Horsey headaches

B

BBP

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 July 2008
Messages
6,587
Visit site
I've often wondered if they suffer from them and now I'm convinced. Bonkers Black Pony has huge hard temporalis (forehead) muscles that are not symmetrical. He has become hypersensitive to noise and head shakes in trot without a nosenet. His eyes look distant and lacking their usual sparkle and his facial muscles look tight. He has deep wrinkles around his muzzle and eyes and the rest of the skin looks tight.

His behaviour under saddle, despite fixing his sacroiliac and hopefully pssm issues, is erratic. Today he was chilled, yesterday he virtually hyperventilated with stress the whole ride. I have generally felt that there is a lot going on beyond the pssm, liver and sacroiliac issues. His whole life we have thought he is a bit crazy.

So this last week I had a craniosacral therapist out to see him who felt he had some compression issues over sensitising the nerves in his head (hence head shaking and overreaction to noise - police siren went off in town miles away and he jumped at it). I also got a thermal image done of his head (they have only done side shots before, never head on as they said frontal head shots don't often give much information but I was curious so asked her to do it anyway). But thermal imaging lady commented on returning the report that the photos surprised her, she had not seen a horse with so much red! His temporalis muscles are highlighted, as are his TMJ (I think) and a lot of the muscles from poll to muzzle on the side of his head, particularly the left. It just looks like one big banging headache to me, all in glorious technicolor. Poor lad, he really is going through it.

So I'll show them to the vet this week, check teeth gently, see if a danilon trial might help and keep going with the craniosacral work. Not sure what else I can do for him. He has to stay in work for pssm and sacroiliac to benefit but I think we will stick to walking til his eyes soften a bit and he starts to feel less stressed.

So glad I trusted my instincts and investigated, I know it's not hard and fast science but I'm trying my best to listen to him.
 
image_zpsmodd2qqn.jpg
h
 
It would be interesting to compare the photos with a "normal" set of images so to speak. I hope you get him sorted, it's been a bit of a battle for you hasn't it?
 
It's certainly exhausting trying to figure things out. I think I'm getting pretty good instincts now though!

I've got this one from October and although I'm not trained to interpret them the photos do appear to mimic what I am seeing in real life in that facial muscles now look very tight and pained.
image_zpsjvql9nya.jpg
 
I can see from the images that your horse is tensing his nostrils. This is a definite sign of moderate to severe pain. I would not be riding him until you get to the bottom of his problems. He is lucky to have such a caring owner. I hope you manage to fix him. I have read your other threads about him and I don't often say this, but this horse is suffering and you might have to make a painful decision for him if he can't be fixed. So sorry.
 
Thank you. I should have clarified, when I say he has to stay in work I mean he has to maintain movement, so we are going out for walks on a lead and I am very much letting him guide me. By that I mean I'm starting to tune in with the finer details of his well being, days where his face looks a little softer we go a little further. If he is huffing and puffing from the start I put him away or walk around the field. If his muscles get sore with PSSM it won't help other tissues to relax. Vet will be out to have a full and frank discussion.

I think my horse is quite lucky really, I do wonder how many spooky erratic horses are called naughty without being given the benefit of the doubt. My horse is never naughty I don't believe. The fact that after his steroid injections he was the perfect horse for 10 weeks makes me know it is in there and just struggling. I know that the sacroiliac is good and I think the muscles are good as he is moving so well. What flipped him after 10 weeks I don't know, but I will work out how to fix it. And if I can't I won't let him go on struggling, he's my best mate and I wouldn't do that to him.
 
KatPT said:
And if I can't I won't let him go on struggling, he's my best mate and I wouldn't do that to him.
Click to expand...

Your love for this boy shines through so strongly, I have my fingers tightly crossed for you that you will be able to resolve his issues. He's a lucky chap to have you.
 
When my pony suffered his head injury the specialist said the pain he was in was like having the worst migraine you could imagine with no relief which explained some of his behaviour, he also head shook but in a figure of eight an always in the same dirction,he was also very reactive to noise ( he had tests using a cat toy with a bell in it ) and loud noises sent him balistic. He was given large doses of a neuropathic pain killer which was then doubled with no effect. He didnt have a bone scan or thermal imaging as the ct results and continued deterioration showed he was suffering from brain damage and for his welfare he was put down. He also had a funny look about him amd in his eye which the specialist picked up on by looking at pictures and video and he started doing funny stuff with his muzzle. I cant upload them on here but would email you them if you wanted to see them.
Is there any way hes had a fall that seemed trivial and banged his head or run into something?
 
Last edited:
I use an equine communicator on a semi regular basis & she once said that Trev was suffering from headaches. I didn't really know what to do with that info, but not long after he had his annual healthcheck, teeth etc & was found to have hooks on his teeth, which were sorted. I was doing some b'ground reading on hooks & found that they cause headaches as the jaw is being held in an uncomfortable place. So might be worth having his teeth checked if it's been a while?

T x
 
Its not been too long but certainly worth a check, they are certainly muscles that would react if the jaw was not aligned properly (I know myself after a heavy fall that misaligned my jaw, I used to get dreadful headaches at the TMJ joint and my jaw would pop constantly). I use the vet to do them so she is coming out today to do teeth, vaccs and chat about his poor brain box.

