mare can't put her head down

[trickishrose]

Hi guys, I posted just over a week ago about my mare rearing and bucking during riding and received some great advice so thought I'd try again on here.. Prior to my post I had her teeth done, saddle adjusted, osteopath out and then the vet as the previous did not work, the vet gave her a thorough examination and was also stumped as she was completely sound, no problems with back, eyes clear etc so he put her on bute for a week more as a diagnosis tool than anything else, so anyway that was all fine (still has 2 days left of bute) then a couple of days ago I noticed she couldn't put her head down to graze (she had been stabled since vet visit and this was the first time she was turned out since) so kept my eye on her and that evening noticed she couldn't eat her food from the floor so I have been holding up her feed and have raised her water bucket in her stable, also she cannot get down to roll but still trots and canters around comfortably when put in the school loose today for a little exercise.. i have the vet coming out again tomorrow but just wondered if anyone has had a similar experience?? Also The osteopath said there was nothing wrong with her neck on her visit a couple of weeks ago but to me her top muscle running down towards her withers feels very hard and tight.. TIA

 

[holeymoley]

Sounds like muscle. No experience but a friend had her horse vaccinated (in the neck) and she reacted to the tetanus jab and struggled to put her head down for a few days.

 

[TeamChaser]

Sounds like muscle. No experience but a friend had her horse vaccinated (in the neck) and she reacted to the tetanus jab and struggled to put her head down for a few days.

That happened to my boy when he had tetanus vacc this year! Have never come across it before in him or my other boy - weird

 

[trickishrose]

Sounds like muscle. No experience but a friend had her horse vaccinated (in the neck) and she reacted to the tetanus jab and struggled to put her head down for a few days.

She's had no vacs recently.. its so bizarre as she was stabled so couldn't of done anything running around either :-/

 

[TeamChaser]

Hope you get to the bottom of it and your girl is better soon

 

[trickishrose]

Thank you very much

 

[Mrs G]

My YO's horse had similar symptoms - turns out he has part of a syringe needle left in his neck from a past injection, must have been there years but he spooked one day and dislodged it and it moved and caused him to have a stiff neck for weeks. It's still in there somewhere (they saw it on an x ray but trying to dig it out would have caused more probs).

 

[Procrastination]

Sounds like muscle. No experience but a friend had her horse vaccinated (in the neck) and she reacted to the tetanus jab and struggled to put her head down for a few days.

That happened to my boy when he had tetanus vacc this year! Have never come across it before in him or my other boy - weird

This also happened to both of my Shetlands when they got their tetanus vacs last year, poor things they looked so uncomfortable.
It was very strange, glad to hear it has happened to others though!