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| Discussion on Head Shaking synDrOme solved for at least 1 horse | |
| Author | Message |
| Member: rtrotter |
Posted on Monday, Jun 23, 2014 - 3:34 pm: I have a 6 year old Standardbred gelding that is getting ready to race. I have been working with this horse since he was born. I own him, train him and take care of him and he has been one frustrating individual. If he hadn't shown at least some flashes of talent over the last few years he would have been gone to his forever home.Anyway, up until about a week ago, I had never heard of head shaking synDrOme, but after a friend was describing what her horse was doing. I started researching it and found that a lot of the actions my horse was doing and has done his entire life might be causes by outside influences, bugs, sunlight, noise of the bugs etc. I did not want to medicate him, so I kept trying different headgear when he jogged. This horse was very predictable. He goes out in the morning and rolls, gets up shakes the dirt off and coughs. Comes in after about an hour, and gets ready to jog 5 miles. At the 3-3.5 mile point in his daily jogging he would start to cough usually at the same point on the race track, sometimes he would cough so violently he would almost fall down. Once the jog miles were completed, the head flipping would start going up the path and back to the barn. I knew he didn't like the bugs buzzing around his ears or landing on him, but couldn't understand the coughing. I had him scoped the vet found nothing. I started experimenting with different types of headgear, different fly masks with ears, with nose cover, I bought a nose net. Read about the nylon stockings etc. Then I remembered I had a winter mask that is/was used for warming the air before it hits the horses airways in the really cold winter months. I took off the wool covering and put a set of nylons over it, tied off and cut off the legs, used the leg pieces for what goes over his ears. I'll post a picture of it below. Now for the rest of what he has been wearing. He wears a set of soundproof earplugs, a fly hood with ears and his homemade mask. Yesterday, his first day in this getup, he jogged six miles, snorted a few times and coughed twice, no head shaking even after he got off the track and was walking up the path. This morning, jogged 7 miles, 1 cough, a few little snorts and not one head shake anywhere. He also seemed a lot less stressed, really did not get hot and sweaty for the weather and the amount he jogged. Less sweat, less bugs. He seemed much happier. This horse has had a variety of what I used to think were behavior problems, but after the way he has been for the last couple of days, I am convinced the bugs flying up his nose did not help and the bugs buzzing in his ears did not help either. Back at the barn he was very enthusiastic even after jogging 7 miles, this is just not like him as he is usually very quiet.  I decided to go this route because I felt this gave him more air then if the nylon stocking was tighter on his nose. Also, this is reusable as I wash it and hang it up to dry so it's ready for its next use. I think if anyone has a light grazing muzzle you would be able to do something similar with some foam rubber around the nose piece to prevent the bugs getting in that way. All in all the last 2 days have been very pleasurable and I hope it continues. |
| Moderator: DrO |
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| Member: gramsey1 |
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| Member: moxshi |
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| Member: rtrotter |
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| Member: gramsey1 |
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| Member: moxshi |
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