poll/neck problem

m1187604

m1187604

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northern ireland
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hi i was wondering if you could come up with any suggestions about my mare who is sore around the top of her neck/poll area.
last year she had a foal, normal birth, no complications and was weaned in dec/jan 2011. at this time i brought her back into work. she was as good as gold and for 4-5 weeks she was perfect. however we took her on the trailer to a local beach and since then she hasnt been right. she seemed ok at the start of a schooling session but after about 15-20 mins she was getting agitated and throwing her head about.
during the summer i took her into fields 4 an uphill gallop and she just wanted to get her head between her knees, not being bad or bucking or anything, but that was where she seemed most comfortable.
she seems very heavy in my hands when riding and leans on the reins heavily. up until this time she was very easy to ride and i would have trusted her with a child on board but i certainly wouldnt now.
at present if i were to tack her up and walk her for 10 mins she will tense up, her neck will be solid and her ears go all twitchy. she no longer likes being groomed around her head or neck where prior to this she always loved her face being brushed.
turning her out is also an issue as she will pull away when i take the halter off in the field. if i turn her out with a rope round her neck she is fine but i dont like doing this as it is unsafe. i have left the halter on her in the field on one occasion when she had her head so high in the air i couldnt take it off and she went ballistic in the field, flinging her head about and looked really uncomfortable.
i have had her teeth checked and she had some dental work done in june/july. she had her saddle checked and some minor re-stuffing done to it by a master saddler.
she is not lame and has good movement dispite being 17 years old.
she was put on a hefty dose of bute and steriods a few months ago to see what she would do and although they certainly helped at the time, she is now off them and is back to square one.
physio and chiro have both seen the horse but neither have helped.
she is booked in for a bone scan next month and i hope this gives me some answers but i would be interested to know if you or anyone else has ever experienced anything like this before?
at present i am not riding her, i cant even hack out safely, and she is on a herbal bute supplement which is helping her a bit. she still can be dangerous to turn out and has the same issues when being groomed.
if you have any suggestions i would be most grateful.
emma martin
 
i have tried a chiropractor but this didnt help. im convinced a vertebrae is out of alignment and its pressing on a nerve but i dont know if this will show on a bone scan!
 
Hi Emma.

Please, please, please get a second opinion from a suitably qualified spinal therapist or equivalent. As a spinal therapist myself this, as you state yourself, definitely sounds like a trapped nerve causing muscle spasm from a misaligned vertebrae. As the weeks have gone on this will have become more and more painful with knock on effect in other areas. Has your vet seen her??? Does she cock her head to one side? Try and avoid any pressure from headcollars, bridles etc until you know exactly what is the cause.
 
nofootnohorse said:
Hi Emma.

Please, please, please get a second opinion from a suitably qualified spinal therapist or equivalent. As a spinal therapist myself this, as you state yourself, definitely sounds like a trapped nerve causing muscle spasm from a misaligned vertebrae. As the weeks have gone on this will have become more and more painful with knock on effect in other areas. Has your vet seen her??? Does she cock her head to one side? Try and avoid any pressure from headcollars, bridles etc until you know exactly what is the cause.
Click to expand...

Second this suggestion - some chiros are better than others at spotting problems, it was the third chiro I tried who eventually sorted out my horse (not the same problem as yours).

Perhaps you could try posting for recommendations in your area?
 
Definatly agree with the above comments about the neck vertibrae. Bone scans are expensive so would be worth trying the chiropractor first!
 
Hmm, I'd want to see an xray or a scan in a situation like this before trying any more manipulation. You might be surprised how many horses walk around with neck fractures!

It's not really similar to your situation but in one case, i saw a horse slip and hit its poll on an fence post, got up and carried on. There was absolutely nothing to see and the horse was touchy that evening but otherwise seemed fine. Over the next few days it because evident he was increasingly neurologically impaired - we had him xrayed and he had two significant fractures. By that point his spinal cord was irreparably affected and he was put down. What is more worrying though is the vet felt if he'd immediately got more effective antiinflammatories, he would likely not have shown the severe symptoms that had lead to diagnosis. In fact he could very well have gone on with what would have become a chronic problem. The only reason we even had cause to suspect what had happened was because we SAW if happen, if he'd just come in one day a bit stiff we might very well have had the vet, given him some painkillers and steroids and not thought any more about it. Then by the time he was being ridden again, everyone would have forgot the episode and we would have wondered what his problem was.

I have ridden at least two horses that have been found to have improperly healed neck fractures (in one case the owners saw the incident that almost certainly caused it but, as above, didn't put two and two together), I know of a couple others and there are many more who were never xrayed but knowing what I know now, I have suspicions.

Out of curiosity and on another note, the problems didn't start after the dental work, did they? There is a very specific injury that can happen if the tongue is pulled too strongly to the side - possibly another thing worth looking in to?
 
She is due to go to troytown in a couple of weeks so I think I'm just going to see what they say. I have been given the number of a mctimmony chiro so that will be my next plan of attack if the scan is negative.her teeth were done after she got really bad.initally the vet thought it was her teeth causing the problem but since they were tended to she hasn't improved.roll on November!
 
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