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  Discussion on Horse unwilling to REM sleep
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Member:
mcashman

Posted on Friday, Oct 16, 2015 - 11:22 pm:

Dr O., I have a 21 y/o OTTB boarded horse who came to us with fetlock scars that the owner interpreted as being from abrasion with the ground. These wounds would reopen every once in a while, and we assumed it was from lying down on the rough dirt and then getting up.

However, after observing this horse both directly and on video streamed from paddock surveillance cameras, it is clear to me that the horse starts by standing in a snooze position, gradually DrOops his head further and further with a slack lip, and then starts to collapse to his knees, sliding his hips backward as if beginning to lie down. On contact or near contact with the ground in the front, whether or not wearing stall sore boots, the horse startles and stands again.

The horse is almost never visibly recumbent for sleep. I have seen him sleep and dream twice in the past year. He is very active when he dreams, as if dreaming of racing (he is an OTTB). Both times were in daylight in a grass pasture.

He is agile and has no problem lying down. He lies down, rolls, stands up and rolls on the other side and stands up. He shows no more problem doing so than my 15 y/o reining horse or our other boarded 20 y/o OTTB (who sleeps well and normally). He shows no noticeable lameness or stiffness in stifles or hocks when walking, trotting or cantering and readily picks up all feet.

I am convinced that something is preventing him from entering REM sleep and that these collapses are similar to "falling asleep at the wheel".

I have observed that he is more vigilant than the other horses, is anxious when separated, that he is the bottom of the dominance pile, but he likes the other horses and they will herd with him. Other horses who are candidates to stand guard are available when he might sleep, and even when other horses are sleeping he does not seem to take advantage of their feeling of security. He is no longer chased since the first few weeks when he did not seem to know "move away" body language, and, on the occasions where he rolls, no one bothers him. I have tested him with nearby and more distant novel sounds, but they do not seem to startle him such that they might wake him up if he was attempting to sleep. He won't sofar wear earplugs, but we are trying this to further confirm or refute the hypothesis that he is hyper-vigilant for sound. He does seem sensitive to the sound of acorns falling and deer moving in the woods when already awake.

Like all of our horses, he is (for the last year after coming to us) on 24x7 fresh grass hay and pasture and he has been on a weight gain program that includes Tri-Amino and Finish Line Ultra Fire with 2 lbs daily of stabilized rice bran pellets (he started at Henneke BCS 3.5 and is now probably BCS 4+) He is turned out 24x7 except for thunderstorms and blizzards in either dirt lot sacrifice space or grassy pasture and shows no particular change in his sleeping behavior regardless of surrounding (except for the two times I saw him dream in the pasture).

I basically have only a couple of hypotheses left:

- He simply tends to be anxious and it will take more time for his new current safe and horse-like life to penetrate and reduce his anxiety, which it has done for the other OTTB (who also was worried, thin and tense when she arrived, but always slept and dreamed)

- The vet tells us he has a cracked tooth and it may be that the tooth is causing him an ongoing pain that discourages sleep (but note he does not avoid chewing or hay). I have thought to treat him with bute for a week and see if either the episodes disappear or he is observed to sleep to determine if this might be the cause

Is there anything I'm missing or should try in order to center on a reason for his unwillingness to REM sleep?
Member:
dres

Posted on Saturday, Oct 17, 2015 - 11:04 am:

Mark , i have a horse that I foaled and raised , he has lived on our ranch his lifetime ... he will not lay down to sleep ever ... he too, can get down to roll and up with no trouble .. i have watched him DrOp his head and buckle so many times , and he as well has the sores on his fetlocks and knees from hitting the ground now and again .. My thoughts for my gelding is that he is the keeper of the herd .. he takes his job seriously and laying down on the job won't do ... . sad isn't it .. ?
Cute story , husband was working on a well near his pasture one weekend , husband was there pretty much all day both days .. the second day Picasso laid down close to husband to take a nap .. WE HAVE NEVER WITNESS HIM LAYING DOWN since he was 4 years old and became the keeper of the herd ... . I told husband he had to go keep guard everyday so that Picasso could relax and get his REM sleep ..

On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them spots ..
Member:
mcashman

Posted on Saturday, Oct 17, 2015 - 2:40 pm:

I did find an excellent article on this from another thread - https://equusmagazine.com/article/horse_sleep_deprived_092308-10689

Just as you found, for some horses a guard makes all the difference. Not the case here, however (unfortunately)

That is a sweet story. I hope your gelding will get to relax and enjoy his sleep as he should.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Oct 18, 2015 - 9:58 am:

Hello Mark,
I like the first theory except for the assumption that he is not getting adequate sleep, I am not sure of that. Have you considered a stall for 6 hours a day where he may feel more secure?
DrO
Member:
mcashman

Posted on Sunday, Oct 18, 2015 - 5:34 pm:

Thanks, Dr. O. He has been inside several times and does not seem a lot less vigilant in the stall. He eats but does not lie down and attempt to sleep. I have surveillance footage of him in the stall.

He also hates being separated from his buddies, so everyone would have to go in, or there'd just be a different problem.

I stood with him last night for an hour in the dark. It took some time but he did seem to wind down - though not enough to sleep. I watched him afterward for a couple of hours. He seemed to want to be at the center of a circle of horses, and would move to be there, but the other horses were not always happy with how close he was.

When "just standing" his ears moved 2-5 times as much as the other two horses who were doing the same thing nearby.

Our stable hand told me the one time she had seen him lie down was when she was filling the water barrel in their pasture and thus she had stood there for around 10 minutes.

It's not really an assumption that he isn't getting enough sleep. I do have a lot of surveillance footage and can't find him sleeping on any of it, but I do see him nearly DrOp 2-3 times per night.
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