Liberty, the rest of the story

Dr. Chris Camp of Del Oeste Equine Veterinary Services in Eugene, Oregon was able to come up with a diagnosis of what happened to Liberty. He provided Liberty's vet care the spring and summer of 2008 while at Day Star Farm. He tested him for EPM, Selenium Deficiency and other medical issues that he thought could be the souse of Liberty's collapsing problems and severe loss of muscle tone. He believes that Liberty suffered from Narcolepsy, which is a sleeping disorder. He conferred with vets from Davis University in California, to Washington State Vet School and I have visited with an assortment of private practice vets. They said the signs of never seeing him lay down in the pasture to sleep, falling in the trailer and when ridden, being cinchy, not wanting to roll, the constant pawing were all really good signs he suffered from Narcolepsy. Even the times when we found him down and unable to get up and not willing to even try suggest it was Narcolepsy. Those are the times that Liberty would be completely in another world and we did not exist, he would not even recognize us. It was something I often questioned others who knew him about. No one could come up with an answer but could see that he was not with us periodically. He would never have made a safe mount for Jim and eventually he probably would have gone down while I was driving him, they believe it would only have gotten worse. At first he would sink down in slow motion, and then it progressed into collapsing with an uncontrollable hard thud. There is no cure for Narcolepsy and it affects a large segment of our human and animal population. Of course we cannot or never will be 100% positive but this diagnosis fits with all of Liberty’s many symptoms. The one thing this diagnosis and my own research have given me is closure and that is of tremendous value!

Here is some on line information that I discovered:
Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder caused by the brain's inability to regulate sleep-wake cycles normally. At various times throughout the day, a person with narcolepsy experience fleeting urges to sleep. If the urge becomes overwhelming, patients fall asleep for periods lasting from a few seconds to several minutes. In rare cases, some people may remain asleep for an hour or longer.
Cataplexy is a sudden loss of muscle tone that leads to feelings of weakness and a loss of voluntary muscle control. Attacks can occur at any time during the waking period. In about 10 percent of all cases, cataplexy is the first symptom to appear and can be misdiagnosed as a manifestation of a seizure disorder. Cataplectic attacks vary in duration and severity. The loss of muscle tone can be barely perceptible, involving no more than a momentary sense of slight weakness in a limited number of muscles, such as mild drooping of the eyelids. The most severe attacks result in a complete loss of tone in all voluntary muscles, leading to total physical collapse in which patients are unable to move, speak, or keep their eyes open. But even during the most severe episodes, people remain fully conscious, a characteristic that distinguishes cataplexy from seizure disorders. Although cataplexy can occur spontaneously, it is more often triggered by sudden, strong emotions such as fear, anger, stress, excitement, or humor.
Sleep paralysis is the temporary inability to move or speak while falling asleep or waking up also parallels REM-induced inhibitions of voluntary muscle activity.
This article went on to suggest that having a stoke during a severe Narcolepsy/Cataplexy attack is also a possibility.
This info was found on an online website http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/narcolepsy/detail_narcolepsy.htm There is a great deal of information and on going research on this topic in both human and animals. I have watched narcolepsy videos on YouTube that confirmed what we were seeing in Liberty. I have also heard from a number of people who suffer with this disease in various degrees and it has given me a great deal of insight.
We value that Liberty was a happy healthy boy right to the end.

This photo was taken the day before he passed away. Here’s Liberty happily playing with his little brother, Galahad who loved to torment the heck out of him.