Narcolepsy (sudden falling asleep!!)

[levers]

Hi, does anyone have experience of narcolepsy in horses. My 14 year old 17.1h gelding who I bred myself has developed this syndrome. It became obvious to me about 3 years ago when he started to damage his knees, fronts of his fetlocks and his hocks during the summer months. The first time it happened that I noticed was when he must have fallen asleep suddenly and he fell down on his mouth (ouch) and put his teeth through his bottom lip. It soon healed without too much trouble but he also had grazes to his knees. For about 3 months during the summer he continued to damage his legs, presumably by continual falling asleep, falling down and cutting them. Eventually with all sorts of bandaging and lotions and potions all the damage cleared up. It all started again the following summer, and is just starting again now. I suspect he does actually fall over all year round but as the ground is softer during the winter months, he doesn't do any damage. My ground at home is heavy clay and goes very hard in the summer so I guess that is why it is more obvious in the summer. His winter grazing is down the road mile to my other field which is sandy and hence much softer. Fortunately he never seems to do it when being ridden. I have watched him in the field and his head goes lower and lower until his nose is actually resting on the ground, his legs are usually splayed apart and then he appears to stagger, either forwards or backwards, sometimes he catches himself and sometimes he must actually go down and graze himself. Poor chap, it is quite funny to watch and he never seems bothered about it. I just wondered if anyone else has come across this problem and how they handled it.

[Colorado Sunset]

No ive never delt with this, but i know one of Tim Stockdales horses suffers from it! A top showjumper, has never fallen asleep when ridden, but does when stabled/in the field. Id talk to your vet about it. It might also be worth taking a diary of when it happens, where, what time of day etc so you can start seeing if you can find patterns in his behaviour.

Good luck

Jo

[Big Ears]

My horse Molly has it but fairly mildly. They tend not to do it when ridden as they are kept alert, but are more likley to dose off when relaxed, so be careful if you are grooming him if he enjoys it as Molly has gone to sleep with me when I have brushed her.

She did her back in a few times, i e pulled all the muscles on her back as she had fallen over - she never lies down in the field or stable, never has. she is better in winter as she comes in at night and tends to lean on the door and sleep that way.

As far as I know there is no cure, the only thing you could do it turn him out with knee pads to protect his knees, or try bringing him in at night in the hope that he will lie down and sleep.

[clicker]

Sorry to jump in without introducing myself, but this post caught my attention!

I have a friend who works on sleep research and they recently had a case of a police horse who had a very similar problem. They videoed him and found he never lay down - as a result he couln'd have the deep REM sleep needed ( I know horses can sleep standing up, but in order to go into REM sleep they need to lie down) - so was chronically tired and just dozed off!
This isn't true narcolepsy which has nothing to do with tiredness and is more related to stimulation and excitement.

I'd get your horse thoroughly checked by a vet to see if there are any probs with his back/legs/neck

Hope this helps !! :)

[Big Ears]

This is probably true of Molly, I havne't had her videoed but I would be 100% sure she never lies down to sleep, never has done, she is a very highly strung mare, very anxious, which is why she is retired due to stress.....aged 16 but retired virtually since she was 9.

She rolls in the field but never lies down and sleeps - Rosie lies down every afternoon and has a kip. In the winter, I think she sleeps more as she hangs her head over the door and leans on it - broke the door one year but never mind. You see her nodding off more in the summer, when she lives out 100%, so she is probably more tired.

While it may not be the true sleeping sickeness, I guess there isn't a cure for it either as how can we persuade her to lie down and sleep?

[clicker]

Aw bless!

Obviously leaning on the door works for her!!
If she is a nervous horse it's probably an uphill battle to get her to relax to sleep - and I'm sure you've tried loads of stuff!

I know in dogs there are techniques for teaching them to relax on cue but not sure if these would work with horses (although see no reason why not ??)

