April Case of the Month:
Head Shaking Syndrome – A Positive Outcome For Once
Ellie moved to the Island last year and quickly developed allergies and head shaking, to her owner’s dismay. Environmental allergies in horses are commonly seen and treated, but head shaking syndrome is often a very challenging condition to manage, and is rarely successfully treated. Ellie however, seemed to beat the odds. During her intradermal allergy testing, it was apparent that Ellie had a marked sensitivity to Staphylococcus aureus, a common environmental bacteria found in skin and ear infections. This led to scoping Ellie’s ear canals and finding a very mild Staph aureus infection on culture. Given her Staph allergy, we decided to aggressively treat the mild ear infection in the hope it could possibly help her head shaking. And luckily IT WORKED!! Ellie is no longer shaking her head, tolerating being cross-tied and ridden. Her owner reports, ‘She’s a new woman!’
