Winter headshaking - is it?

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latottwirl

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I'm having trouble with a show horse of mine, and it is most distressing.

Completely out of the blue, one day in November he began headshaking. He throws his head violently up and down, sneezes, twitches his lips and 'tics'. Some days he doesn't do it at all, but almost all the time now his nostrils seem closed; instead of his nose having normal defined nostrils, it is now round, like he's closed his nostrils a bit.

He is bad during exercise but equally bad while eating his dinner in the stable- I've tried feeding him off the floor and higher up, but he sneezes all the way through his dinner and can't stop rubbing his nose and ticking. I've changed his feed but whatever I try it doesn't seem to make any difference. It also doesn't seem to matter whether he's being ridden indoors or out. A nosenet does not appear to help him.

Everyone I have consulted seems puzzled that this has presented in the winter, and then tell me they don't think it's headshaking - but what else could it be? He's been seen by the vet who, grumpily, diagnosed headshaking and left it at that. I've tried reading things on the internet about all sorts of different diseases and problems, but I'm now totally confused as they are talking about muscles and nerves that I've never heard of before.

Any ideas what it could be, or is it definately headshaking that has just presented in the winter?
 
sounds like classic headshaking to me. Is he worse in bright sunshine? Or worse when he gets hot during exercise? Could it be an allergy to his bed or forage? Has anything in his environment changed, no matter how small?

Vets are not always helpful with headshaking - some prescribe drugs, some suggest operating on the trigeminal nerve - mine was unwilling to do that as the horse can continue nose rubbing, but can't feel it. Some rub the skin off their faces, down to the bone as they still feel the 'itch'.

Where are you? I would suggest you talk to Chris Day - he's a homeopathic vet who I used for my head shaker - he was diagnosed as a 5-6 yr old as being allergic to pollen. He treated him, prescribed homeopathic tablets and he upgraded to Advanced and jumped round 3*.
 
It does sound like headshaking, I know. Think I'm just grasping for straws! His behaviour has changed too - he's become much more nervy, he doesn't want to be caught in the field or stable and has become difficult with other horses and with people.

I've worked him indoors, on sunny days and on dull days and it's always the same. Tbh, its been so bad that I've never been able to ride him until he gets hot - he was competed all summer and was absolutely fine. I honestly cannot think of anything that has changed at all...I'm racking my brains!

I'm in Scotland - and my vet suggested nothing except wait. I just wonder what it is (if its a nerve thing rather than an allergy) because it's winter and I've always been led to believe that allergies aren't so prevalent in winter.
 
My horse started headshaking a year ago in winter - it was just as if he was getting an electric shock up his nose which, because it was so violent, knocked him off his stride. It started some time after he had a tooth removed. I'm convinced that this tooth removal somehow affected the trigeminal nerve. In summer the symptoms disappear. This winter it has started up again, only worse AND crucially only happens when its sunny. It is definitely not an allergy in his case.
 
How are his teeth? I ask because my horse was a headsheaker and it turns out he had a badly fractured tooth which needed to be extracted. He is much better now.
 
I had his teeth done not so long ago, but to be honest I'm not all that satisfied with the work that was done and would quite like another opinion, which I shall get very shortly.

If it was his teeth though, would he still do the nostril clamping, sneezing and lip twitching?
 
My horse headshakes at all sorts of wierd times of the year. I am almost certain his allergy is to tree pollen, so it doesn't necessarily have to be spring/summer to bother him. If there are sudden winds etc dislodging any pollen left in the trees he suffers very badly. In fact he is in a nose net at present as he's just got back into work after the snow and was headshaking a little the other day. But the nose net really works very effectively. I turn him out with the nosenet on his headcollar when he's suffering really badly. They don't work for everyone but many people have success with them.

I agree it's really distressing to see them in discomfort and not be able to do anything for them.

My horse also had a very bad back when I got him, dealing with his back problem also helped a lot, so maybe it's worth having back checked too??
 

Agree with highlandponylass... get his teeth checked. Had the same, smashed wolf tooth which needed removing.

Also out of interest, you haven't changed his bit recently have you? My boy headshakes in bits that hurt him (most bits!), and this often carries on as a symptom when he is eating in the days that follow. I think where his sensitive little mouth is a bit sore.
Wetting his feed till it is like soup works for me.
 
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