Meet Skeeter, the narcoleptic poodle

'Skeeter' prescribed Ritalin for rare disorder

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updated 3:25 p.m. ET Oct. 21, 2005

CHUBBUCK, Idaho - Skeeter the poodle can do one thing really well: play dead.

That’s because the 11-pound pooch has narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder that is extremely rare in dogs.

“He has no personality right now,” his owner, Shari Henderson, said. “It is scary. I don’t want him turning into a couch pillow.”

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Henderson took the dog to the veterinarian after Skeeter started falling fast asleep at the oddest times.

Skeeter would be doing the things that dogs love, like chasing a squirrel, going for a walk or sniffing a four-legged friend. All of a sudden, the dog would be out cold.

Skeeter’s vet, Walter Rowntree of Bannock Animal Medical Center, said there are no statistics available on narcolepsy’s prevalence in dogs because the condition is so rare in canines.

“I called four or five colleagues to brag that I’d diagnosed a narcoleptic dog,” Rowntree said.

Skeeter is being treated with some human medicines — Ritalin and an antidepressant — in hopes he’ll be barking back to normal.