sudden collapse

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moiracat

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Seeking advice or similar experiences......

My mare - 16.1hh, 11 years, middle weight Irish (breeding unknown), with me for 6 years - suffered a collapse during a showing class last Sunday. In the couple of weeks before she had seemed a bit lethargic but nothing dramatic and I have been in the process of increasing hard feed to see if it would make a difference. At the show, she warmed up enthusiastically for approx 20 mins but was 'hard work' in the first part of the class, uncharacteristically fractious and bad tempered in the line up, pawing and backing up (for about 1 minute), and then collapsed. She was on her feet again in about a minute and although dazed, made it back to the trailer and home okay. The vet could find no evidence of increased or irregular heartbeat or temperature and blood tests have shown nothing other than a possible borderline anaemia for which she is on Red Cell. She has been in the field since and after 3-4 days is back to her normal self, having been a bit quiet. There is a slight tension in her back over the last rib but a neuro exam hasn't shown up anything specific.

Does anyone have any similar experiences or suggestions? Thanks.
 
Don't know but maybe a vit B12 shot might assist?? sounds like could be a vit deficiency????? don't know really but donkey's years ago, when my old horse was in full work, he used to struggle a bit in the summer - he was a real wnter horse. My trainer at the time suggested vit B12 and it really helped - he never collapsed but it did pep him up - he was a fizzy animal and maybe expended too much energy and then exhausted himself?????

Suggest talk to vet and maybe put a vit/mineral lick in the field - they will lick it if they need it I find?

Good luck and hope that your mare is OK - is she in season/coming into season etc? could be a hormone dip of some sort???
 
I think it is called narcoplexy or a condition on the narcoplxy scale called cataplexy.... Basicly the horse falls asleep, like someone throwing a switch. Strangely the trigger is usualy excitement or stress.

Cataplexy manifests itself as muscular weakness which may range from a barely perceptible slackening of the facial muscles to the dropping of the jaw or head, weakness at the knees, or a total collapse. But hearing and awareness remain normal. These attacks are triggered by strong emotions such as exhilaration, anger, fear, surprise. Cataplexy may be partial or complete, affecting a range of muscle groups, from those controlling facial muscles to (less commonly) those controlling the entire body.

I can't tell you any more, a friend once had a WH who would drop without warning. She just got used to leaping off! It only happend maybe a handful of times. She was not the sort to go in for massive investigations.
 
My friends horse has recently done this. After various tests the only two things shown up were borderline anaemic and a slightly low white cell count. Possibly a virus so is having field rest for a month and then trying her out again. Definately not narcoleptic this mare just seemed to run out of steam on a hack and had to be dragged home the first time, two weeks later did about 100 yards in trot and then just died, she dropped as she was being walked back.
 
Hi
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I experienced exactly this at a fun ride in November. Hopped on as I usually would, girth done up gradually etc and mooched around while I waited for my friend to mount up. He suddenly tensed, ran backwards and then collapsed under me. He was up in the time it took to undo his girth and noseband and at no point unconscious.

He had a full neurological work up and blood and muscle tests, but they all came back clear. He has been fine ever since, though it took a fair while before we were braveenough to venture out on the roads with him again. He always wears kneeboots for ridden work 'just in case'.

Sorry I can't give you the answers though
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Thanks everyone! The vet is back on Thursday so I'll mention all the suggestions and will keep you posted. I haven't ridden since but she seems completely fine, back to her normal self. Someone else suggested it could have been a fit. Any thoughts?
 
Ok I've posted about this a few times so apologies if anyone is reading this again but it sounds a lot like what happened to my tb mare last year. While doing up the girth one day she sank to her knees, but showed no other signs of anything so I walked her about a bit and eventually got on. Suddenly she went straight down to the floor, bang! She struggled back up, luckily I managed to get off as she hit the deck, and then collapsed again. This time she took a little longer to get up and seemed quite dazed. It was really shocking and it could have been very nasty indeed, it was so sudden and violent. I can remember she seemed to go almost over backwards when she went down. ANYWAY the long and short was the vet couldn't find anything wrong with her heart or chest. Bloods came back fine, so his initial diagnosis was vaso-vagal syncope. This is basically a posh name for fainting. I've looked into it since and it can sometimes be triggered by things like girthing - the vet described it as when you are "doing" something to the horse, so it could be grooming, asking for certain movements, etc. All very vague really! His other best guess was narcolepsy, though from what I have read her, and your horse's collapse, sound a little too dramatic for this. The bottom line for mine was retirement as she was showing signs of advancing arthritis anyway, so we decided against sending her to Edinburgh for tests. I'm not totally convinced about a fit either, someone suggested this to me as well but the recovery seemed too quick. The vet didn't go for it either.

Well I hope you get to the bottom of it and if you have insurance, I'd push for neurological tests to try and find a cause. At the end of the day I was told NOT to ride mine again while we searched for a diagnosis, as we hacked out a lot and the risk of this happening in traffic was just too great. Good luck and keep us posted!
 
