Nerve pain in horses - any experiences?

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GGRider

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Neuropathy / Neuralgia / Nerve Pain / Cold Allodynia / Hyperaesthesia
Do you have any experience of these ?

One lovely horse is looking for a diagnosis! Started veterinarian diagnosis but looking for more advice and experiences in attempt to save him from being PTS. He is not in extreme pain but his behaviours suggest there is chronic nerve pain which seems to worsen with cold weather and longer periods of exercise.

I have been observing him and googling for months and think I am getting closer to a diagnosis than the vets are!
Any advice appreciated.
 
Symptoms are hyperaethesia, cold allodynia, panniculus reflex. Basically over-reaction to touch and cold leading to flank watching, kicking out, head shaking, and eventually to bucking.

Started / worsened when weather coldest and he was clipped back in November and has recently become better as weather warmed and coat has grown back. These are only symptoms but the underlying cause is probably nerve pain. Diagnosis is going to be hard/impossible but any clues may lead to helping to manage the condition in the hope of making his life comfortable and useful.
 
Mine was diagnosed with hyperaesthesia after a bizarre set of symptoms - his skin twitched violently when touched lightly, but was fine when touched firmly. He was happy to be ridden and not at all lame,but became violent when groomed/rugged/general handling including rearing and striking out at handler. He had a bone scan, X-rays, ultrasound scans and MRI of various parts of his body and deemed in peak health. He had a high dose bute trial at the request of sue dyson - 6 bute per day! He had gabapentin (used in humans for nerve pain) at 1.8g three times a day. He was heavily sedated for manipulation by a chiropractor and turned away for rest. In the end he was due to be PTS as had lost a lot of condition for no obvious reason and was dangerous to handle. My wonderful vet convinced my insurance company to pay out for his value event though he would not be put to sleep under BEVA guidelines - although he did not need immediate euthanasia, his handlers were in immediate danger and the insurance company didn't like the risk of a huge liability claim.

BUT, he was treated by a strange little man called John Harland as a last effort before we had him PTS and the next day he was better. I spend almost 10k on veterinary treatment and tests to try and diagnose the cause of his issues and sue dyson had a phone conference with vets around the world to try and work it out, but a £20 treatment from John sorted him out. Search for John Harland on here to find out about him as it is a long and strange story!
 
GGRider said:
Symptoms are hyperaethesia, cold allodynia, panniculus reflex. Basically over-reaction to touch and cold leading to flank watching, kicking out, head shaking, and eventually to bucking.

Started / worsened when weather coldest and he was clipped back in November and has recently become better as weather warmed and coat has grown back. These are only symptoms but the underlying cause is probably nerve pain. Diagnosis is going to be hard/impossible but any clues may lead to helping to manage the condition in the hope of making his life comfortable and useful.
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Mine also started when clipped and seemed to improve a bit when his coat grew back. He also lost a lot of hair where the issue was worst - over his lower neck, wither and shoulders. His symptoms were the same - violent twitching when touched (but only light touch), flank watching, kicking out and generally throwing himself about. But oddly fine to be tacked up and ridden and no loss in performance.

After his recovery he returned to full work and went on to compete at a higher level than previously
 
Hi Zoon
Thanks - reassuring to know someone else has had mystery problems and found solution! This horse often works just fine for an hour but if we give him a second hour - or if much colder - he starts the crazy behaviour again.

I jumped him once whilst like this and he still wants to jump 3ft+ but is all over the place between the fences and a jiggly mess of twiches and bucks!

Am searching for John Harland and other chiro's. Any further info you can lend would be great!
 
I am convinced mine was caused by treatment from a chiro who used a tens type machine. Jus a few hours after he started this odd behaviour.

Feel free to pm me with anything you want to ask.
 
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