Which specialist treatment, which order and why.

[Kallibear]

I asked last week about my headshaking, contact-hating horse and had some excellent suggestions to follow up.

After a huge vet bill for not-quite-making-it over a 5ft gate, money is tight but I can spend something on getting him checked out (bye bye trailer fund )

But the list of people who could prod and poke is endless so I need to narrow it down and prioritise.

He is booked in for a specialist vet dental next month. It can't be any earlier as it lines up with their vaccinations. I'll also discuss (again!) his head shaking with them but I cannot afford to get him a full work up at the moment. I have very little faith in vets when it comes to back, neck or pelvis issues. Or 'behavioral' issues. Or feet. However, if I cannot sort or improve his problems then I'd save up for bone scans and full x-rays (as insurance won't cough up when it's deemed 'behavioural' )

He's started work again (just hacking) and so far no sign of head shaking. The contact-resentment is improving too (see other thread).

I do have a sort-of plan to try to minimise the headshaking when it starts again (ridden flymask, nose net, added salt, mineral balance and regular prodding and poking).

What additional/alternative treatments would you try, if you need to narrow it down to either three individual treatments and continuing with one, or two continued reduced treatments?

There is local Thermography but they need to be fully clipped or short summer coat, so that needs to wait until next month at least (once he's fully moulted).

Physio? Osteo? Something else?

A couple of people have mentioned Cranial Sacral Therapy which sounds useful for headshakers. Do does it require ongoing treatment?

I'm in Central Scotland so any practitioner suggestions would be great.

Background, as there's always questions:
5yr old 16.3 ISH.
He is a headshaker during the summer/autumn (most likely light sensitive) and has all the physical damage associated with it : tight stiff neck muscles, SI discomfort and tight hamstrings. He therefore ends up with 'tension headaches' and problems staying united in canter. It's very noticeable that after 6months off (due to injury and winter) and no headshaking (it's winter) that he's much better, even without physio, and cantering normally on both legs. His gate accident was purely cosmetic thank god (but that a mess!) and has been deemed sound by the vets
He lives out 24/7 on adlib haylege and just a token feed for his minerals. He cannot tolerate sugars or alfalfa (sends him crazy and itchy) He's barefoot and has had a noticeable improvement in his feet since adding addition copper. He is to do RC and maybe a little low level eventing. His saddle is a good fit, the only bit he'll even think of tolerating is a comfort snaffle. He's ridden in a Micklem plus much dead sheep. He's very well behaved to ride, no bucking etc and apart from green lack of balance and strength, is free and fluid in his movement.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I *think* I would go for thermal imaging to find any areas to concentrate on, then probably ask to have wolf teeth removed, even if that area didn't really show up on the image. But as you already know that your horse is feed sensitive, I would keep a very careful diary of his behaviour/feed and see if there is any correlation. This might mean that you have to experiment a bit with his feed/supplements but could be well worth it.
Wouldn't it be good if they were straightforward? I've had horses react to magnesium, glucosamine and Brewers Yeast, as well as the more common reactions to sugar/cereals/alfalfa

 

[Queenbee]

I asked last week about my headshaking, contact-hating horse and had some excellent suggestions to follow up.

After a huge vet bill for not-quite-making-it over a 5ft gate, money is tight but I can spend something on getting him checked out (bye bye trailer fund )

But the list of people who could prod and poke is endless so I need to narrow it down and prioritise.

He is booked in for a specialist vet dental next month. It can't be any earlier as it lines up with their vaccinations. I'll also discuss (again!) his head shaking with them but I cannot afford to get him a full work up at the moment. I have very little faith in vets when it comes to back, neck or pelvis issues. Or 'behavioral' issues. Or feet. However, if I cannot sort or improve his problems then I'd save up for bone scans and full x-rays (as insurance won't cough up when it's deemed 'behavioural' )

He's started work again (just hacking) and so far no sign of head shaking. The contact-resentment is improving too (see other thread).

I do have a sort-of plan to try to minimise the headshaking when it starts again (ridden flymask, nose net, added salt, mineral balance and regular prodding and poking).

What additional/alternative treatments would you try, if you need to narrow it down to either three individual treatments and continuing with one, or two continued reduced treatments?

There is local Thermography but they need to be fully clipped or short summer coat, so that needs to wait until next month at least (once he's fully moulted).

Physio? Osteo? Something else?

A couple of people have mentioned Cranial Sacral Therapy which sounds useful for headshakers. Do does it require ongoing treatment?

I'm in Central Scotland so any practitioner suggestions would be great.

