Hi everyone, I have a Standardbred who is rising 9 yrs old and has started head shaking since I bought him. His head hurts. Would love some help please.
When my gelding started, I did a bunch of testing to rule out a physical cause (head/neck x-rays, nasal scope, checked his eyes and ears, did allergy testing and also tested for EPM). He was deemed an ideopathic headshaker (no known cause) and we’ve been dealing with it ever since. If you’re on facebook, there are a few good groups on there and lots of information online as well. There aren’t a ton of recent breakthroughs, although it seems like more people are trying something called PENS with some success. I keep mine on a high dose of magnesium (Quiessence), although whether or not it helps is up for debate. If you do a search here as well, there are a handful of threads with people discussing headshaking and what they’ve tried. Good luck with your guy - it’s a terrible thing to have to deal with and the number of triggers and treatments can be daunting.
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Pretty sure that it’s photic. His headshaking has almost stopped this winter (am in Australia) but his head still hurts and he still rubs his nose on his leg. The only equine vet that I have spoken to tried to tell me that there’s a good chance that I will have to put the horse down. A bit rude when he hadn’t seen the horse yet and he won’t be with that attitude.
Have you tried a half nose net? If you have and it didn’t work, have you tried a full nose net? Your horse might be a photic headshaker too. There’s a lot on the Internet about photic headshakers. Fingers crossed for your horse.
Will rejoin Facebook. Thanks for that suggestion.
I am sorry that you are having to go through this. I also had a photic headshaker. Unfortunately not much worked for her and we ended up retiring her. Her symptoms would subside in the winter and return at the exact same time every Spring. We tried the nose net and it did not work. Magnesium worked a little bit as did cyproheptadine but not enough to keep her comfortable enough to stay in work. We kept her in a fly mask during turnout as that was the one thing that DID help as it dimmed the brightness. We also limited her turnout to the less sunny times. I was able to ride her lightly in the winter months when her symptoms were in remission but I live in a snowy climate so the rides were limited.
In hindsight I honestly don’t know how fair this was to her. We had discussed having her PTS but the vets involved thought she was happy and comfortable enough to stay with us so so we went with that and I was fortunate that I could keep her at home so I could give her the extra attention. She was a good little mare and did seem to acclimate to being a pet.
Wishing you good luck with this, it is a miserable thing to have to deal with.
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I have dealt with a couple of HSers. One went away when she was treated for ulcers (never scoped, found out via managing her differently) the other never has been that bad, so never tried any treatment other than riding with long nose Cashel quiet ride fly mask.
Cypro can help in some.
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I too had a photic headshaker. We made the final determination that photic was the cause, after running through all the other options, by blindfolding him and lungeing him without tack. His headshaking stopped when he could perceive no light.
The vet offered to (a) cut the nerve in his face that was causing the pain (she had done some blocks) but cautioned that this would make him unable to sense things with his mouth, which is essential for horses. She also suggested (b) that we put him out to pasture (not an option for me financially). Her last suggestion was to put him down.
I finally found a home for him as a pasture buddy. He was only 5 at the time.
I’ve corresponded with two vets who are studying headshaking, including John Madigan at UC Davis. They still haven’t isolated the causes. One possibility is that the EHV-1 and 4 vaccinations we give routinely here in the US stay resident in the facial nerves and cause the pain.
It’s heartbreaking. I made a webpage to help others going through it.
http://www.jadwin.net/horse/
The Guardian horse mask has helped with some cases.
http://www.horsemask.com/
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I’ve been through it. I am happy to discuss what I tried. I think every horse is different, we have one in our barn who is a headshaker but still able to be ridden without too much issue (there are days that are worse than other for him), mine had to be retired because it was clear he was so miserable in work that it just didn’t seem fair.
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Those vaccines aren’t given routinely to Australian horses. Sounds like that’s a good thing. Am thinking of giving a magnesium supplement. I have seen Quiessence suggested on US websites. We have have a product called Sootha Nerves and Stress which has slightly more magnesium per dose. The company who make it are keen to find out if it helps my horse but sadly not keen enough to send me free product. It’s winter here and a 70% UV fly mask has reduced the symptoms. It’s time to save up and buy a higher UV fly mask. The Guardian eye mask is about $180.00 here. Ouch!
The vet is coming out tomorrow to have a general look at him. My farrier (who is a master farrier and former TB racing foreman) is optimistic about my horse’s back, so here’s hoping that the vet shares his opinion.