[chewitmonster]

I was told of a horse that the previous stable guy owned or he was liveried at his yard. This horse was about 18hh and would fall anywhere. In the end they put him down because he was such a high risk (he was fairly old) to humans - he would literally just collapse on you. On time his head was over the door when he fell and he broke the door, completely smashed it up. They have really bad restricted turn out there as well so they couldn't just leave him outside where he would be less dangerous. xxx

[NoviceNic]

Absolutely amazing thread. I was brushing Captain the other day when he fell asleep. His head went lower and lower. I said to him "You daft bu**er for falling asleep while being groomed". With that he literally started to drop to the ground still tied up. I shouted my daughter to get back as I thought he would fall on her. As he fell he startled and stood up quick sharp. Funniest thing I have ever seen him do. He is soo realxed when grooming him he always falls asleep. Interesting to read if anyone else has any more info on Narcolepsy though.

[tazzle22]

hi levers

sorry to hear your poor chap hurting himself .... it is such a shame for any human or creature to be in a situation like this. .... but a least he wont get hung up on it like a human would !!!!

I would partly agree with clicker with regard to narcolepsy .... although many people and animals with a "milder" version of narcolepsy fall asleep in the dozing manner there is a variation where those who have the condition drop suddenly and in direct relationship with exercise / excitement. This is obviously of more concern if you are riding !!! Confirmation to confirm that would need a vet

It was thought a few years ago that Taz might have it as she dropped suddenly twice while I was riding her (although no special excitement at the time LOL) and I we were both injured. It turned out not to be narcolepsy as we found out over the period of several months and was more likely due to an infection / liver problem she turned out to have .... but it was a worry for a while.

The suggestion that springs to mind given the success I had with them for something else .... is aromatic oils. maybe he will then be able to relax enough to have som REM sleep and be a much more rested horse ........... :)

[clicker]

That's really interesting Tazzle

As I said, I'm not an expert in the field :D but just info I had kicking about in the back of my brain from chats with friend.

Aromatic oils worth a go - certainly work for me :D

[tb_rider]

oh yeah! my mom's mare is like the text book desription of it just ten times worse. :cool: her biggset accident was last year when she fell asleep while getting tacked up, and let her head fall, then got spooked and came up under the pole, shattering her left eye socket :eek:. she underwent surgery and it was fixed with few peices of bone still floating around, and a couple meatle plates holding it all together. she has quite a scar.
now we just keep her away from poles. she is either tacked up in her stall, or the cross ties. when ever we seee her falling asleep we wake her up.

[galadriel]

Someone who contacted me through my site had a similar problem. She later had the horse tested for HYPP, and it came up positive. HYPP is a genetic disorder found mainly in QH descending from the stallion Impressive, with neurological factors.

ANYthing that causes a horse to fall down unexpectedly is dangerous. I have a neighbor down the street whose horse is fine 99.9% of the time, but will lose his balance and fall unexpectedly on rare occasions. He's been advised never to ride this horse, and so will not even have him trained to go under saddle, so that no one does ride him.

(Have to admit I respect that kind of decision a lot. He bought the horse as a yearling to replace his retiring competition horse, and obviously he never will. Neighbor keeps him healthy and handled and so on, and intends to keep him anyway. Always nice when it works out that someone has the resources and drive to do that.)

By the way, falling asleep in the crossties is something entirely other :) Some horses just get SO relaxed that they drop off--especially if it's close to their usual nap times. A horse who's never dozed off while being handled, except while being groomed, probably has no neurological problems.

[Jessey]

My friends Quarter horse had major problems with falling asleep, it was never confirmed what it was but it was completely unpredictable (not sure if he is Impressive related, he was canadian bred and called Triple Shock if any experts are out there :p )

He would fall asleep in any situation, standing round at a show, being ridden occasionally, whilst tied up or in the field, it didn't really matter what was going on around him, somewhere we have a picture of my friend asleep on him and the horse leaning right over against a fence also asleep, they were a picture :eek: :D

We all just used to wake him up when he was dosing off and rides were kept lively (he still went down in the middle of a pleasure class one day!)

Unfortunatly it is belived that his sleepyness was the end of him, he went down in the trailer last year, fractured his pelvis and unfortunatly never recovered and was PTS. :(

Edit to add: he was also just about the most accident proned horse going, used to fall into fences and cut himself all up - PLEASE check you have insurance that covers accidents in the field, my friend learnt the hard way when this horse cut his head open and £900 later regreted it.