Horses with a dust allergy who head shake?

[spotty_pony]

Some of you may remember my post from over the winter about my horse which was head shaking. Well, after about ten weeks symptom free he has started head shaking again. I am linking it to the fact that he was stabled overnight one night last week due to the bad weather as it began the next day. Had to resort to putting the nose net back on him in the stable as he would not settle and was sneezing and head shaking almost constantly. Once turned out again, he was fine.

Brought him in on Saturday, he was fine until he got into the stable and took a mouthful of hay (which I have now soaked) and that set him off again so I brought him outside again and tied him up to groom him and symptoms lessened bur got worse again when I brushed around his head so I am pretty sure it is a dust allergy of some kind or possible RAO. Set off on hack and ended up putting nose net on him as he was still head shaking and he settled down straight away. Got about half an hour away fro the yard and removed nose net and he was symptom free for rest of ride even in fields of rape seed so it's not a pollen allergy. Got back to the yard and as soon as he got near stable he started head shaking again! Got to pressure wash stable this week now and change him onto Shavings and steam hay (maybe try a different sort of hay too) and hopefully this will work.

Any experiences with horses head shaking with dust allergies I would love to hear about what worked for your horse. ]

Thanks

 

[Packhorse1]

There was a programme on TV about a vet at Bristol uni who has successfully treated head shakers - it is not guaranteed. this is a new procedure.
The headshaking in some cases in horses caused by the same nerve that causes Trigeminal Neuralgia in humans.
A nerve in the face is being over stimulated for some reason thus causing seering / burning / extraordinary pain - thus head shaking. Sometimes - in fact often, worse when ridden.

The nerve needs to be stimulated by placing a needle into and under the skin over the relevant nerve - not sure exactly what they do to the nerve but it is short procedures - sometimes it works for ever sometimes not at all but usually it does.
They do both sides of the face on horses because the horse is unable to tell us where the pain is. In humans they do the procedure on whichever side is causing the pain.

It was recently in May 2017 I saw the programme. It was terrestial TV and I imagine one of the BBC or ITV main channels. Here is link to the info http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2015/january/headshaking-in-horses.html