headshaking update

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Lauren1234

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Hia I don't know if anyone can remember but my horse paddy is a headshaker and we've tried everything under the sun to stop it with little or no resluts. We are now on the last thing the vet has said we can do which is surgeory. He should be having it in the next couple of months. I just wondered if anyone else also went down this route and also did you ride your horse as i'm very worried about him hurting himself. thanks
 
also does anyone know if it matters if he's clipped or not for surgeory? i was just going to do a bib clip as he'll be out of work for a couple of months
 
have you spoken with Prof Knottenbelt about it, at Liverpool? very easy to get hold of, incredibly helpful, taught me more about headshaking in 10 mins than i'd heard from other vets in years and years.
1 of my homebreds was a very very bad headshaker, and we'd tried everything. he did it in the field with no headcollar on or anything. nothing helped. he started at 5 and at 10 i gave up. he tripped really badly all the time because he was so preoccupied with his headshaking.
when Prof Knottenbelt told me that humans suffering the same thing (now treatable/manageable in humans, fortunately) has an 80% suicide rate, i knew what i had to do, tbh. but my horse may well have been a lot worse than yours.
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yeah we've got the number for him to give him a call. the surgeory would be at liverpool where he is as well. I'm sorry to hear about your horse. Paddy isn't quite as bad as that he only does it the odd time in the field and starts when you put his head collor on and it gets much worse when ridden. He seems to be getting worse when ridden so I was thinking about not riding him till after surgeory. He used to stop alltogether when jumping but now he does it right till the last stride so he's getting dangerous with and I don't want him to hurt himself.
Paddy's 8 and only just started at the start of this year. I had him on loan for 2 years previously so its such a blow for him to be doing when i've had him so long.
 
Bloss started as a 10yr old and has got worse. She wears a nose net all the time, and a full face fly mask out in the field. She dosent walk around much in her field as otherwise it brings on her headshaking and she starts tripping over. Out hacking she can trip if shes busy headshaking and not paying attention aswell. Thankfully the nose nets seem to have helped her, along with Skratch and Zephyr by Global Herbs. If she didnt have nose nets on she would be really really bad. Obviously some days are worse than others. She has a period of 2 months over the winter where she dosent need to wear a net (December to end of Jan) then she has to have them back on again.

i was told about surgery, but personally i didnt like the idea of it, sorry..
 
Clipping him will not affect the surgery. During the surgery itself he'll just have a small square clipped either side of his face where the coils are inserted.
 
Kerrili, the same thing happened with my old horse. Was very sad but i knew also i had to do the right thing. Mine used to throw himself on the ground and against walls.

I dint realise surgery was available now. What does it involve?
 
[ QUOTE ]

when Prof Knottenbelt told me that humans suffering the same thing (now treatable/manageable in humans, fortunately) has an 80% suicide rate, i knew what i had to do

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't know humans could get it. What is the treatment for humans- and what actually causes it? My old mare used to headshake very occasionally; at that time nothing much was known about it.
 
can I ask a question, sorry if it's really silly but if a horse headshakes does it always mean that it is starting to get ill? The horse I am learning to ride on has started doing it occasionally and I just assumed it was because I was sometimes a bit heavy on the reins
 
there can be all different reasons for them doing it including pollon, diseases and discomfort.

i've rang prof knottenbolt and he's told me that its about 50% of being succsesful. And that if he's got the disease that humans have with the high suicide rate its kindest to either do surgeory or to pts due to the extreme pain he will be in. Also he's never going to be the same horse that I knew before all this which was heartbreaking to hear. He also said its like parkisons disease in humans and will just gradually get worse.

The surgeory involves destroying some nerves behind his eye which cause the headshaking but they can only reach one third of the nerves which cause this which is why its not always succsesful and then they put coils in at each side.
thanks for all the advice everyone.
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My friends horse started headshaking really bad last year. He is now on a supplement that was being trialled by Liverpool uni - may be worth giving them a ring to see if it might help your horse?
 
thanks, i talked to prof knottenbelt about that and he said that its a trial and the results will be shown next year to see if its worked.
 
alleycat, i think the treatment for humans is very very strong painkillers + i'm not sure what else! it is a type of neuralgia/shingles in the face. a friend's husband gets it occasionally and apparently it is absolutely agonising. it is true nerve triggers and/or damage, not a 'phantom pain' etc. horses headshaking the way mine used to do, which i described as "being like riding him through a swarm of wasps that keep stinging his nose" really are feeling that much pain and reacting to it.
that's why i accepted that there was only one thing i could do, tbh. he was that bad.
 
I don't think this will help in this case, but my mare was a chronic head shaker for a couple of years. The vet was talking about either retiring her or having her put to sleep when I discovered that the foam she was producing when she was being worked was making her lips and muzzle itch like mad. Now I have to ride everywhere with a towel but it has solved out problem. When I told the vet he went away and tried it on some of the other cases he was involved in and it worked on about half of them.
 
Have you tried Shake Free supplement by Global Herbs? My TB started headshaking in the summer months at 16 and without the herbs he's pretty bad. The supplement has transformed him though, he still has the odd shake on very polleny or very bright days, but mainly he's fine.
 
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