Background, as there's always questions:
5yr old 16.3 ISH.
He is a headshaker during the summer/autumn (most likely light sensitive) and has all the physical damage associated with it : tight stiff neck muscles, SI discomfort and tight hamstrings. He therefore ends up with 'tension headaches' and problems staying united in canter. It's very noticeable that after 6months off (due to injury and winter) and no headshaking (it's winter) that he's much better, even without physio, and cantering normally on both legs. His gate accident was purely cosmetic thank god (but that a mess!) and has been deemed sound by the vets
He lives out 24/7 on adlib haylege and just a token feed for his minerals. He cannot tolerate sugars or alfalfa (sends him crazy and itchy) He's barefoot and has had a noticeable improvement in his feet since adding addition copper. He is to do RC and maybe a little low level eventing. His saddle is a good fit, the only bit he'll even think of tolerating is a comfort snaffle. He's ridden in a Micklem plus much dead sheep. He's very well behaved to ride, no bucking etc and apart from green lack of balance and strength, is free and fluid in his movement.

my first approach is always a sports massage, the SI, hamstrings, neck: all can be loosened up by a competent sports massage therapist and its so non invasive, my horse loves it and pretty much falls asleep during treatment and his 'swagger' afterwards is fab A good ESM therapist will asses the horse and refer back to vet if work needs doing prior to them touching the horse, but for what you describe it should be perfect.

 

[muckypony]

Is he insured?

 

[flaxen]

If hes insured he will be covered for headshaking investigations ( am assuming you are talking about the normal vertical headshake ) and investigations for change of behaviour.
My insurance company paid out for a full work up after my ponys behaviour changed and he started head shaking in a figure of 8 twist following a fall, he had the works, full bloods twice, danilon trial, endoscope, followed by repeat endoscope ins gutteral pouches, gastroscope, skull and cervical vertebrae xrays, then repeat xrays and a head ct scan, then high levels of a neuro pain relief, high dose steroids daily for 2 mths, experimental drug treatment that affects bone resportion and distribution. They paid pennies short of £5k in 4 mths and are now processing his mortality claim. I know trying to pin point the cause of traditional headshaking is like looking for a needle in a hay stack but you do have mr headshaking specialist himself in scotland and he has been a huge help with my pony although he was right from the very start of december when he saw his ct report on what the out come was going to be.

 

[Kallibear]

Is he insured?

Yes but for what he's now covered for (after various injury exclusions) then to all intents and purposes, no He may or may not be covered for head shaking investigation but I suspect it'll come undee 'behavioural', which is most definitely NOT covered. I'll need to check.

Flaxen, that's really sad Did you find the route cause of his problem?
For his headshaking I know the first thing they'll suggest is a mask, a nose net and antihistamines (friend had the same issue a while ago) so I'll try them first.

 

[canteron]

Cranial work can be really useful, on humans as well as horses!

But, get the practitioner to teach you to feel for the atlas bones going out - it really is quite easy to feel and in any event, will be a useful thing to know, even if not the major cause of the problem.

My horse used to headshake when he got tired/worried, as he has strengthened and matured it isn't an issue any longer. I had the horse chiro (I used a McTimoney person) out regularly to begin with to ensure that he strengthened in a level manner, but now we are on the standard 2 visits a year.

 

[be positive]

My ISH, the one related to yours!! is better when you can ride him really forward on a contact so you may find improvement if and when you get that issue sorted if the two are not totally connected, I use a physio for routine work, she has been treating this horse now for over 2 years, mainly concentrating on the back end and topline.
His mouth was an issue following the injury to it, I had a vet EDT to do him then used an osteo for a few treatments, she did plenty of work on his poll, jaw and even his tongue, it certainly reduced the tension at that time although we then discovered his other issue, his SI injury so were back to square 1 regarding tackling the headshaking which is still there only in spring/ summer, only when ridden or lunged and rarely hacking unless there is a lot of pollen or flies about, never seen in the stable or field, I am hoping that this year we can finally get some consistent work in and try a few things that we have not yet done properly, this will include getting the osteo back once he is back in full work, currently just ticking over, so I can see if it makes a real difference.

 

[soloequestrian]

Given the improvement you saw with copper, a cheap option would be to have a forage analysis done and then make up a specific mineral supplement to complement your forage. I do this for mine, using the NRC nutrient requirements for horses site and minerals from Progressive Earth. Even if it doesn't help the head shaking, his feet might get even better.....

 

[flaxen]

Kallibear, yes we did, he had a bleed at the back of his brain ( same bleed that killed a cricketer last yr ) and also fractured/ crushed the back of his skull at his foramen ( where important nerves insert through his skull into his brain) and as his skull was trying to repair it was interfering with these nerves and his brain stem. It was caused by him falling on his head ( like annie powers fall at cheltenham yesterday ) while out having a blast on a hack with a friend and putting his foreleg in a concealed hole/ ditch, he wore a mexican grackle and he managed to pull the bottom strap off his face and had dirt in his ears amd top of his head. At the time there wasnt any sign of injury but he wasnt right when I collected him a few days later ( he stayed at a friends for a few days as I was injured too ). Theres no reports in the world of any horse having survived his injury as its fatal at the time. Basically my beautiful pony was becoming brain damaged and at the end didnt know really where he was or what he was doing, he didnt really eat, and just paced in tight circles to the right til he lost his balance and fell over or into the wall and just before he was put to sleep he went flat out straight through a post and rail fence and then into a 7ft fence tipping himself over doing it, without even knowing they were there. It was horrific to see as i could see he wasnt going to stop amd i was completely helpless to stop him. He wasnt safe to himself or to be around at the end. There is a post on here about him. Its still tough, he was put to sleep 2.5 weeks ago.