It doesn't sound like narcelopsy. My horse was investigated for this condition and although inconclusive (as is often the case) he did show very mild symptoms. My fella will doze off often onto his knees if he is tired or bored which often occurs in the field or on the lorry at shows (never in the stable funnily enough). He was given the complete all-clear off the specialist for riding etc as all his responses were fully lucid when he was even slightly active and never reacted badly to girthing etc as 'normal' narcelopsy does (although he will doze off after a while if you are sat on him doing nowt!). My vet told me narcelopsy in horses wont result in a 'faint' like reaction but instead a quick 'waking up' response when stimulated. If your horse was 'out' for quite a while it does sound more like a faint or collapse. Hope you get to the bottom of it but sounds like you can rule narcelopsy out perhaps.
 
i second CatherineP's advice.
I had something similar happen to one of my mares years ago, she went very dazed and staggery in the field, would have collapsed if under saddle i'm sure. Vet came immediately and said it was a type of "ryegrass staggers" vitamin deficiency, and gave her a big injection of, i believe, vitamins of various types. she was absolutely fine within about half an hour of the injection, and fine from then onwards, never happened again.
 
My boy also suffers from narcolepsy in the same way as wonkey donkeys. It doesnt sound the same as your horse though and mine events at pre novice and does elementary dressage without any problem.
 
Hopefully I'll be seeing the vet tonight - armed with my long list of ideas. Thanks for all your suggestions. Someone else has mentioned 'tying up' and suggested doing a blood test for muscle enzymes. Any experiences?
 
[ QUOTE ]
i second CatherineP's advice.
I had something similar happen to one of my mares years ago, she went very dazed and staggery in the field, would have collapsed if under saddle i'm sure. Vet came immediately and said it was a type of "ryegrass staggers" vitamin deficiency, and gave her a big injection of, i believe, vitamins of various types. she was absolutely fine within about half an hour of the injection, and fine from then onwards, never happened again.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had a mare that suffered horribly with Ryegrass Staggers and am fairly positive that it doesn't fit with the OP's situation. RS symptoms accumulate during exposure to ryegrass and dissipate once the animal is removed from the grass (I know this only too well as before she was diagnosed she'd be in the field looking like she was going to peg it, we'd bring her in for the vet and by the time he arrived she would always be sparky again!
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). With RS I'm positive the OP would have known something was seriously up for an one/two hours or so prior to collapse.

For anyone worried about RS, it is linked with magnesium deficiency and is most common in spring/autumn. CalMag is super cheap and a couple of teaspoons a day during problem periods will help loads.
 
Hi.

My horse collapsed in his stable last year whilst I was on the yard. I heard him go down and looked over his door.

He was lying on the floor showing the whites of his eyes. His legs were moving as if he was cantering. It looked like the equine equivalent of an epelectic (sp!) fit.

He was down for about 30 seconds and then he got back up. He did not seem to be aware of me whilst he was having his "fit".

He was rather quiet for the next week or so and then seemed to be back to normal. I had bloods done and everything was within normal parameters. His gums were a litle white so we gave him an iron supplement. I also had my vet come out and check him over. He could find nothing wrong.

I did notice he had some lumps on his neck. I discussed it with my trainer and she said she had a horse years ago that was being hacked out and suddenly collapsed. The horse was back up again quickly and the vets diagnosis in that instance was anaphyalatic (sp) shock from a sting or a bite.

I, like you, gave my horse quite a bit of time off afterwards but he has shown no signs of doing the same again since. It will be a year at the end of this month.

It might not give you any reassurance but my vet did say that if it is a fit then a horse gets a pre fit aura. He suggested that you would be able to recognise when something strange was going to happen and as a result would have time to get off if you were on board.

I wish you luck with trying to find out what the problem was, but the likelihood is you will never know. My vet advised against various tests as the costs would be extortionate and likely inconclusive.
 
Interesting about the reaaction to the fly bite/sting - I remember asking my neighbour in the line-up if she could see a fly on my mare just before she went down. The vet came tonight and the conclusion is that there is no conclusion! So, we'll start with a little bit of lungeing at the weekend and take it from there. Thanks very much, I really appreciate all the ideas.......crossing fingers this is a one off!
 
I once saw an arab pony mare have a dose of the "vapours" after she was bitten or stung. The vet said he'd never seen anything like it and called a more experienced vet to see such a funny case! We were literally holding the pony up.

Talored - not all horses which have fits have an aura. My own mare has epilepsy (she is drug controlled) and while she used to have an aura lasting about 1 minute which gave me time to get us both prepared, her most recent fits (breakthrough) were without an aura and just took hold straight away. I know of one or two cases which simply collapse as though they have been shot, but this sort of total seizure is pretty rare. Most seem to have just partial seizures so although they may collapse, they tend to get straight back up again and are not or only briefly unconscious.
 
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