Grand Mal seizures in horses?

[Kinsella]

Got an email from a friend today that their horse had what was apparently a grand mal seizure. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Here is the description she sent me of the episode:

Brought him in from turnout, walked into his stall, as groom walked away he heard what he thought was Sky kicking the walls, she does that when she eats, Found Danny kicking out, head twisted, rapid blinking, unaware of his surroundings. He removed him from the stall to keep him safe and tried to get him to the round pen, his head was so twisted it was like someone had his head and was jerking around to his tail, like his neck would snap off. Violent jerking of the head and neck twisted around and body jerking with spasms. Lasted 3-5 minutes. Then out in the round pen, he was completely lethargic like he was drugeed (post ictal phase) lasting 30-45 minutes. And what I noticed when I saw him while the vet was examining him was a little sweat behind the ears and his far away look.

[dwblover]

Hmm, a friend had an aged mare at a barn awhile back who we believed was having seizures. She would lie down out in the field and would seem to go to sleep. Then she would begin to shake, sometimes very violently, and be unresponsive while the episodes were going on. We called the vet out, who basically told us that seizures are so rare in horses that could not be the cause. We were unconvinced to say the least, but I left that barn soon after so never did find out what was wrong with the mare. Of course the vet knows more than I do, so just an honest question, did the vet think it could be a stroke of some sort? Just wondering since that vet we used to use said seizures are so incredibly rare.

[Barnfairy]

I once found one of my horses in the throes of a seizure; I had heard the thrashing in the barn from inside my house and went running out thinking someone must be cast. :no:

My boy was very old and had Cushings. I had him put down the same day as the vet thought most likely there was a brain tumor either pressing or bleeding out.

I'm sorry your friend and her horse are going through this.

[atr]

What breed is this horse? If it has QH or an Appy blood, I'd suspect HYPP.

[Tree]

What breed is this horse? If it has QH or an Appy blood, I'd suspect HYPP.

That was my first thought too. HYPP horses will seizure if their diet isn't managed properly.

[Hilary]

How old was this horse? My old mare had some kind of episode last week that left her with neuro issues- I didn't see it happen, just the aftermath of her lying in the snow outside the pasture fence with wounds on her head.

She'll be 29 in April, so I'm guess it was some kind of stroke/bleed/seizure. Her left side is impaired and she's had very strange sweat patterns (dripping wet patches in 10 degree temps).

So to answer your question, yes they can have seizures and it's probably not a good thing in the long run.

[cloudyandcallie]

I think it is one of the symtoms of epm, at least it was on the card that was posted at a barn we boarded at where a horse had epm. That horse did not have the seizures though.

I know when a BO mistakenly gave my mare a shot in an artery, my mare had a seizure, I was holding onto her when it happened. Luckily she recovered but it was very violent thrashing. The BO kept screaming heart attack but I knew it had to have been the shot.

When I bought my wb in Florida, there was a horse at the boarding barn who had undiagnosed seizures. That horse died shortly thereafter, and the owner didn't have an autopsy to determine the cause.

Brain tumors cause seizures.

Uremic poisoning causes seizures. I had a cat who had seizures in her old age from kidney failure.

[Boomer]

I haven't seen a horse do it, but in dogs seizures after a certain age (2 years in dogs) usually have a secondary cause (tumor, injury, stroke...?) and are not "primary" epilepsy (do all the tests and work-ups but no cause found in dogs less than 2 years).

Not sure what you could do to prevent future issues unless you can ID a cause. Even if you could I doubt there is much research or anti-seizure meds as it must be pretty rare in horses.

I could ask my boarder who is an equine internal medicine vet at the local vet school and see if she's had any experience with it.

[DesignerLabel]

I had an Arabian filly diagnosed with Juvenile Epilepsy. She had her first seizure at 3 months of age, another a month later, and then no more. She is now 6. Apparently this can be a genetic defect in some lines, often Egyptian-bred, but she has no Egyptian blood.

Liz

[kcmel]

Phenobarbital is used to treat seizures in horses. It can be very sedating, though, so you would have to monitor closely at first to get the dosage right. But I don't know if it is recommended after a single seizure. You would have to talk to your vet about that. But I have heard of several horses that have been successfully treated with phenobarb.

[Kinsella]

Danny is a 10yo TB. No injury, no meds of any sort in the past, well, really long time. Vet agreed it was a seizure, and they are going to do some tests to rule out stuff (I don't have all those details), but if they don't come up with anything then he'll go to a clinic for MRI (?)

