New treatment offers hope for headshaking in horses

6 January 2015 At present there are no consistently safe and effective methods for the treatment of headshaking in horses. The condition, a neuropathic facial pain syndrome, often leaves affected horses impossible to ride and dangerous to handle, and can result in euthanasia. A new study has found a treatment called percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PENS) could reduce signs of the condition in horses. The same PENS therapy is used in people to manage neuropathic pain. Headshaking syndrome, which is thought to affect between 10,000 and 20,000 horses in the UK, is when a horse shakes or jerks its head uncontrollably for no apparent reason. There are striking clinical similarities between facial pain syndromes in people, most notably trigeminal neuralgia, and headshaking in horses. The study led by clinical academics from the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences , working with the neurology team at Southmead Hospital Bristol , aimed to find out if PENS therapy, developed by Algotec Research and Development Ltd, is safe, effective and sustainable for the management of trigeminal-mediated headshaking in horses.