to get too close to it. They had problems picking out its feet and not being fallen on, as I recall, but it too was a Grade A and performed fine under saddle.
 
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