Trigeminal neuralgia - any good outcomes?

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JillA

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A friend's horse of a lifetime has a really severe case. He has been to Newmarket and is home with gabapentin, but as it wears off he is really bad. It will all but kill her if she has to PTS - anyone got experience of recovery, and if so how? I'd love to give her some hope, she is really struggling with it all but he is clearly in big trouble
 
My horse was diagnosed with it two years ago. He was treated with steroids and the condition cleared up, in retrospect this may have been due to the season changing.

He was fine the following year. At the end of February this year it returned. It didn't respond to the steroids. We then tried melatonin and magnesium which it also hasn't responded to. He's seeing another vet tomorrow to see about different treatment.

I wish I could give reassurance about the condition. I'm very worried about him. It's distressing to see him. I feel so helpless. I hope your friends horse will come through x
 
Sorry, no. I couldn't cure the pain of mine on masses of epilepsy drugs, and I put him out of his misery. He was grabbing his nose between his fetlocks and groaning :(


Please ask your friend not to wait if the pain can't be controlled. I took a lot of advice from people with it, where it is known as the suicide disease because so many sufferers find the pain so unbearable.
 
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I don't want to get your hopes up but there may be a glimmer of light here. There is a tv show called 'Trust me I'm a vet' - I don't normally watch it but I happened to turn on my tv and saw a repeat section of a broadcast about a horse that was suffering with severe headshaking on BB2 on 17 May last year. Tom Shaw of Langfords Vet hosts the show.

www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2017/may/vet-school.html

Info follows:

Veronica Roberts, Senior Clinical Fellow in Equine Medicine in the School of Veterinary Sciences, carried out a ground-breaking operation to save the life of a horse suffering extreme nerve pain, known as headshaking syndrome.

The horse had a patch shaved on one side of his face and they treated him with electric pulses for a few minutes under sedation. It wasn't painful. I think this operation was repeated one time more but I can't remember all the details.

Basically it cured the horse of headshaking which was caused by the trigeminal nerve pain.

This may be of some help to you? Probably worth googling and finding out more. Good luck.
 
Thank you Zuzzie, but it is too late for this horse and his owner. She posted that he had taken the decision out of her hands, but is so devastated I haven't been able to ask any more. He was among the worst the vets had ever seen though
 
JillA said:
Thank you Zuzzie, but it is too late for this horse and his owner. She posted that he had taken the decision out of her hands, but is so devastated I haven't been able to ask any more. He was among the worst the vets had ever seen though
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So sorry to hear this. At least the horse is out of pain now.
 
I have a friend with a mare that has this. she had a brand new (at the time) treatment done at the RVC a couple of years ago and it was succesful. Sadly the other day she did post that she had started it again but she said it normally settles down in a few days which it did. I think the treatment is about £700.
 
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