"But she looks fine!"

Sorry your going through this I have a mild head shaker and I have read on line than a high dose of magnesium oxide daily can help mine is on all the time, I'm not sure if it really helps but it's cheap enough to give it a try I suppose.

I find my horse gets worse when his stressed about anything it's almost like the anxiety triggers it, I find his better in regular work as it keeps him calmer so his less likely to stress about things.
 
Cob Life said:
I have trigeminal neuralgi, it is the worst pain I’ve ever felt, far worse than any of my torn ligaments or broken bones. When it’s bad I have to knock myself out with sleep meds. I can 100% sympathise with your mare and if you can’t find a treatment PTS is your best option

There has been some success with anticonvulsant use in people but I don’t know if it has been researched in horses at all
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Yes, mine was on carbamazapine (?) and it did nothing for him even at double dose. I'm so sorry you get this pain too.
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My 6yo TB was PTS this week. Stifle OCD and recurrent ulcers and even after surgery on his stifle it was highly unlikely he'd live a pain free life or that we would get on top of the ulcers. I had the "but he looks fine" comment too.
 
Eventing2022 said:
My 6yo TB was PTS this week. Stifle OCD and recurrent ulcers and even after surgery on his stifle it was highly unlikely he'd live a pain free life or that we would get on top of the ulcers. I had the "but he looks fine" comment too.
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I'm so sorry that you had to make the decision. You have to be very aware of body language nuances to realise that a horse isn't 'fine'. Obviously those who disagree with your view if the horse are not as knowledgeable as they think.
 
I’ve been following your story. My 10yo gelding was neurological, some liveries were horrible when I decided to PTS even though the vet said it was the right decision. Sending you both all the luck in the world.
 
So many conditions are utterly heartbreaking, I had one in reverse where my boy kept jumping out so was confined to barracks while I worked out what to do. He obviously perked up no end for my two visits a day and another owner might have thought he was fine but my yard mates all said how miserable he was the rest of the time. No comparison to what you're going through of course.

I watched (only some of, was trying to sort some urgent work stuff out at the same time) the webinar with The Equine Documentalist and Celeste Lazaris yesterday afternoon, she focuses on nerve impingements as part of her work. Utterly fascinating, might be worth a listen, and we do now have one physio in the UK trained to do this work, she travels too (Yasmin Stuart, based Suffolk).

Good luck with whatever you decide, no judgement here.
 
Jinx94 said:
If this is your reaction when someone says that they may have to PTS their horse, please, PLEASE keep it to yourself.

This phrase is the source of a lot of pain for me at the moment.

For anyone that hasn't seen my other threads, I have an unbroken 4yo mare diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia. For those that don't know, this is severe nerve pain to the face that causes headshaking.

In her case, it's constant at rest, and varies on the lunge, likely due to the fact that she's had most of the year off and it's exciting. Veterinary recommendation is that she is PTS if we don't find a way to manage it.

Painkillers don't touch it, I'm not going down the PENS route (very expensive, very low success rates) and I am fairly sure that PTS will be the outcome. My vets are normally very peppy and optimistic, but they're all sounding as defeated as I feel. She will be turned away for some time just in case it is seasonal or related to where we are. Maybe we'll be lucky and she'll be one of the 5% that recover spontaneously.

Before that, we're trying her on steroids despite being confident that it isn't allergies and I am also having a cranio-sacral therapist out despite my skepticism. I am trying and failing repeatedly. I have looked at supplements and will continue to do so. If I find something that seems to do the trick, we'll try it, but equally I've maxed out the insurance and spent a good chunk of money already. It sounds awful and I feel awful about it, but I need to be practical going forward. Especially as I have another horse, a new mortgage to pay and only myself to rely on.

There are very few people that choose PTS on a whim. I go backwards and forwards over it all day, every day. The thought of not having her in my life is heartbreaking but the thought of keeping her alive and in constant pain is worse.

She might look "fine" to anyone else. From my perspective, from knowing her, the tension in her face, the near permanent ticks in her facial muscles, the snorting and shaking and twitching and stomping.. that's not right.

This mare used to be so relaxed that her bottom lip never stopped hanging as far from her face as it could. She was a busy body - always bumbling around, finding any reason to squeal and buck and leap around. If a person was there, she'd be all over them. Looking for fuss, resting her head against them. If it were possible, she'd have put her headcollar on herself.

Now she'd rather steer clear. More often than not, I see her standing still. Definitely not relaxed, definitely not alert to what is going on around her.

The whole situation is completely and utterly soul destroying.

So no, she is not fine. And people saying otherwise does nothing other than making an already heartbreaking situation almost unbearable.
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I had a horse which used to head shake in the stable - it turned out to be caused by an abscess which formed in the lymph nodes under the jaw and burst. It was a very rare bacterial infection that caused nerve damage. He had all the tears for T.N though but the nerve blocks came back negative so there was no formal diagnosis of this. He only did it in the stable though - was fine when ridden and when turned out. He wore a nosenet on a leather headcollar all of the time when stabled and this did help the most out of everything. Like I say this wasn’t T.N but still uncontrollable head shaking.
We were also told pts might be the best option but we found out how to manage it, if we hadn’t been able to control it we would have pts as it isn’t fair on the horse as it’s so painful, and also quite dangerous for them and also every else handling them. He is sadly no longer with us but for a reason completely unrelated. (Navicular)

Really sorry to hear about your horse OP, I hope you get to the bottom of it but would totally understand if you did pts in this situation. Did it come on suddenly or gradually?
 
