It seems that many horse people I run into have a tale or two to tell about a narcoleptic horse. Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of such a thing - now it's about as common as thrush!!
A few days ago, while shopping in REINs tack shop, I met a friend who had her own story of narcolepsy - I add it here hoping to accrue pieces to a puzzling equine aliment.
The horse in question was her daughter's, brought to UC Davis and boarded there in the riding program. The horse began exhibiting odd behavior (falling over, unexplained cuts) and was brought into the UC Davis large animal veterinary clinic for testing and hopefully diagnosis (the horse had a great career in eventing). The horse was strapped up for testing and the owner was quieting him by messaging his gums when the horse fell into a narcoleptic fit! He was promptly diagnosed with narcolepsy much to the excitement of attending vets. About the only thing else that showed up under mountains of testing was the horse had a calcium deficiency. This horse was 17 years old, never had any signs of narcolepsy until he was moved to UC Davis and diagnosed with a calcium deficiency.
A piece to the puzzle or totally nonsequitur....you decide!
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Finding a unicorn
5 years ago
It's as good a place to start as any. I'm going to check into that & see whether UC Davis has written that up as a case study. This has all been such a fascinating journey, and if there's something we can all figure out to help one another with the problem, so much the better. Did she mention whether the calcium deficiency was addressed, and whether it made any difference in the narcolepsy?
ReplyDeleteHi Dawn, I don't know what happened with the calcium deficiency, but I'll ask. Maybe you can find out from UC Davis what transpired. I'll keep asking and blogging...maybe we'll come up with some interesting theories/hypothesis!
ReplyDeleteHas any information been obtained from UC Davis about this case? I have a horse that is exhibiting some signs of narcolepsy and am trying to find out as much as I can.
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