I can't think of when he could have hit his head but it's not beyond all possibility. There have certainly been no sharp impacts where I have noticed any marks on him, and nothing recent that would tie in with his recent switch in tolerance levels to noise etc.
 
Other than a bit of dirt on his poll and ears ( no more than id expect from one rolling in the field ) and pulled his grackle off his bottom jaw, my pony had no marks to suggest that he had injured himself and he landed in moorland scrub so not even rock hard floor. At the time he didnt show any signs of being injured, more surprised and winded than anything else. He stayed at a friends for a few days as i was injured in the fall and when i went to collect him he was completely different to handle and was doing strange things. Pm me if you want to see his videos.
 
Hi flaxen, I can't seem to be able to pm you, not sure if it's because I'm using a phone. If I can get to a laptop I'll send you my email.

Vet has just been, a couple of small hooks on teeth but nothing likely to cause issues. She said it's odd that he doesn't head shake in walk but does in trot and canter, said it's usually the other way around. He's going to go on a 2 week danilon trial, she expects if it's allergies we won't see any improvement but if it's pain we should.
 
Hi KatPT, ive sent you a pm with my email address in it for you. If you reply i will send the vids across for you. When he went for his ct he had a dental exam before his ct and had a few hooks at the back but nothing that would cause him to behave the way he was.
 
Have you thought about acupuncture for him? In human terms it is brilliant for Migraine, headaches and TMJ problems and also to help with general stress and tightness in muscles.
 
Wagtail said:
I can see from the images that your horse is tensing his nostrils. This is a definite sign of moderate to severe pain. I would not be riding him until you get to the bottom of his problems. He is lucky to have such a caring owner. I hope you manage to fix him. I have read your other threads about him and I don't often say this, but this horse is suffering and you might have to make a painful decision for him if he can't be fixed. So sorry.
Click to expand...

I think you are a bit previous to say that WT.

The PSSM could be at the root of this and a minor tweak could be all it takes to resolve it.

Kat I think Danillon trial is a very good idea.

I have up and downs with Daisy but more often than not she is completely fine and she is definitely happy most of the time.

You're going above and beyond for yours and if anyone can find the cause I think you will. Fingers crossed.
 
I'm sorry I don't know your story but I am pretty sure that I have had 2, possibly 3, mares with serious headache problems.
The first was a WelshxTB mare who was eventually found to have severe food intolerances. She was very noise reactive. The IDx was also very noise reactive and was found to have back muscle problems. I believe that all this was caused by my feeding her glucosamine, which I now think that she was extremely sensitive to. The 3rd was a Clydesdale mare who became noise reactive and was pts because of an internal tumour.

My point really is that Danilon might help a headache but that doesn't mean that it isn't allergy related. I do hope you get this sorted soon.
 
Don't rule out teeth pain being the cause, not every problem is easy to find by just looking. My mare with headache from teeth pain or her head hurting from teeth pain last year. Also would toss her head up in air being led to field and back. Also hypersensitive to noise and can't bare noisy rain on the roof. Ulcers can also make them hypersensitive to noise. So can low blood potassium.

11826042_113665222313675_142154400243023643_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hi everyone, thank you all for your responses. I'm not ruling anything out that's for sure. Right now it looks like if the danilon doesn't help we will start our focus on the allergy side of things whereas if it does we will look at other sources of pressure in the head/neck. So it's a rough guide of where to start really.

In terms of feed and intolerances, the stuff he gets now is exactly the same as when he shows his very best behaviour so I'm hesitant to think it's that (hay, some grass, balancer, alcar, amino acid calmer and milk thistle). It could be pssm related but he is moving so well that I don't think he is off the charts with it. If anything I wonder if the stress of having a headache will worsen his pssm.

I started the danilon last night after an average ride in the arena where he was moving well but felt stressed, ears pinned in canter. This morning he was pinging along with ears forwards in canter, still a few head flicks whilst wearing nose net when bugs came close but mostly at the start in walk. A bit spooky at one end of the arena. Not blowing through his nose as much. It's full on harvest here at the moment so hard to know if it's dust that irritating him, but he usually coughs if that's the case. We will see how he gets on in next 10 days. Hacking will be the biggest test. Craniosacral lady is back in 2 weeks as well.
 
KatPT, I'm sorry your horse is going through all of this. Like other has said, I also think it's lovely that you are being so perceptive and caring with him. Just wondered about the cranio-sacral therapy that he is getting - is it very hands on therapy, similiar to this video? (Sorry if this is a stupid question - I don't know much about all the treatment methods that would fall under 'cranio-sacral'.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r98Mrnk-B4g

This second video has got treatment specifically in the mouth area, which I thought was very interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7MyXZxI5vc

It's incredible that just the warmth and very slight pressure on a specific area of a horse's body (not even massaging really) can have such a massive impact.
 
Last edited:
Hi yes that's the sort of thing, although no way would my horse have allowed it with no halter, he was all teeth and barging, wanting to go up or foreward or anywhere else! It was a very violent reaction to a feather light touch. Finally at the end he started to relax and yawn, sneeze and play with his mouth. Even 6 hours later he was very yawney.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top