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  Discussion on Small patches of hair loss attributing to head shaking??
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New Member:
dom9964

Posted on Monday, Apr 16, 2007 - 10:45 pm:

hi everyone,
i have read some great articles here and have yet another issue (at least i feel it is an issue) that I need some help on. I read the skin section and the only thing I can think of is some type of mite?? Bear with me on this story as I think it goes back to winter.

I have a Buckskin QH 8 yo. last year had a bout of rain rot (all horses had it) picked all scabs and cleaned this off all horses and treated. seemed to all go away and this was very painful to my buckskin! Over the winter, I kept a full blanket on Cinco. I would ride maybe every 3 weeks. I started noticing that when we rode, Cinco would shake his head then shake his entire body. This would happen maybe 2 or 3 times in the course of a 1 1/2 hr ride. When I would take his bridle off, he would rub his head along the side of his face up to his ear all along me. I would help him out and scratch his head also.

As the winter progressed, I would pull his blanket off to make sure he was looking good and give him a good brushing. I started to notice missing hair and it looked as if someone took a razor to certain areas on his neck, ribcage and rump-both sides. No scabs or oozing at all. Never thought the shaking on the trail had anything to do with the hair loss spots until recently.

By the way, last October I took him to a show, bridled up perfectly and he took Grand Champ. no shaking whatsoever. He was super happy.

Went to a show 2 weeks ago. Let me mention that the night before we brushed him and did trim his ears. While brushing his neck and body, he stretched out completely as to say Oh scratch this spot too! and with clipping the ears, he freaked and fell down in cross ties. We calmly unhooked him and finished the clipping-no issues with him and I had no prob bridling him in the a.m. and riding before the show. Got a shake out of him on the trail.

Got to the show and put brand new gear on him including a new double silver ear headstall. Guess what, when he felt the double metal ears against his ears, he freaked the heck out!! One metal ear was on properly while the other was next to his eye and we could not for the life of us, get that ear piece on him. finally after 45 mins of chasing him around to pull the bridle off, we did get the ear piece on. And he is 16.2 so for a couple 5'3" folks, this was an effort in itself. he shook his head and wanted that bridle off. well we got the bridle off but i did not want to let him go and feel like this behavior, no matter how induced, was acceptable.

We got the other bridle he normally rides in back on him. i rode him in the show and yes he shook his head and body the entire time.

he was agitated when we went to remove the bridle, but we did get it off. that night after he calmed down a bit, he let us rub his head and pet his ears and poll...go figure. I was totally blown away thinking now i have a mental case on my hands. Sorry for rambling, but here is where I think i may have a skin condition that is making him shake his head.

I went back to those tiny patches of what looked to be razor clipped spots. put my forefinger on one of the spots on his neck and viola! the head shook!!! did it again, the head shook. Is it possible that he has some type of mite or condition that is driving some issue with the base of his ears where the bridle sits?

The vet came out for another horse and I asked her to check teeth, ears and hair spots. Well she did 2 out of 3. Don't know why, but have another vet coming out to do the complete job. She did however, sedate him and checked and cleaned his ears out. She said there was nothing inside the ears that she could see that was out of the ordinary. She said his teeth has some points but not super bad and he could be floated. I need to also state when the bridle is on he chomps constantly and will not leave the bit alone-teeth???

I put the bridle on the other night after some fussing and removing the brow band. once i got it on and tightened it up, I could notice some more tenseness around the base of the ears again. I checked the spots tonight and seems to have hair growning. Do you think the rain rot never went away from last year? Do you think there could have been something in his winter blanket that led to this? Not sure what I should do for him and need to get on him when the weather breaks and get him hopefully to ride correctly w/out shaking in the show ring. I need some major help here.

If anyone can help out, I would appreciate it. I will be getting him floated as soon as we can get a dentist out. He thrives on me rubbing his head and cheeks and his ears w/out the bridle on.

Thanks!
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 17, 2007 - 8:39 am:

Hello Dominique,
the therapy for mites is straight forward and simple so you can consider treatment if the second vet visit does not come up with anything diagnostic, see Diseases of Horses » Skin Diseases, Wounds, and Swellings » Hair and Coat Problems / Itching / Irritated Skin » Lice and Mites of Horses.

However there are several rule outs for head shaking that may require extensive examination and you can read about them at, Training & Conditioning Horses » Behavioral Problems » Head Shaking.
DrO
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