Urgent - Any advice/info would be great

[Nettie]

Guys
Allie's baby Ace is not well.. well he is.. Its an odd situation

If everyone remembers things were not so great at the birth.. and he required CPR and vet assistance approx 30 mins after birth.

Well it happened again today.

We are starting to think he has "Narcolepsy" (sp?) I don't know a whole lot on it.. or how common it is in foals.

Generally an attack almost a faint with very slowy heartbeat and no breathing takes a little to rouse him is caused by some kind of big stress.. at birth - the sheer fact of being born and today we had extreme heat.. and whilst we were watching him closely and keeping him as cool as possible. When the attack occured he had an extreme high temperature we put all four legs of his in fresh cold water and started hosing all the main points. He is a hairy foal.. we bought him around and when the vet arrived he turned bucked and ran and kicked her in the leg She said that is a good sign..lol.

I am so scared.. I don't know what to do.. I have never had this before... I need to know.. is this herediatary, do they grow out of it, is there something I need to do for him (other then keep him stress free), any thing else.. feed/diet etc... He is 8 days old and was baking for 333 days.. so not premmie or overcooked by any means.

I am sorry for the rambling but things are just upside down here at the moment.. and to top it off me being the accident prone person I am in the midst of it all I had to pick up a full water trough in my broken arm and its now so sore.. the cast got wet and is off so I am off to the doctors in the morning . But we have my Ace... and I have good painkillers and a really strong bandage on.

One of long term mini geldings whom I took to national and state titles got picked up for transport (2 states away!) to go to his new owners in amongst it all..

I feel like the biggest drama queen.

Oh and Devine has an almost full udder and will be on cam soon.. we are just waitin gto see what Happens when Ace's blood test results come back in then we will try and be "normal"

Thanks for listening.. any advice no matter how small is greatly appreciated..

Nettie
PS right now he has normal breathing/heartrate and acting like any normal 8 day old foal, suckling, running bucking, sleeping, annoying his mum, playing with his humans (lol), and playing in his water and drinking his electrolytes... it has me stumped!

[sassy1]

I don't have any advice to give you Nettie, but it sounds like you are keeping on top of it.

We have had foals "faint" on us, but usually when we have had to hold on to them (or pick them up and carry them). It is very scarey when they do things like that!

[lesliew]

Nettie, Beth Freeland and a couple others had colt foals do that this year. Beth has actually had two or three like this. She did give them oxygen during their bouts. Generally it is the boys that do it and it is stress related, but hang in there honey! They do grow out of it, some just take longer than others..

[sjminiatures]

Hi Nettie,

I had a colt this year that was born with Narcolespy. He first fainted when he was about 5 mins old and I was towel drying him off. I thought the little guy had died!! Scared me terribly. He would always faint when he was just the little bit stressed. He did outgrow this, but it took a few weeks. Your little guy will be fine. Hang in there.

Sue

[Nettie]

Thank you all for your advice.. its scares the living out of us.. and yes its when you do something.. first attack was 30 mins after birth.. we picked him up and moved him to the other end of the stable so we could clean up all the mess...
Yesterday we were going to pick him up and carry him to the stable as it was getting a bit hot for him to be outside - but we have picked him up in between and he is fine.

I sure hope he grows out of it and this gives us great hope..thankyou

Nettie

[Heather T]

Nettie- is it possible that he's a fainting foal? We've had them and had a bad one this year. Scares the fool out of you when it happens. If it is a fainting foal there's really nothing to do, that I am aware of, except let them outgrow it and try not to stress them - like you said.

Hugs - keep us posted.

[downundermum]

Hang in there Nettie, looks like your having 'one of those weeks' Sounds like a stress related problem that will hopefully right itself as he gets older. If its going to be really hot maybe try putting him in a stable with one of those old evaporative airconditioners blowing or a fan blowing through wet towels or wheat bags. I did this with a foal that used to get really stressed with the heat, although she never fainted she came close. It only affected her as a baby, by the time she was a yearling she was fine.

[Nettie]

Seems he has a liver problem... will post about it in a second.. he sure could use your prayers.
Nettie