When you are the one who is dealing with the effects of any disease in your horse or pony, day after day, it wears you down so much. Try this treatment, then try another, then another. After a while you just want it to stop.
Then think about it from the horse's point of view (I have experience with TN and agree it is agony). The horse probably just wants it to stop. It's always worth trying to help but once you have exhausted every avenue you are truly only left with one option. I'm very sorry you are having to face this, and you won't get any judgement from me either.
 
Eventing2022 said:
My 6yo TB was PTS this week. Stifle OCD and recurrent ulcers and even after surgery on his stifle it was highly unlikely he'd live a pain free life or that we would get on top of the ulcers. I had the "but he looks fine" comment too.
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They often do look fine when they're just being pretty ornaments but moving around and joining in with the herd can make them feel very sore. Been there and it's devastating so you have my sympathy xx
 
Sorry you're facing this. I had this reaction from a close (at the time) horse friend when i was considering PTS my 27 year old. He'd been seriously ill with colic, ataxia, loose guts, but recovered. I knew there was something underlying and so was planning to pts as soon as I had another companion in place for my other horse, if not before. So-called friend said exactly that, 'Oh he looks fine! You can't put him to sleep!'.

As a result I didn't tell her he was going to be pts in advance and made an on the spot decision one morning, despite him looking and behaving fine that day. I think she was miffed that I didn't tell her, but I made sure she knew exactly why. This was the one that turned out to have multiple mesenteric lipomas and a brain tumour, so my decision was spot on and in fact I would have done it sooner if I'd known.
 
I can recommend Yazmin Stuart she has treated my horses before really interesting that she now does nerve release, I think would really benefit Arabi so have just contacted her.
 
Jinx94 said:
If this is your reaction when someone says that they may have to PTS their horse, please, PLEASE keep it to yourself.

This phrase is the source of a lot of pain for me at the moment.

For anyone that hasn't seen my other threads, I have an unbroken 4yo mare diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia. For those that don't know, this is severe nerve pain to the face that causes headshaking.

In her case, it's constant at rest, and varies on the lunge, likely due to the fact that she's had most of the year off and it's exciting. Veterinary recommendation is that she is PTS if we don't find a way to manage it.

Painkillers don't touch it, I'm not going down the PENS route (very expensive, very low success rates) and I am fairly sure that PTS will be the outcome. My vets are normally very peppy and optimistic, but they're all sounding as defeated as I feel. She will be turned away for some time just in case it is seasonal or related to where we are. Maybe we'll be lucky and she'll be one of the 5% that recover spontaneously.

Before that, we're trying her on steroids despite being confident that it isn't allergies and I am also having a cranio-sacral therapist out despite my skepticism. I am trying and failing repeatedly. I have looked at supplements and will continue to do so. If I find something that seems to do the trick, we'll try it, but equally I've maxed out the insurance and spent a good chunk of money already. It sounds awful and I feel awful about it, but I need to be practical going forward. Especially as I have another horse, a new mortgage to pay and only myself to rely on.

There are very few people that choose PTS on a whim. I go backwards and forwards over it all day, every day. The thought of not having her in my life is heartbreaking but the thought of keeping her alive and in constant pain is worse.

She might look "fine" to anyone else. From my perspective, from knowing her, the tension in her face, the near permanent ticks in her facial muscles, the snorting and shaking and twitching and stomping.. that's not right.

This mare used to be so relaxed that her bottom lip never stopped hanging as far from her face as it could. She was a busy body - always bumbling around, finding any reason to squeal and buck and leap around. If a person was there, she'd be all over them. Looking for fuss, resting her head against them. If it were possible, she'd have put her headcollar on herself.

Now she'd rather steer clear. More often than not, I see her standing still. Definitely not relaxed, definitely not alert to what is going on around her.

The whole situation is completely and utterly soul destroying.

So no, she is not fine. And people saying otherwise does nothing other than making an already heartbreaking situation almost unbearable.
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I feel your pain. Nothing worse than knowing your horse, knowing your circumstances, knowing what you think is best then someone who it has sod all to do with in all fairness comes along with an opinion and a "No your wrong..." and throws you off track. I am very much quality over quantity, day too early than a day too late kind of person... my horse is currently on 3 legs, abcess, and I mean THREE legs, some livery walked past me today and said "Looks alright your horse. Don't worry about that. You look down. Cheer up. Nothing wrong with it" All in one sentence and carried on walking. Today was one of the days I couldn't get off my yard fast enough and get home, due to people and their busy body ways. Fast starting to dislike people I was once fond of. You know what's best for your horse, stick to your guns x
 
@Jinx94 I haven't read the thread, but I wanted to reach out. My daughter is having to have her 6yo put to sleep this week for the same thing, it's fairly chronic, even on the heavy duty nerve pain drugs he's now on. She has had him since he was a yearling. She's tried the full range of veterinary treatment, some more holistic things- no success. including PENS (which in itself is no joke)- he is being looked after by a vet that is leading research on this issue. It's been heart breaking.

Most people understand, even if they've not experienced it directly. She did have one very insensitive but probably well meaning offer from a new livery to pay for some kind of alternative therapy- she did discuss with her vet, and politely ruled it. I am still raging about that, because it's not about the money, but she is more mature than me.

Trigenimal Neuralgia is an absolutely devastating but thankfully rare condition, very little is known about it, and all the treatments only show limited success, and they are expensive. Her horse had no success with any of them, and yes they look "fine" in that they are not lame but if you've ever seen a horse experiencing this, at rest, on the lunge, etc you will know they are not fine, they are in pain a lot of the time. It changes them, he is no longer a calm, happy boy, but never nasty, and once you understand what you're looking at, you realise how kind and brave horses are.

My heart goes out to you, but please know and believe you are doing the right thing for your horse. I am so sorry for you both x
 
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