Fingers crossed for you and your horse. Let us know if you get some relief.
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Thank you for that. I really appreciate it.
The vet saw him today. Darn horse didn’t shake his head once. The vet did an external check of his head and couldn’t find anything to cause the head shaking. He also looked at his back. The vet thinks that my horse doesn’t have a sacroiliac issue and that he has a back injury. Said that my horse might have gone over backwards while in the cart. That I might be able to ride him once or twice a week at a walk. That’s going to make saddle training him fairly unworkable. He did shake his head a lot when back in his paddock because he was anxious to have his friend back and they were also seeing the vet (after my horse). Vet said that the bald patches on my horse’s head are due to lice. Will be giving a lice wash. This little exercise in depression cost me $150.00.
I’m sorry about your depressing vet visit; those are never fun! Just curious, did your vet do x-rays to confirm a back injury? That seems like a very bleak prognosis when he didn’t even recommend a course of treatment to try. Is he currently lame?
Regarding the head shaking, I have a TB who is a head shaker. His is caused by both allergies and sunlight. He is on magnesium, antihistamines, and I ride him in a Micklem bridle with a nose net and riding mask. He still headshakes some but it is pretty controlled.
Thank you for your words of encouragement. He just just did a visual inspection, probed the horse with his hands for pain points and hand me lead him on the road so that he could see him move. The leading on the road was brief because a car came along and I had to get the horse off the road. When I asked about further investigations, he told me to find a chiropractor. Because the horse didn’t shake his head while the vet was there, I have a hunch that the vet didn’t believe me about the head shaking. There are better vets but I have to travel the horse to them and don’t have a way of doing that. The horse doesn’t look lame in the paddock. Don’t know what he’s like under saddle because he’s not saddle trained.
What works for mine is cypro, quiescence, and melatonin in the afternoon. He’s a seasonal headshaker.
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Thanks for that. I am not ready to give up.
Unfortunately, I am learning about how to manage this frustrating condition. I bought a 3 year old that suddenly started HS at age 4 (seasonally). I took her to the university and they did a full workup (radiographs of her head, scoping of guttural pouches, allergy testing, etc.) They did not find anything conclusive (which is the case for most HS cases). But I wanted to rule out things—especially with such a young horse. Anyway—it seems that some solutions work for some horses–so you have to keep trying until you find what works. Remember to only try ONE thing at a time so you know what worked (seems obvious, but hard to do because you just want them to be comfortable). If you suspect that it is photic, then the first thing to start with is to put a UV blocking fly mask on your horse, all the time he is outside. Not just on sunny days—all the time. It seems to take a while to calm this down, when they have a “flare up”—so don’t expect immediate turnaround with any of these approaches. Also—try a nose net for riding. Again, some have luck with it—some don’t. But again, you have to try it for every ride, for a while. Don’t just try it for one ride and decide it didn’t work. For my mare, after trying the fly mask and nose net, I asked my vet if we could try Cypro. It took a while to take effect (I feel like it was at least a month)—but it really helped her. She is also on Quiessence (although—I don’t really think that is doing a thing because she was on it before I tried the Cypro)
Just so you have some encouraging thoughts about this—I have a friend that’s horse developed this at age 9 too. She is still riding this horse and moving up the levels in dressage—they are now close to Grand Prix! She uses fly masks full time in the summer and uses a nose net in the spring. And just avoids showing in the springtime. So, it’s completely manageable for her now that she has figured out what works. So that’s what I keep reminding myself! And supposedly, Valegro is a HS—not sure if that’s true though!
And yes—there is a FB group that can help with ideas and support for this. Although—keep in mind that there are some members that insist whatever cured their horse will work for everyone else—and that just isn’t the case with this particular condition. So sorry that you are going though this too!
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Thank you very much. I will persist in my efforts to find something. Would put money on Valegro not being a head shaker.
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/23872/headshaking-triggers-and-treatment
This article really helped me when I first started researching. If you scroll down to where it says “gonadotropin therapy” it explains why the melatonin works, and it really seemed to help my guy. Nose nets and fly masks did nothing, he’s not photic.
Thanks for posting this! Just curious, do you feed the melatonin at a specific time each day? I tried this therapy for mine and it did not seem to help. But the 5 pm scheduling isn’t possible in my case.
Yep, 5 pm every day. Luckily that’s when my barn does the afternoon feeding, so it worked out well.
