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Discussion on 18 yo with Facial Ticks
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Member:
equestra
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Posted on Tuesday, Sep 29, 2009 - 6:16 pm:
Hey Y'all,
Ok now that my 6 yo RMH is ok, I want to ask everyone about my older trail critter. Kahlua is approx 18 yo we think Standardbred (no tattoo, no idea of his history) who we've had for around a year. We began to notice early on a facial tick he'll get without warning, eyelid / nose / muscles in between will twitch on the right side of his face involuntarily for periods of time, under saddle or in his stall - or anything in between.
Strangely, this seems to happen LESS after a very Alpha horse left our property, who he had bonded with but lived in terror of. I have often thought of it being anxiety related... but we still see it from time to time.
I've had his ears checked, his teeth done completely, my vet did all blood tests to make sure he didn't have any diseases (he is a very healthy boy)... I've researched this over and over but cannot find a proper answer to this. I'm not certain there's anything we could do to help it, but if there were I'd want to know. I'm also just plain curious to know why he gets those shakes!
Thanks y'all!
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - 7:09 am:
Hello Robin,
I am afraid we cannot help much here. In general the possibilities are central nervous system, peripheral nervous system dysfunction , or possibly muscle fasciculations. Once which of the three components is identified as the cause we still have not broached the reason for the "tic". Unfortunately there is no commonly defined such synDrOme in the literature. One way to pursue this would might be a electromyogram which may be able to differentiate the nervous from the muscle dysfunction.
DrO
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