HELP! can anyone help to me what is wrong with my horse?

m1187604

Active Member
Joined
25 February 2010
Messages
37
Location
northern ireland
Visit site
Hello I was wanting to know if anyone can shed any light or offer advice on the problem I have been experiencing with my horse.
It all started in Feb when i brought her back into work after she was off last year having a foal. I had her teeth checked and rasped by my vet and back checked prior to bringing her back into work.
After being in work for a few weeks i noticed she had twitchy ears and this progressively got worse and she would eventually go into a sort of 'spasm' in her neck and head shake a bit too.
I had a vet out to see her who checked her ears, eyes and teeth and concluded that there was nothing wrong with her.
I then got a physio out who, after seeing her multiple times concluded that she was sensitive around her poll as a result of busitis or a shoulder injury. She gave me 100% DMSO to use on her shoulder which i stopped using after 2 days as I was told it would cause blistering etc.
Our next idea was to get a second opinion from a vet so we took her to a recommended vet who 1st thought to look at her teeth. When she put the gag in it was blatently obvious that my horse's teeth were in a bad way and she was referred to a horse dentist who has fixed them now.
She has has xrays taken of her poll neck shoulder and back and nothing was noted.
She then went to a different physio who worked with her and told me she should be fine to ride and if anything my horse is worse than she was in feb.
Currently she won't have a halter on comfortably and when I tried lunging in a halter she is fine for about the first 5 or 10 mins in walk and trot then she starts to look very tense down her neck and carries her head very much behind the vertical and doesn't bend well on the circle on the lunge.
She will do do this for a while then fixes her head very much above the vertical and looks hollow.
If anyone could offer some advice I would really appreciate it, this has gone on for 4 months now and I don't wan to give up on my horse.
Thanks, Emma
 
Might be an idea to get a scintigraphy and see if that shows anything. Sorry I can't be of more help, but you are right to be worried, it does sound like something is wrong but the vets haven't found it yet - keep pestering them for a better answer.
 
I agree with getting some kind of imaging screening done to see if there is something going on. There was a horse at our yard who used to headshake and refused to come on the bit.Despite numerous investigations nothing was found to be wrong.The horse later died after peritonitis and went to the hunt.The hunt discovered he had a tumour growing in his poll area as well as numerous tumours through his gut which had caused the peritonitis.He wasn't an old horse either.If memory serves me correctly he was only about 12 when he died.
 
Scintigraphy is a bone scan. The horse is injected with radioisotopes, then the scanner picks up 'hot spots'. The animal needs to remain in quaranteen at the vets for a couple of days while he passes the radioactive poo, but there is no risk to the horse from the procedure. It's one of the best diagnostic tools out there.
 
Top