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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 456
 
Location: SW MO | What has your experience been with TMJ issues (equine)? Injections, chiropractic, massage, magnets. etc? What worked the best for you? The horse has had teeth done and chiro, still pretty sore in TMJ which I think is causing head shaking especially when you put a little pressure on the bit. |
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
  
Location: Florida.. | We had a mare that had it and the dentist tweeked it more and we had to give mare off for alsmot 2 months for the inflammation but we also did accupuncture . |
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Veteran
Posts: 112
| The little mare I have developed TMJ problems after having her teeth done 2 years ago. The guy opened her mouth too wide with the speculum. As a result I can no longer use a bit in her mouth to run barrels. She will lock her jaw and just run by the barrels. I have the PHT fly mask and have her worked on every six weeks by the chiropractor but I can still hear it popping when she eats sometimes. I will add that she was on a break from the middle of October till Christmas eve this year and that did not seem to help it any. |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | My mare was to the point of dangerous to ride let alone halter and lead with her head shaker symptoms. I had had the vet out to look in her ears, check her teeth, her nose everything. He diagnosed her with head shaker syndrome due to the symptoms she was exhibiting and it was kind of what I was leaning towards after doing some research. He put her on Cyproheptadine, a antihistamine and high doses of magnesium, it worked well for her for the head shakers syndrome however I was concerned with the side effects of the Cypro such as high incidents of colic reported and she could become pretty lethargic on it at times. I had her hair analysis done and it showed TMJ points so we put her on Equine Natural Care herbs for Joints, the Joint plus one. It was a better choice for her, she wasn't 100%, like she still couldn't totally "bridle up" and extremely windy days were semi difficult for her but she wasn't dealing with the lethargic issues and I felt better that we were dealing with the inflammation issue rather than just the "symptom" of it. This last fall I put my other horses on Cur-ost, I had gotten the Stomach for my little nervous nellie mare and the Green for my gelding who had come up sore. I switched them over to the Total Support after talking to Dr. Schell with Cur-ost and because I had the other product still I decided to use it on the head shaker mare to see how she did on it. Total new horse, she can once again be asked to collect up properly, windy days aren't any big deal, I used to just have to skip riding her on days with the wind more than 10 mph and 8 mph was kind of pushing it. I have since switched this mare to the Total Support also once we used up the Green and the Stomach. |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12841
| My year old has had problems with her mouth and last year she saw the equine dentist 4 times, mainly to remove caps. We have had three different vets look at her and all said the equine dentist had done an excellent job. She keep shaking her head. She needed to be adjusted in the upper hip area and voila fixed the head shaking and some other problems. |
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Veteran
Posts: 196
Location: Pittsburg, Texas | You have to have a "GREAT" vet. Some things just are not obvious. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| If you feed in troughs or hay bags, stop. Start feeding everything on the ground, as if they were grazing. It allows the jaw to move freely and reduce the stress on the joint. I use an Osteopath and found really good success with that too. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 456
Location: SW MO | I will keep that in mind! what is an osteopath? |
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Veteran
Posts: 112
| FlyingJT - 2016-03-07 1:30 PM
If you feed in troughs or hay bags, stop. Start feeding everything on the ground, as if they were grazing. It allows the jaw to move freely and reduce the stress on the joint. I use an Osteopath and found really good success with that too.
My mare's feed tub is on the ground and her hay bay is a small tractor tier, so everything she eats is "on the ground" but that doesn't seem to make a difference for her unfortunately. She has always ate this way since she was weaned. |
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Expert
Posts: 1857
| Mzbradford - 2016-03-07 1:42 PM I will keep that in mind! what is an osteopath?
It's along the same lines as a chiro but they also work on soft tissue and muscles, not just joints. They use(this is copy and pasted) soft tissue massage, stretching techniques, rhythmic passive joint movements, and mobilisations to improve joint mobility, or high velocity thrust techniques designed to improve the mobility and the range of movement of a joint. My first visit took a little over an hour for each horse, she moved every joint from their feet to their tail, just a lot more than I have ever seen just a chiro do. She has fixed a lot of issues for me.
She will send me home with certain exercises or stretchs that she wants me to do with them for a certain period of time. Mines also a vet so she checks the shoeing and dental to see if it is the source of the soreness.
I suggest to google it, you'll find better info than I can give on it. My preference is an Osteo over a chiro but that's due to the experiences that I have. |
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Expert
Posts: 1857
| miss_n_cinch13 - 2016-03-07 2:07 PM
FlyingJT - 2016-03-07 1:30 PM
If you feed in troughs or hay bags, stop. Start feeding everything on the ground, as if they were grazing. It allows the jaw to move freely and reduce the stress on the joint. I use an Osteopath and found really good success with that too.
My mare's feed tub is on the ground and her hay bay is a small tractor tier, so everything she eats is "on the ground" but that doesn't seem to make a difference for her unfortunately. She has always ate this way since she was weaned.
it won't fix it but it helps... |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | My mare with the TMJ issues has never eaten anywhere but from a feeder on the ground. I think like people that some horses carry their tension in their neck and jaw. Poopie is one that gets really sore in the neck and jaw if you do a lot of long trotting and dont' do enough collected trotting and loping to re_balance her. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 966
Location: Loco,Ok | I made a hackamore for Stacy Richards in La. For her mare with TMJ.Worked well for her. Have to change how you ride as well. Your feet are important. |
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