Head Shaking.. HELP!

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Emily-Rose

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Ok, so before I start Im sorry for the story.. but, it needs to be explained!

I bought a warmblood in August 2017, had him 5 staged (passed) and was getting to know him when he flared a splint. He had 7 weeks off with Bute and when he came sound was slowly introduced back into work. 2 Weeks after this he began headshaking, it was terribly violent when he first did it, we where going through the woods and I figured perhaps something had tickled his ear, it was ear twitching followed by side to side and pulling the reins out of my hands type of head shaking. Basically fast forward 3 weeks and we had had saddler, physio, vet and dentist out. Nothing! Symptoms where only when being ridden and they remained the same, head shaking reluctance to go forward, worse with work etc. Got him scoped and...Ulcers. Grade 1.


He had GG for 8 weeks. No improvement at all. Diet and routine changed to fit with advice. By the end of the treatment we decided to turn him away for a month, he became a swamp monster (December to mid Jan). Admittedly I was pessimistic when we brought him back in, but he did seem happier to be groomed rugged, was eating more etc. Lunging him it was evident he was fresh but showed no signs of pain or discomfort.

He has been in work around 3 weeks now. Light work, but still head shaking. Vets are convinced the ulcers are gone given how they where barely even a grade 1 and said I would be wasting my money on more GG. He is better to ride, he will go forward on hacks, he is fine to handle, stands to mount be tacked up etc. But he is still headshaking. Its ear twitching followed by head shaking and today in the wind it was bloody awful, he was bucking, throwing his head down, twitching his ears spinning away from the wind. I put an ear veil on him everyday anyway but today when I was out hacking it came in front of the bridle, so I pulled it off rather than have it fall off. He became 100x worse probably the worse he has ever been!!

So the ear bonnet helps a good deal, have just ordered a noise cancelling one as I figured it will block the wind more than a standard light fly veil as its much thicker but other than this im lost as to what to do with him, none of our horses have ever had any problems like this. First time I have purchased a warmblood and I have purchased a horse that hates mud, the rain, the cold, the wind and has a 0 pain tolerance! We do love him though, and refuse to give up on him given what we have spent on him.

He is 9 years old, everything physical has been checked properly, all his tack is fitted correctly, nothing in his routine has changed, his diet is still ulcer friendly, he is on a gastric supplement, he is only in light work as still unfit.

I want to get on top of this, and feel it may be learned behaviour now? Aside from being a wimp he is a super intelligent and beautifully schooled horse who was a joy to ride when we first got him, but since having him I have done about 5 weeks worth of riding most of which have been filled with head shaking.

We obviously don't know him yet, not properly anyway. But I read up about headshaking and nothing was mentioned regarding the ears and its more common in summer. So this seems the polar opposite.

Is there anything I can give him to try and help him, or do? He is stabled at night and turned out during the day (much to his annoyance when its cold and wet, he loves his stable)

Could he still have ulcers despite my vet insisting he doesn't? Or is this something entirely different?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!:)
 
A few things come to mind:

First, if you want to try GG again, I would insist with the vet, to rule it out, if nothing else.

The only headshaker, I have ever had was caused by a too short browband. I know it sounds obvious and you have probably done it but if you haven't, I would strip the bridle down as much as possible and eliminate any pressure points, just to see if that makes any difference.

I would find a 2nd opinion on the saddle fit, again because he only seems to do it when ridden and there could be a pressure point causing discomfort.

I read about someone who had their headshaker pts when it became unmanageable, had a post-mortem done and a hay seed was found deep in the ear.

I hope you get to the bottom of it, it is so frustrating when you have tried everything you can think of and nothing seems to be working.
 
Personally I don't want to shove more GG into him. I saw no improvement in him what so ever when he was on it, it seemed the turnout did him more good than the GG.

I did get the saddler to check his bridle (Micklem) and she said it fitted fine, the physio agreed and found no tightness in the poll or jaw area. May consider another saddler but this particular one is very good (and expensive!!)

The hayseed is interesting as he is given ad lib hay (never haylage as ulcers!) on the floor, and often rubs his head on the haynet after riding when he is untacked! His ears are clipped out as he is fully clipped, but he doesn't mind having his ears touched and rubbed, I did think perhaps clipping them made them overly sensitive to the cold weather as he does feel the cold. He only seems to do it as the wind hits his face!

Will look into this, thanks.
 
I have had several headshakers all with different triggers so you do need to look at everything, 1 was seriously sensitive to sugars so lived on straights which eliminated it totally, another had been ridden in a saddle that was too narrow, he was sorted with some physio and several changes of saddles as he widened over his withers, I could make him twitch by pressing them yet his previous owners vet had not picked it up and he had been written off.
Others are pollen sensitive and improve with a nosenet, one had a fragment of tooth in his lower jaw left by the vet when removing a broken tooth this was not considered to be an issue but once removed he was `so much happier so it can be caused by numerous things and most vets will only look at the most obvious.

I think clipping his face and ears was a mistake, too late now but it will make any horse more sensitive, if it is trigeminal neuralgia having cold wind on his face will possibly be unbearable, there are treatments available but I am not sure how successful they are, I would possibly back off the exercise until the weather is better and see how he is once it is warmer which should make it easier to eliminate some causes.
 
My last horse was headshaker but fortunately for me it was seasonal. It used to start in late Autumn and go on through winter and I noticed it was particularly bad if there was any winter sunshine. However, I do think there was an issue with the trigeminal nerve which runs down the face because he would react sometimes as if he had been touched with a cattle prod - this was probably as a result of having to have a tooth removed some time earlier. So, basically, cold plus sunlight were enough to start it off.

Is there any possibility of getting a scope done of his ears under sedation? just to rule out the possibility of a foreign body.

I do hope you can get it sorted - good luck!
 
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