Anyone here have a mini that has seizures?

[Crabby-Chicken]

I have a yearling and once in a while under stress acts like the lights just go out. No one home. She did it today when I was fly spraying her. I have talked to the vet before but we are not sure. Thanks for any ideas.

 

[hafpints]

We had an older mare that use to have seizures the vet figured she had a brain tumor. I had her put down to end her suffering , bt what your filly is doing is probably different than my mare. We did put her on phenobarbytl(sp?) seizure meds for people and it did help.

April

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Thanks!

She doesn't do the seizure tense shaking. When stressed she will stagger and sometimes fall down. But jump right up like she never did it. I have seen her do it twice and she is a yearling. We had a fainting foal once and it is a lot like that behavior. Just that she is a year old. Today spraying her with fly spray did it. I spray her every day. Today is the only day she has done it because of stress.

 

[wwminis]

It sounds like your yearling could have juvenile epilepsy. We have a 2 year old that as a yearling had seizures and didn't know where she was at. She would start wandering around aimlessly and just fall down. It would take a while for her to come around. Very scary. This can happen to a lot of foals but they usually grow out of it. Talk to your vet about juvenile epilepsy. They can give phenobarbitol to help with it. We never had to put our filly on medication and as a 2 year old she is fine.

Bill

 

[tagalong]

I cared for a mini mare years ago that suddenly started "fainting" for no apparent reason. Once I just opened the door to her stall, she looked up - and fell over. The vets figured out that her heart simply slowed down at times instead of speeding up... she was about 4 when this started to happen and there were no further signs of it by the time she turned 5...

 

[wildoak]

Everyone has different experiences - we had a foal this year who had seizures for a few days but not the same as yours. I do have a 14 yr old paint mare who is narcoleptic, and I've seen her have a couple of seizures. Does your filly sleep laying down? Our mare doesn't/can't for some reason and when she tries she seizes. I was told early on that Phenobarbital was the drug of choice to try but we've never medicated her.

Jan

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Thanks everyone!

She had a really hard birth and she has a funny mannerism also. Where she will hold her head almost all the way up, turn it to the side and have her mouth half open. Hard to explain. But she only does that if she has stress. And will stop if you ask her. The vet floated her teeth and felt her jaw and mouth and found nothing out of the ordinary.

So I do hope she grows out of it. When she had her episode today, she never really passed all the way out. She did stumble and fall and jumped right back up and was normal. The whole thing took about 30 seconds. Maybe a pinched nerve in her neck? Or an ear infection. Thank you for the ideas. She is such a sweet wonderful girl.

 

[End Level Farms]

Also have your vet look at Narcolepsy.

As I have known several full sized horses when stressed would fall asleep and fall down. And then because of the startling sensation of falling would "Wake" back up. It looked like they were fainting.

 

[sfmini]

I have a 2 year old filly who has done this all her life. We named her Weebles, cute little thing, only 29 inches. She used to fall over under stress, now she wobbles a bit. Been trying to find the right home to give her to where I will be sure she will be cared for and never bred. Also didn't register her for the same reason. Figured it could be genetic, plus would hate to have a mare fainting during labor!

She doesn't get any special care other than to be sure and have her somewhere safe to fall when doing anything stressful like shots and worming and hoof trimming.

 

[wildoak]

You might try massage / TTouch esp on her neck. Can't hurt, and might possibly help her. That's apparently what fixed our colt this year - I'm making an assumption, but he had seizures up to 6-8 times daily until I worked on him, and they abruptly quit. I just got lucky.

This colt had an easy delivery and was only 4 days old when it started, but we are guessing he either kinked something in delivery process or afterwards in the stall.

Jan

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Thanks everyone for the ideas. Jan do you think a chiropractic adjustment might help? We had thought of trying that before but didn't want to make it worse.

 

[RobinRTrueJoy]

I had a mini mare several years ago that I bought and she had three seizures. Marching in place, acting blind, running into things blindly, then staggering becoming quiet and then sleepy after it was over, then was fine. It happened EWVRY time she was in season! Vet felt it was pain related, and not hereditary at all. On my vet's advice, I bred her, one time, one breeding only and had second thoughts... I had decided just to put her on Regumate as I had read it would keep her from coming into season. BUT... she took with only one breeding. She never had another seizure. Her hormones must have changed things.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Ahhhhh she seemed to be in heat here recently Robin. First time I noticed it. AND the other time I noticed the weird behavior she was running in from the field with all the older mares. She was last and they all have to run and file through a small gate. Right before they got to me at the barn, she stopped, three up her head and flipped over backwards. Then by the time I ran to her got up and was coming to the barn. She had two abrasions on her lips, like she had been kicked. We kinda had thought that is what started the behavior. Pain, then the weird reaction.

Robin, how did your mare handle delivery? I can imagine trying to foal out a mare that faints when in pain!

She has not had anymore behavior! I am thinking of having a chiropractor look at her to see if she needs a neck adjustment too.

Thank you everyone for the help!

 

[LAZY J MINIS]

I HAVE A MARE WHO WHEN SHE WAS A BABY HAD SEIZURES. THE VET RAN TESTS AND NEVER FOUND ANY CAUSE, BASICALLY SHE WOULD HAVE A SEIZURES WHEN STRESSED. SHE WOULD SHAKE THEN GO RIDGED AND FALL OVER, AFTER A MINUTE OR TWO SHE WOULD COME AROUND SHE WOULD ACT CONFUSED AND DISORIENTED(SP) FOR AWHILE, THEN FINE. WE FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHEN ANY ONE ELSE WOULD HANDLE HER OTHER THAN ME IS WHEN SHR WOULD HAVE THIS PROBLEM. AFTER SHE WAS ABOUT 18MOS. OLD SHE OUT GREW THE SEIZURES AND HASN'T HAD ANY SINCE, SHE IS 3YRS NOW. EACH IS DIFFERENT,KEEP SEARCHING FOR THE CAUSE.

 

[TyeeRanch]

Hey girls, the more I think about this, the more it reminds me of a mare that I used to work with for some friends. She was a two year old when I was prepping her for a show. I was working her in the arena one day and she did the same thing, her head went right straight up in the air and she just fell right over. I thought I had killed her, had never seen a horse do that before! But she jumped back up and was fine. Whenever she had something happen that was slightly out of her comfort zone she would basically "shut down". It was a pretty little mare too. Just a thought, how is the little girl bred? PM me!

 

[Charlotte]

She had a really hard birth and she has a funny mannerism also. Where she will hold her head almost all the way up, turn it to the side and have her mouth half open. Hard to explain.

This sounds like a yawning posture? Like many horses do when stressed.

Our vet feels that 'fainting' can be related to a sudden drop or rise in blood pressure. We've had a few very young foals 'faint' when stressed, but they quickly outgrew it.

Charlotte