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  Discussion on Fjord Can't Raise or Lower her head!!
Author Message
Member:
botchi

Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2008 - 12:25 pm:

Hi Dr. O.

I am not certain if I am posting this in the right forum. Not sure it is neurological....

I have a 6 year old Fjord. She is ridden occasionally as she is my 4 year old daughters pony. She has been in her own pasture up until 1 month ago. She is out with a 4 year old Hanoverian which is 17 hands. They are not spooky or 'runabout' horses. I did however start her over cavaletes. She seemed very coordinated for a Fjord and liked the work. I did this for about 3 days. Three weeks ago while watching her come in for food she had her head about 10 inches off the ground all the way back to the barn (300 feet). I thought to myself - how odd.. Didn't put much more thought into it at the time. Then when I tossed her some hay on the ground she couldn't get her head to the floor. If her head is back up to normal position (horizontal) then she can't get it down, if she has it down she can't get it back up...... I thought maybe she pulled something trying to reach the 17 hand mare to scratch. Daisy is only 13.2. She stands on her tippy toes and tilts her head to the side to reach the big mares back.

She has not had any shots in her neck for 3 months. She is not wobbly nor shows any signs of pain when palpated. She can not turn her head towards her girth to the left or right even for grain or a carrot. She shows no reaction when I checked her legs for movement. I gave her 1 gram of Bute this morning and it has not helped.

Thank you for any insight you may have on this odd case.

Denise
Member:
botchi

Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2008 - 7:43 pm:

""Update""

I was shaving Daisy's bridlepath and found she was very sensitive at her pole. So I palpated just behind her ears around the pole area to find she was very uncomfortable with me pressing there. Clearly that is where the source of pain is coming from. There is no puncture, scratch or any obvious marks.

I hope this helps.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2008 - 9:29 pm:

Without examining the horse Denise I can only guess. The signs would be consistent with trauma to the head or neck but if this does not improve quickly best would be to have someone out to examine the horse.
DrO
Member:
vickiann

Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2008 - 9:30 pm:

Certainly sounds as though Daisy could have hit or fallen on her head. Injuries to the poll area can have severe neurological consequences requiring Veterinary care.
Member:
stenella

Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2008 - 1:47 pm:

have you considered chiropractic? I ask, as I have a horse who, one day, could not move his head up or down, and it was twisted up and sideways. He had trouble swallowing, too. Turns out he was sticking his head between the fencing to steal his neighbor's food and put his neck out. Recently, after having his teeth done, he couldn't do his carrot stretches to each side. Had him adjusted and he's better than ever.
Member:
botchi

Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2008 - 7:18 pm:

Hi Stenella -

Glad you figured it out too!

I have an appointment with a DVM/Chiropractor in two weeks. She is recently certified by AVCA. And yes, I thought she became sore due to reaching for the tall mares back. Similar to your horse reaching under the fence.... But she is no better and she has been alone for almost two weeks now. I sure hope it is as simple as an adjustment. I am calling the hospital Tuesday for an appointment to x-ray her. It will make me more comfortable having cleared a fracture before I crack and pop her.......... I would hate to think she is broken and I had her adjusted - arugh!

Thanks for the ideas.

FYI - I was talking with my sister whom works for a equine hospital in California. She told me that she has seen many horses coming in with strange movement//stances and their clients thinking the horse has Lime or EPM when in fact they had ticks on their eardrums! So that is something to keep in mind when your horse has a tilt..... :-))
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2008 - 9:47 pm:

Let us know the results of the physical exam and radiography.

Our current position on equine chiropractic is that scientifically it is not a well supported medical practice, for more on this Member's Services » The Lounge: Kick back and relax. » Alternative Medicine and Epistomology » Chiropractic » Equine Chiropractic Principles where we discuss this issue with a past president of the AVCA.
DrO
New Member:
rtrotter

Posted on Monday, May 26, 2008 - 8:38 pm:

Dr O,
Perhaps from a scientifically supported position it may not be a well supported medical practice, but from my practical experience working with racing Standardbreds it works very well.

I have 5 standardbreds (3 pacers and 2 trotters) at all different levels of training and racing and all different ages from 2-12. Up until a year ago they were all conventionally treated meaning if their rear ends were sore they were injected. If their joints were sore they were injected etc. They were put on different joint medications like Adequan and or Legends. While their symptoms would temporarily get better, they would need constant treatment at a variety of intervals or their symptoms would return. I knew chiropractic care worked for me, so I started it on one horse. The horse improved almost immediately and after 3 adjustments over a 5 week period has not needed any injections of any kind to keep her sound and racing and the chiropractic adjustments are down to very occasionally. Now if I used it only on one horse, one could say it was a fluke but I have used it on ALL of my horses and as of today, none of my horses need to be injected and that includes a horse that has bone cysts in her knees, a cyst that caused a fracture in the cannon bone of her right front leg, OCD lesions in her hocks and an injury to her right pelvic area that may have been due to a fall or a congenital defect from before I got her. This mare also has spurs in her ankle and a somewhat deformed foot. With all this going on one would think she would be dead lame, but she is not. She is another one that before chiropractic, she was getting injected everywhere every 6-8 weeks ( at a cost of hundreds of dollars). Since the adjustments began nothing and she is training very well.

I do this as a matter of routine whenever I get a new horse and have found I have less problems and the problems I do get are resolved more quickly because the whole horses' body is adjusted not just one particular part.

The question comes up as to whether I changed any of the other variables that might have me at the same point. The only other change was to start using an HPT (barefoot) trimmer after about 3 months of adjustments and way after the improvements were consistently noted. This has helped keep my horses sound, racing and un medicated.
Member:
stenella

Posted on Monday, May 26, 2008 - 10:15 pm:

Glad to help.
I hope it's as minor as merely needing an adjustment. Good luck!
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 8:00 am:

Rachelle, we also have had members who believe that they can get information about their horse's health from horse mind readers who read their horses minds from hundreds of miles away. They report great accuracy with large numbers of horses. A little more mainstream is that human medicine believed for hundreds of years that bleeding patients for many different type illnesses was helpful.

The point is it took scientific evidence to correct very popular notions that persisted for hundreds of years by people who were smarter than me. We are aware that there are horse owners who report benefits from chiropractic and an assortment of treatments where science has not yet formed an opinion on the subject. There are some serious problems with the current practice of chiropractic in horses which we discuss in the reference I give above. It is our job to explore what is known about each recommendation in these pages. Oh...you should note that we don't think much of the systemic joint injections either and you can read about that at Treatments and Medications for Horses » Anti-inflammatories (NSAID's, Steroids, Arthritis Rx).
DrO
New Member:
wilma

Posted on Sunday, Aug 17, 2014 - 9:42 pm:

Wow! I also have a horse who cannot lower her head. She shows no pain upon palpating her neck or back. Had the vet, chiropractor and message therapist look at her and they all say the same thing 'weird'. She eats, drinks everything works except lowering her head. She wants to, but can't/won't. If she tries to graze she stretches herself out like a giraffe at the water hole.......help, anyone.
Member:
astbury

Posted on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 - 6:17 am:

Padraig had similar symptoms periodically over a number of years - (see postings on Pad on neurological topic) once when he coughed particularly harshly as I was riding him, he then couldn't lower his neck to the ground. The vet attended but could find nothing and after a few days, it resolved. I do think, however, that this was most probably related to cervical disc deterioration in his neck, which the vet found on xray some considerable time later and which could well have been progressing over a number of years.
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