Cant offer any advice but i can tell you are quite worried about her-i would be too. I do hope its nothing to serious. Fingers crossed for you GG and your girly! xx
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Is it a coincidence (and absolutely no disrespect to OP or the replies) that narcolepsy was in H&H last week? We have already had a post on it and I wondered if veterinary articles in the Great Magazine precipitate outbreaks of the 'topical' condition????? I am sure this has happened before with at least one other horse ailment. I am dreading the darned thing in case my horse gets the disease of the week. Ah, now I remember - CUSHING's.....!
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Well, at a guess, I would say the horse must have read the article, judging by its behaviour in the video clip.
Oh sorry, I dont think Gina has had the chance to get on here today. The vet is coming out on Monday. Gina has sent her the clips of Gem and she doesnt seem to be too overly worried at the moment (especially as we have never seen any signs of this when Gem is being ridden). We loose schooled Gem last night and she was perfectly ok, bright eyed and her usual self.
I just want to emphasize that even though we have seen Gem be sleepy a few times before it has only been in the last day or so it has been to the level of whats on the clip. In the summer, rightly or wrongly, we just put it down to her getting older /being tired/ being warm.
As soon as we know what the vet says then we will let you know. Thank you all so much for your concern, it means a lot!
You had no need to (apologise) and I fully understand. I wasn't being flip - I should have just noted the other poster on this topic, said have a look there as they have some good info and wished you all luck and a speedy resolution. I do this now.
TGM - I totally appreciate you make worthy contributions to this forum and I very much appreciate you taking time to find out about chasteberry for me. I was not slagging you off on a wide scale, simply saying that in this post I didnt think it wasn't the place for joking. If my horse was having this problem I would be extremely worried so seeing jokes on it would really annoy me!
GTs - Your post made no sense "I think it is clear before the thread even started to turn the consensus was exactly what you said" what? Learn some grammar or something. Vanilla world? Really......
I am having a similar problem with my home bred mare who is now seven. She has had a well horse check with blood tests and nothing has been found abnormal.
It first happened early this year five minutes into a ride, i dismounted thinking she was having a heart attack and then she recovered to carry on a gently hour ride. This happened again but the second time nearly at home again she fully recovered and i led her home. Months later after becoming dull i bought her in to feed her and she did it after her feed. This happed three times and checks were done but nothing found.
This Saturday after a fairly fast ride i haltered her on the yard and her head went down, eyes closed andshe started to wobble i jumped off and led her in hand and she had a really wobbly gait and then minutes later fully recovered.
I am now keeping a diary of events and the vet is going to be called immediately after another attack to do blook checks for tying up etc and failing and results she is going to new market.
Hi Gina Gem - my old horse had Narcolepsy and did exactly the same as yours is doing so please dont worry. There is no medical treatment so although you need the vet to confirm the diagnosis there will not be anything on offer to help with the problem
I used to keep my horses legs well wrapped up and I also used to put neoprene overreach boots on her front legs to stop the shoes digging in her elbows when she went down. Other than that you just have to do an extra check for injuries and treat them as you would any other - she is just likely to get a few more.
Oddly enough I had never heard of narcolepsy and bells started ringing when someone I knew arrived at the yard and she was about to have her horse PTS because her narcolepsy had caused too much damage to her legs.
To be honest it made me dismiss it as a possible condition because it was too much of a coincidence (and a do believe a few on the yard thought I was was doing the equivalent of what some have accused you of doing - reading an article and deciding your horse has it - just because this other womans horse had it I had decided mine did). My advice would be dont listen - you there is a problem.
As for riding - she was fine, as long as she was active she didnt drop off. I didnt hang about chatting to friends when mounted though just in case the inactivity cause her to fall asleep. She did try to go down on the farrier once so you do need to warn them so they keep doing things to keep her awake.
Try not to worry too much - you main problem is in how she falls. If she is not falling then you will probably not have any problems.
plowright1 - your problem seems altogether more sinister and I would definitely get your horse checked out. She doesnt sound safe to ride at all. It could also be narcolepsy but is much more serious version if it is. Sorry