Although I feel it's unsafe to sit on the ground near a horse, my back is against a corner fence, so little chance of my horse bolting into me. Still, I want distance.
Mag is showing signs of narcolepsy/sleep deprivation. I'd appreciate help from anyone with experience with this.
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6 comments:
We have a couple with narcolepsy here on the farm, complete with scraped fetlock fronts (I see Mag's). Theory is that in most horses it's not a true neurological condition, but instead a result of sleep deprivation. Does Mag lay down to sleep much? They only get good R.E.M. Sleep laying down.
31- year old Fizz has had problems with it since Sarah has owned her (did you follow Food for Founder blog?), and doesn't like to lay down much in the winter, unless we give her lots of cushy shavings. She also reacts some to extra stressors. Sonny's (24) seems to be correlated with stress, as well: hadn't scuffed his legs in 8-9 months, but when we moved two geldings into the next door pasture, he seemed to think they were trying to steal his girlfriend (my old broodmare), and we started seeing blood again. Both have some arthritis going on, which also may contribute to not wanting to lie down.
I knew a broodmare whose knees had been damaged on the (TB) track; she couldn't "lock" her knees to sleep standing-up. Instead, she would fall asleep standing up and then sort of stagger around the pasture (asleep) until she hit the electric fence, which would wake her up. You just wanted to yell "LIE DOWN, DUMMY" but she would only lie down to sleep after dark, even though the herd boss (mare) would willingly stand guard over anyone sleeping, day or night.
Good article here, although it is 10 years old: https://equusmagazine.com/management/horse_sleep_deprived_092308-10689
Happy Birthday! Sorry, I have no experience with narcoloepsy...mine all stretch out and sleep quite predictably mid morning and are quite upset if I have to break their routine.
Happy Birthday! What is happening with Mag?
Laurie...Evensong! It's so good to hear that you know it, of course you do. It's so sad to observe. And try as we might, we often fail at solving it. I don't know Food for Founder. I indulged on a bedding shopping spree to see if he'd lay down, but he didn't. Right now I have a big pile of Leinstroh for him to lie in under the walnut tree where they rest/doze, if he'd like to. But so far, no. Does he lay down to sleep? Not that I've seen, and that really scares me. Baasha lay down his very first day here, on arrival, as if he knew this was finally our home together. I understand now it's not narcolepsy after reading about how to treat it. It's pretty bleak, seeing the YouTube videos of horses suffering from it, standing directly next to another horse. (Cuz most say it's cuz Mag lives with a donkey.)
Aarene, fascinating article! "The practice of separating mares and geldings can lead to some very tired geldings." !! That article still stands today, from what I've learned. Yah, Mag rolls every day, so it's not pain. It's likely herd related, but we're not able to open up our home to a herd, or even a mare, sadly.
T, your photos of your horses lying asleep are wonderful!
T, see his fetlocks? He tries to sleep standing up and starts to collapse and mostly catches himself, but sometimes falls, and if it's on our geotiles, they rip him up. We're going shopping for padding for the ground. One of the things I've learned is, we can sometimes only make their crash zone softer, so they don't continue to injure themselves.
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I imagine I will earn a lot of enemies from this post. I will continue to do what I can for Mag and hope he'll grow out of it. My husband suggested I go out and stand with him all night because he sees me as his herd mate. "Do you own a tent J?" : )
I'll attach a YouTube video of a horse showing sleep deprivation in my next post, if you are curious about what it looks like. Mag isn't quite as extreme, but obviously enough to take the skin off his feltlocks.
Oh, oh! I forgot to mention!! A way cheaper method to protect his fetlocks (than a bunch of mats) is upside down bell boots! We keep a pair on Sonny's stall gate for when he has problems!
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