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  Discussion on Hormone related siezures - UK
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New Member:
Megster

Posted on Friday, Dec 5, 2003 - 3:48 pm:

I have owned my 8 yr old Cleveland Bay x TB mare for 12 months and prior to me owning her she has no history of siezures or unusual hormone related behaviour. She previously lived happily with mares and geldings although has some history of being bullied - previously being the smallest horse on the yard (described by her two previous owners as passive). She now lives with two old mares (ponies) and the geldings (one of whom she immediately developed a serious love interest in) live in the next field. She started to have siezures within two weeks of me owning her, has had 5 that we have seen, all being around four days prior to coming into season and strangely all occuring at around 3pm. She is clearly the dominant mare on the yard (for the first time in her life) and makes this very clear (although I have a very good relationship with her, once the rules were laid out to her). She was in and out of season for the whole of Dec 02 and has continued to have seasons so far this winter (I had hoped the previous year was due to the disruption of moving home). The siezures, whilst upsetting to see, are predominantly relatively mild, last only 10 seconds or so and involve her stretching her head up, teeth bared and walking backwards in circles trying to keep her balance until its over. She tends to be a bit sluggish for a few hours before and is very sweet, almost insecure, after. Only once has she fallen, when she reared, went over backwards and lay on the ground for around 10 seconds, twitching. The most recent one was not so severe. There is a clear link to hormones. Her seasons vary in severity, sometimes I barely notice, particularly throughout the height of summer, whereas through the winter she is extremely grouchy, worse this year, and will launch herself at other horses if they get too close - this week she made a very clear attempt to kick another gelding whilst we were hacking which she has never done before - this isn't a horse that kicks ordinarily. I guess I would like to get thoughts around a)could it be anything to do with the fact she is now dominant ie affecting her hormones and any advice on this b) would there be any value in me putting her on regumate and would i need to continue her on this throughout the year, c) any other suggestions? I am loathe to put her on epilepsy drugs as I don't believe the siezures are severe enough to warrant this at this stage. I firmly believe the siezures are secondary to hormones but would welcome views. Sorry if this is a bit long winded...wanted to get all of the facts in.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Dec 6, 2003 - 7:48 am:

Hello Sarah,
We have had a fairly involved discussion on this that should cover most of our thoughts on this at » Equine Diseases » Nervous System » Seizures and Epilepsy » Seizures and hormones. I find most folks who tell me their mares are cycling through the winter are misidentifying heat or leaving the barn lights on into the night. You might want to have that double checked.
DrO
Member:
Megster

Posted on Friday, Dec 19, 2003 - 7:50 am:

Dr O
Thanks for the response. I have read through almost all of the information detailed on the site and it has proved to be very informative. I am shortly about to commence her on a course of Regumate to see how she gets on with that. The lights are definitely not on after around 6pm at the yard and the symptoms of her being in season through the winter are quite extreme and more so than through the summer ie squirting, tail lifting, moodiness, soreness around her middle, sensitive to touch ie grooming, and general grouchiness lasting around 4 days. She seems a bit miserable generally through the winter and is not her usual self -she will put her ears back at people and pull faces which is out of character. I had attributed this to her being stabled more than she would like as she is used to living out through the summer. Recently though, she has been lying down a lot which is concerning me a little. She has just moved into a new field about 3 weeks ago which has adequate grazing for the time of year - she is out for around 7 hours in the day and in at night. As she's in at night I would expect that she would spend most of the day foraging around the field but for the last week when I have gone to fetch her in she has been lying down (with another old mare who lies down as she has arthritis). We are guessing that she's lying down for about an hour a day. The weather here is cold at the moment and whilst the field is relatively dry I've been told this its quite unusual for a horse in a routine such as hers to lie down during the day. I also found her lying down in her stable when I arrived after work last week at around 6pm. She got straight up when I arrived but in the 12 months I've owned her nobody has ever seen her lie down in her stable. She is eating normally, in light work due to the time of year - being ridden for around an hour, three times a week. She has a large haynet which lasts her all night and two small token feeds a day with supplements. I don't feed concentrates as she has a tendency to put on weight easily. She has never been lame and seems in good condition. Should I be worried about her lying down more than usual or do you think this is normal behaviour? I tend to force myself not to get paranoid about the little things that probably don't mean anything, but would hate to miss something important and peope at my yard have commented about her lying down and general demeanor through the winter.
Thanks. Sarah
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Dec 20, 2003 - 7:54 am:

As long as there are no other symptoms of colic, depression, or lameness I would not be to concerned with the lying down, just keep a close eye out for appropriate stool production. On cold blustery days my horses will lie down, particularly in the sun, to get out of the wind and to collect some rays.
DrO
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