Has anyone seen this before? Please!

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Maisy

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My pony has started 'headshaking' when eating hay....She appears almost afraid of the hay, then takes a mouthful, then throws her head up and down whilst she chews it....

I thought she had some kind of problem with her teeth, but the EDT has been today and she has given her the all clear....

What she did say, when she was looking closely, is that the pony has an unusually large tongue, leaving very little room at the back of her throat....we are unsure whether this is normal for her, as obviously don't normally give it too much thought!!

She does appear to have lost a little weight....not that it is a bad thing at this time of year, and she is on quite a restricted diet anyway....

She appears to dislike some of the hay and won't eat it anyway, but my others are the same this year.

She eats her happy hoof/fast fibre meals normally.....

I am completely at a loss as to why she is throwing her head about; obviously there is some kind of issue, and I will investigate it further, I just wondered if anyone had seen the same thing!?

I am going to get some haylage to see if she gets on any better with something 'softer'...

TIA :-)
 
Sanolly said:
Could she have scratched her oesophagus? So that when she eats hay it hurts to swallow, whereas fast fibre/chaff is softer so it doesn't hurt?
Click to expand...

She could have?! If she isn't better in a week or so, I think I will have to have her scoped....
 
Just a random thought or two:

Is your hay dusty? I'm wondering if the headshaking is due to her inhaling irritants as she pulls it apart.
Have you tried dampening/wetting the hay - maybe dampening it down would make it less dusty or scratchy.
Do you feed from a haynet or ground - is her behaviour the same? I know of a couple of horses who are very headshaky when using a haynet, but fine eating off the floor.

Let us know how the haylage trial goes.
Good luck
 
timefort said:
Just a random thought or two:

Is your hay dusty? I'm wondering if the headshaking is due to her inhaling irritants as she pulls it apart.
Have you tried dampening/wetting the hay - maybe dampening it down would make it less dusty or scratchy.
Do you feed from a haynet or ground - is her behaviour the same? I know of a couple of horses who are very headshaky when using a haynet, but fine eating off the floor.
Click to expand...

This ^^
Also, is there any chance a dog or cat could have pee'd on the hay? Try soaking or wetting it down as suggested, it might make all the difference
 
my horse became suddenly allergic to hay last year aged 6. She now has to have haylage, she too started to head shake and would come in breathless from the field (hot summer no grass been stuck with head in the hay all day!). I had the vet out thinking it was a pollen allergy as she had had hay all her life with no problems, but turns out it was the hay and not just that batch either.
 
I have tried putting the hay on the floor, tried soaking it, and last night I gave her haylage.....she is the same with them all :-(

She doesn't cough.....ever......she has no snot or discharge.....

....I'm baffled!!!
 
The vet was out yesterday when the EDT was there (she needed to sedate one of the others).....she wasn't overly worried, and said to monitor her weight weekly for a month, and if it is going down consistently, then take her in.....

In all other respects she looks healthy and normal....shiney coat, alert, pooing ok etc etc....

Thanks for your advice though....it will stop me feeling like a hypochondriac if/when I do have to take her in!!!!
 
No creepy crawlies....lots of different bales....and a bale of sealed haylage....

I have booked her in to see the vet on Friday. (WOuld have gone tomorrow, but the vet I want to see isn't in). I weighed her this evening, and she is about 30kg less than she would normally be (which if it were on its own I would be happy about!). I am spending all my time worrying, so thought it best to just take her in....I am imagining all sorts of things.....her eyes look very 'blue' when they should be black, but it could just be the light....she seems more nervy than usual etc etc.....I will drive myself mad!!

I will let you know what he finds.....
 
I'd take some time before you go to the vet to write down all the things you tried, any silly thoughts or ideas you might have and also spend a couple of hours just watching your horse to see if anything else seems different to usual.

It really helps when you see the vet, we did this last time my friends horse needed the vet, the vet was appreciative and it turned out one of our silly ideas was actually what led to the problem being identified and solved.

Also if you are like me once the vet leaves you'll remember something you wanted to ask!!

Hope you get it sorted soon.
 
My gelding suddenly started shaking his head while eating haylage on the ground. Just recently started doing it. He seems to be reacting like something has bitten him and he is afraid it is in there again. Anyway I got a lunge line out and was lunging my other horse in the same area that my gelding had been eating his haylage. Threw the lunge line on the ground. Later I picked it up to take it back to the barn and something bit me. It was covered in yukky biting ants! I left it in the field coiled around a fence post! So I really feel that the ants had been in the haylage and one got him, poor chap. I now put the haylage down on the other side of the school, next to the trough (he loves to dunk his hay or haylage) and he is happy as Larry no head movement apart from munching and dunking! (He is in the school, bare earth, at night as he is getting a bit too porky, and he eats everyone's ration as well as his own). Long shot but it may be ants/insects.
 
Dont know if this is the same, but my horse started doing this last year, it was as if he was getting a shock from the hay, at one stage he would run to the back of the stable and refused to eat his hay at all, he was fine with grass and his food just the hay.
I got vet out in fact i got 2 just to make sure, first one couldnt find anything, checked his mouth and scoped him which i thought was unnecessary but hay... second checked teeth etc and still couldnt find anything.
Then the next day i noticed he had a large deep ulcer on his tongue at the front quite close to where the bit sits, (he was also a bit unsettled in his head when being ridden)
not sure how he got it, but after further rummaging around in his mouth i found that he had broken a small peice of his tooth, the tusk and it was quite sharp, the dentist filed it right down and within a couple of days the ulcer healed and he was fine.
Im not sure if the tooth caused the ulcer or if the ulcer caused the problem, but i have had ulcers and boy they can be painfull :-)
This may be of no help what so ever but then again... :-)
 
Well....we went to the vet today....

All he could see was a *tiny* ulcer right at the back of her mouth, and a corresponding slightly sharp bit on a back tooth. He sedated her, so I guess he could see even further back than the EDT.

He then scoped her, just to make sure there was nothing else, as he was surprised that such a small ulcer would cause such a violent reaction to hay, but there was nothing at all wrong.

So, she has got 7 days of danilon in case she has any residual pain, and I am just to monitor her...

So, fingers crossed that she is just a wuss, and the ulcer is the cause!!!

Thanks everyone for your replies :-)
 
dont know if you have ever had an ulcer but you imagine eating hay and getting an end stick in the ulcer, OUCHY very painfull.
i know the ones i have are very painfull when i try to eat.. :-(

Only wish id found the ulcer on my lad before i got 2 ve,ts out :-(, which, i may add didint see it :-/
 
It will be worth you doing an experiment with haylage to see if she still tosses her head about. I have a mare with RAO disorder and if she eats anything remotely dusty she tends to toss the fodder around - she is unable now to eat ANY hay.

With the good weather now, could you not turn her out and take her right off hay/haylage for the next few months - the problem might sort itself if she is just on grass.
 
I know this is an old thread, but over the weekend my 6yr old has started doing exactly this... she is 'afraid' of her forage (hay/haylage, from 3 different sources!) and violently headshakes and bites her own chest when she tries to eat it.

I've already had the vet out who couldn't find anything wrong with her, she is happy and healthy in every other respect. Very interested to hear from the OP before I throw a whole lot of money at this mystery.

Its seems to have lessened in severity in the last two days, but still keen to find out what the problem is/was.
 
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