Bizarre Escalating Head Shaking - Thoughts? [UPDATE - he's retired]

[sparkygrace]

It seems we have the exact same horse problem. My horse has had a head shaking, bit-grabbing problem for a long time, actually ever since I bought him. About 18 months ago, he was having some odd lameness issues where he was slightly off and vaguely not right. It took my vets months before testing for EPM. He was positive, so I started treatment with Protazil and ulcer meds. (EPM can cause ulcers.)

He improved, but was still not right. This summer, the connection problems got worse, so I had major work-up done. His head, back, TMJ, and stifles were x-rayed. The X-rays revealed remodeling in his stifles. Why, I have no idea. He has never been in “hard” work. He was injected with a steroid and polyglycan. The improvement was dramatic. The fussiness with the contact is almost gone.

His EPM titer levels have dropped dramatically, from 2560 to 320. I’ll keep him on a 1/2 dose daily of Protazil until the number drops below 40.

If your horse was diagnosed with EPM, there is likely nerve damage that makes it hard for him to use his muscles properly. I think you are on the right track to do ground work. It takes a long time to regenerate nerves.

[Atlas_Shrugged]

Have you tried a knee-high panyhose over the nose?

[hop.ebrown]

My horse was a headshaker. Started getting nosebleeds so we scoped him and found an Ethmoid Hematoma (basically a mass in his sinus). Treatment was injecting it with Formalin every month and it eventually disappeared, with help also bi weekly PEMF treatments on his face. It did end up coming back and we had to do bone flap surgery. I would highly recommend having his sinuses scoped.

[Libby2563]

@hop.ebrown

My horse was a headshaker. Started getting nosebleeds so we scoped him and found an Ethmoid Hematoma (basically a mass in his sinus). Treatment was injecting it with Formalin every month and it eventually disappeared, with help also bi weekly PEMF treatments on his face. It did end up coming back and we had to do bone flap surgery. I would highly recommend having his sinuses scoped.

Interesting! Was his headshaking consistent or did it come and go? Was there any photic component? How often did he get nosebleeds?

[Laurierace]

My mare started headshaking when she got Lyme. I never dreamed the two things were related but obviously had to treat her when her test came back positive. Was very pleasantly surprised that her headshaking went away and never came back.

The point is there are almost as many causes of headshaking as there are horses who headshake so it’s a puzzle that only gets put together through trial and error

[candyappy]

@Laurierace

My mare started headshaking when she got Lyme.

I don’t think there is much of anything that isn’t somehow connected to Lyme disease in animals or us humans. Nasty disease.

[ML]

One of my rescues has head shaking syndrome. I found one or two equate allergy relief Chlorpheniramine. at a pill morning and night feeding relieves his head shaking. It is 100 pills for 2.97

He has been on it for 11 years and it has kept him in a good state.

[TZ]

Sharing the final outcome on this thread. TLDR is - he’s retired.

It’s been months, and in that time I have:
Worked with multiple vets across two different clinics.
Sent him to a clinic for a full body bone scan and full neurological work-up. Both didn’t give answers. HIs bone scan was shockingly clear.
Scoped his airways, lungs, and gutteral pouch (AGAIN) and scoped his stomach. We did find pyloric ulcers but treated them 100% successfully. No change in behavior during or after treatment.
Did several more rounds of drug trials. Marquis, Vitamin E, Platinum Steady, Magnesium (again), Cyproheptadine, some more allergy meds and probably a few more I’m not thinking of - no change on any of these.
Multiple rounds of electro-acupuncture in line with the 2017 small study that showed positive results. No change.

& I’ve also continued to play tack musical chairs. Different saddles, bridles, bits, bitless bridles, girths. My vet even recommended I have a third party catch, groom, tack, and ride him without me to see if it was behavioral (it wasn’t).

Something is definitely bothering him. The headflipping is the main symptom but watching someone else ride him, I can see how tight he is through his body. When I free lunge him, he goes really relaxed but every now and then something causes him to flip his head around in discomfort.

So he’s going to go live in a big field with some friends. Maybe I’ll eventually pull him out of the field and try again, who knows, but he seems happy enough turned out so that’s where we are.

[Lunabear1988]

Thank you for the update I’m sorry that you didn’t really figure it out but I’m glad he can be happy in turnout at least.

I had a horse that had a weird variation of head shaking… We also never got any clear answers though CSU concluded that they thought there was some type of nerve pain going on. But we couldn’t get control over it. He wasn’t happy in turnout because He would drag his head on the ground so we had euthanize him.

So frustrating. But I’m glad your guy is happy if he’s just not in work… You’re a good owner.

[TWH_Girl]

Thanks for sharing your story and the ending as well. That’s an incredibly tough one. Wishing you the very best in all future endeavors.

[cayuse]

I’m sorry the outcome wasn’t better. I also had to retire my headshaking mare. We could only do early morning or evening turnout with her because of the sun triggering her, but luckily I keep mine at home so it was doable. We went through the meds and tack changes etc. etc. and nothing worked but keeping her sheltered from the sun from April until Oct every year. It’s a heartbreaking thing to have a horse with this issue.