Horse Photic Headshaking Syndrome

This is my 14 yr old gelding. He has been an awesome 1D contesting horse up until his recent diagnosis-he is now no longer able to be ridden. He will be started on the medicine Cyproheptadine on 3/21/2010. If the meds do not work then a nerve block will be performed on the nerve in his nose which will tell whether he would be a candidate for surgery. This is a horrible condition and is painful to a horse. It just breaks my heart to see him like this. A uv ray protectant mask has also been used on this horse with no relief from the headshaking.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Horse
• Head
• Shaking
• Syndrome

[StarStruck203]

my horse has head shaking also... its so devastating... iv tried cyproheptadine, antihistimine, equine chiropractor, regumate, dex steroid, nose nets, uv protector face net, magnesium, and several other things. and nothing seems to eliminate the head shaking. its not like it hurts her or anything, just annoys her.

the most sad thing is though, last year, we made it to the 4H regional horse show and we placed 10th out of 180 riders undersaddle... now we are hardly placing due to this condition:(

[paintubturner1]

@StarStruck203 I took him completely off of oats last fall....recently took him off of a loose mineral that contained a high amount of selenium.  He hasnt had any real issues with head shaking yet this year. He is still on his meds but has been cut back to just once a day and is doing perfect with just one dose.

[paintubturner1]

My horse is responding well to the medication. Purdue University wanted over $600.00 a month for the meds but order them from Smart Pak for 100.00 a month. I will be taking my horse to Purdue this fall to see if he is a candidate for the nuerectromy surgery. Occasionally on a windy day my horse will still shake his head some but he is definately able to be ridden now. I am actually planning to show him this wknd! :)

[kcparker2]

Did the medication work?

[paintubturner1]

@kcparker2

He has only been on the meds since last Thur evening (5-20-10) and no improvement yet. The meds can take 2 weeks to a month before I know whether it will work or not. I am sure hoping the meds work! If not he will go immediately to Purdue to see whether he is a candidate for surgery.

[cutegoldengirl]

hey i had a horse that had this too....keeping them inside in the dark helps! good luck!!

[paintubturner1]

@cutegoldengirl

Rollin comes in and out of the barn as he wishes-however he does spend alot of daylight time in the barn and comes out more in the evening. I also bought him a uv protectant fly mask that I keep on him during daylight times.

[ArchDandy1134]

I witheld vaccinations for two years and my horse no longer does this. I noticed it started when she was vaccinated every other month while in foal- but my vet STRONGLY advised I keep vaccinating- after exhausting all options I finally STOPPED the shots and she is finally back to normal.

[dcoyable]

@paintubturner1 Did you start your horse on the Smart Pak? Did you have any success with it? If so how long did it take to work once you started him on ? Thanks

[dappledbaybeauty]

Have you tried equine massage? Release the pressure in his poll or get someone who is qualified to do a cranio-sacral massage on your horse. You can check it out on Youtube. It might be the cure in your horse's case too. It helped one of our horses and he doesn't head toss any more now. BTW, your horse is gorgeous.

[4cellar2door0]

Makes me happy to see you take such good care of your horse :)

[Bearslittlewhisper]

@Equestrian08

Kind of an old post, but for anyone else wanting to know, it varies case-by-case. My horse would only do it noticeably while undersaddle. In the field he would do small nods, rub his muzzle on his leg or on the ground/wall, stick his face in the water trough up to his eyeballs. They'll try to hide their faces (stick them between your shoulders, or in your arms), they'll squint their eyes or wrinkle their muzzles. It's an endless list. Some horses show some symptoms but not others

[Equestrian08]

Do horses with this condition toss their heads all the time? I have a horse who has always tossed his head very badly, but its only when I ride him, never any other time. I always thought it was just a bad habit he got into maybe from bad handling or pain at some point in his life, I have never heard of this.

[Kimmyloca0]

Its such a horrible thing. Do vets actually know what causes it? I recently purchased an anglo arab for endurance riding and Iunging him a couple of times I noticed he was tossing his head snorting ALOT and stopping to scratch his nose on his leg. I initially thought it was behavioural, not wanting to work but now I think its something more. I hope he doesn't get as bad as you boy. Glad to hear he's doing better too! :)