I'll keep you posted. He's been fine all day, no ill effects.... I'll mention the phenobarb...

[abbydp]

I do absolutely believe horse can have seizures. We had a mare a few years ago that had several. The vets checked everything they could possibly think to check, but nothing. For a while the owner didn't believe us and kept riding her. Very scary!! He finally had hold of her during one and agreed to put her down.

[Buffyblue]

A friend's TB had seizures of this sort and was discovered to have had EPM for quite a while. He was treated for EPM and maintained on Phenobarbital, but since the EPM was diagnosed so late a lot of damage had been done. Best wishes for getting a diagnosis and for a full recovery for this guy!

[MandalayTraining]

I definitely believe horses can have seizures. My moms gelding had a seizure a few days before Christmas and after hearing what happened, that was the first thing our vet said was that it was a seizure. He passed all his neuro exams and his blood work came back normal and he was completely fine afterwards. It was the first one hes ever had and he hasnt had one since. Jingles to your friends horse

[Kyzteke]

Yes -- I've watched 2 horse have seizures.

In one case it was a 3 week old foal who (we found out later) had gotten into some wild St. John's Wort. He had two seizures about 1 day apart. One was in the stall with me there -- VERY scary! I'm a nurse, so I've seen people have seizures and I had a dog (JRT) who had seizures the last 3 years of her life....but seeing something that large have a seizure was pretty overwhelming.

The second case was a full-grown horse -- some idiot accidently gave him penicillin IV instead of IM and it gave him a seizure. He was in the paddock at the time and ended up UNDER a pipe fence...man, that was really a mess.

I think anything with a brain & neurological system can have a seizure....

Edited to add: my JRT was on routine phenobarb to help control the seizures the last few years of her life -- it is the least expensive med for it (in dogs). You can also use valium if the seizure is prolonged or not being controlled by the pheno.

[abbydp]

Mandalay please be very careful. The mare we had only had 3 or 4 over the course of about 2 years. They were far enough apart that people handling her kind of forgot about them. I even rode her a couple of times after they started (before I actually saw one happen and realized what it meant). The trainer was the only one who saw the first, she and I saw the second - the trainer was leading her into the barn and it started on the way in. She wrapped the lead line around a tree and got on the other side of the tree to try and keep the mare in one place, keep her from falling through the fence, and to protect herself without leaving the mare. I think there was another one in there, but don't remember the details. The last one, the owner (the trainer's dad) was leading her through this walkway between a fence and a brick building. She started, broke a gate, and hit everything around her, luckily not trainer's dad, and ended up wedged into the corner of the brick walls. She took off a lot of skin, but no damage that was not fixable. He finally believed us, and put her down. It was hard for everyone, because she had so much time in between them, and had a great quality of life. But the danger of her having one while the farrier was working on her, going through a fence, etc just began to outweigh everything else. She was not safe to ride, as they came on quickly with no warning. She passed every test they could think of, they had no idea as to a cause, so nothing to treat.

[carp]

My trainer had a horse go into a grand mal seizure under saddle. The horse dropped like a stone with no warning. :eek: My trainer, luckily, was able to bail out and didn't get trapped under the horse, but the experience scared the bejeezus out of her. She realized at that point that a pattern of weird injuries was probably due to other seizures that nobody had been around to witness, so she sent the horse home and told the owner to retire him. She felt he was completely unsafe to ride.

[Bluey]

I had a horse that had West Nile Virus and he was noticed being off at evening feeding.
They put him in the yard by the office to watch him.
Then he started having seizures and trashing around so bad no one could get to him.
Before the vet could get there, he hit the office wall with his head, fell over and died in a few minutes.

So, WNV, as any other encephalitis, may cause seizures.:(

[bugsynskeeter]

I seen many horses have grand mal seizures, but then again, I do work at an equine hospital.

The only thing that sticks out to me about the description is that I've never seen a horse have a true grand mal seizure and still be standing. They are always down and thrashing. They tend to use phenobarb in adults and diazepam or midazolam in foals to control the seizures.

[abbydp]

Ours could not stay on her feet. They started that way, but she always ended up on the ground. The one with the tree, she ended up kind of sitting, as her head was held up. It kept her from bashing up her face like the other times, though :/ There is no way she could have stayed up, she was in no way in control or conscious of anything.

[MandalayTraining]

Yeah we are going to bring our guy back very slowly, probably lots of longing and ground work in case he does it again. If he does it again, we may look into getting more testing done. Im sorry to hear about your horse though. Thats always hard to lose one and have no answers why.