Ears or teeth???

[apes_mum]

Hiya,

My horse has started shaking her head like she has something on the side of her face, but she is only doing it in certain situations, mainly when she is stressed. She will be fine in the field, but when I go to put her headcollar on to bring her in, she pullshes head to the side, as if she is in pain, or something is irritating her. It's almost like a 'cringing' action. But she only seems to do it if she is upset ie. really wanting to come in and it's raining / windy. If I go to catch her when she's all calm and chilled, she doesn't do it. She is also fine when I put her bridle on , and is fine when ridden. I thought it was a stress / headshaking thing, but now I am wondering if she is in actually in pain, and notices it and reacts to it more when she is upset. I have looked in her ears, and there were what looked like midge bites, with spots of blood. She was fine with me touching it, and liked me itching it for her. If it was ear mites, would it itch all the time? I have recently had her teeth checked by the vet and there were no problems.
What do you think? Could a tooth problem be likely, or ears? Or is it a stress reaction?
Any ideas??

 

[foraday]

No harm with getting her checked if you are worried but to me its sounds like a stress/pacifying action that some horses do!

The fact she is doing it in stressful situations only makes it a pacifying action she does to calm herself (or not as the case maybe)

 

[kerilli]

the bites in her ears might be from deer flies. i put a tiny bit of benzyl benzoate on cotton wool and wipe it inside their ears to keep the flies away.
if there were definitely no tooth problems, and she keeps doing it, i would ask the vet to examine her more thoroughly.
i heard a terrible story years ago about a horse who was eventually shot for violent sudden-onset headshaking, and when they did a postmortem, they found a plastic bag had been deliberately stuffed into its ear out of sight...

a one in a million case, i hope, but there are some very odd explanations for some behaviours.
for now, i'd probably try giving her a nice gentle scratch on her face and head before trying to put the headcollar on, see if she enjoys it and wants more or tries to move away.

 

[apes_mum]

Thanks for the comments. I have put anticeptic cream on it, and she loved having it rubbed in, so now she has yellow 'ears insides'. Then I realised if I do want to call the vet, I need to wait for it all to soak in. It's been two days, and she's still yellow!!
Again she was fine this morning, a bit iffy when I got her in (it was windy and she wanted to come in) but when she was back in her stable she was ok again. I was rubbing all around her ears, the sides of her face where the teeth are and her nose, and no reaction at all. Weird! Trouble is, I get paranoid it'll be something major like a brain tumour or something.
I will get the vet though if she keeps doing it or it gets any worse.
Thanks again