Stiff

May 30, 2005 12:08 AM

Fainting goats[wmv] and their mysterious origins.
posted by tellurian (7 comments total)

They get stiff. They actually have a rush, and they get stiff. All you've got is a few seconds.

Poor li'l sexy fainting guys... But maybe they're latah?
posted by maryh at 12:31 AM on May 30, 2005

Repeat.

To be fair, searching the archives for goats turns up a lot of goatse.cx stuff besides the original post, and who wants to wade through that?
posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 12:33 AM on May 30, 2005

Well, it is a different fainting goats website this time, and a video (which firefox won't load for me), but it's about the same thing.
posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 12:35 AM on May 30, 2005

Fainting People:

A benign disease, present from birth, with onset of symptoms in early life. It is characterised by myotonia, hyperexcitability, and hypertrophy of the voluntary muscles, with spasms and an inability to relax the muscles immediately after forceful contraction. In a few minutes, rigidity wears away and the movements become free from repeated contractions, the muscles becoming firm and well developed. Masticatory, laryngeal, and ocular muscles may also be affected. Emotions and cold enhance symptoms. Warmth decreases them. Prevalent in males. Incurable but may improve with age. Inheritance is autosomal dominant. [Thomsen's disease]

posted by pracowity at 1:23 AM on May 30, 2005

I studied this in my neuropathophysiology class - there is a range of myotonic diseases, resulting from hyperexcitability or hypoinactivation, flaws in a number of areas. It's pretty interesting and it really happens so some people. My classmates and I were hoping that it resulted in super strength but that didn't seem to be the case... In any case, thanks for the post - though I have this video on my HD. ;)
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:48 AM on May 30, 2005

Did anyone else laugh when watching the video? Especially the part with the older goat jumping on stiff legs. I was picturing a human having that problem and jumping stiff-limped as a coping mechanism.

Btw, does anybody know the mechanism of how this disease works? As in what hormones are released and what causes muscles to contract as opposed to normal goat/human reactions?
posted by state fxn at 2:10 AM on May 30, 2005

Oops!
posted by tellurian at 6:25 PM on May 30, 2005