| Maladaption Theory (or why some horses headshake) |
The horse by its very nature is a prey animal, designed to live in a herd, grazing & constantly on the watch for predators. We have forced it to change its entire way of life. We separate a foal from its dam after just a few short months. We shut it up in a stable for long hours. When turned out it sometimes has to live alone without the companionship of others of its species. We feed synthetically & unnaturally. We inject it with vaccines & put chemicals into its system. We change its home, owner & friends at the drop of a hat. We put a saddle & bridle on it with a big unbalanced weight on top and expect it to conform in a few short weeks. We put it into a confined space and trail it along busy roads & then expect it to perform to the best of its ability without argument. When things start to go wrong we then call out a perfect stranger who prods pokes, sticks needles in at best. At worst we take the animal to a completely strange environment, put more chemicals into its body and perform all sorts of tests. These are just a few examples of the stress that we put upon these highly sensitive creatures If we treated a human being in this way that person would probably end up having a nervous breakdown. Luckily we are able to let others know when we are stressed. Horses are much less able, particularly the nice, willing, trainable types who never argue but just get on with what is asked of them, until there comes a point when they have no choice. The consequences of that stress takes over. All forms of stress produce the same physiological consequences. This includes environmental stress (heat, cold and noise, etc.), chemical stress (pollution, drugs, vaccines, wormers etc.), (overexertion, trauma, infection, etc.), psychological stress (worry, fear, change of owner/yard/friends etc.) and biochemical stress (nutritional deficiencies etc.). All of these different sources of stress are additive and cumulative in their effects. This results in what is called Adrenal Maladaption Syndrome or Hyperadaptosis The Canadian physician, Dr. Hans Selye, extensively studied the adrenals and the effect of stress on them. What he called the "General Adaptation Syndrome" has at least three stages as follows. (1) The adrenal glands enlarge and secrete large quantities of adrenal cortical hormones. These hormones (85% of which is cortisol) suppress inflammatory responses and mobilize the body's energy reserves. This puts the body on RED ALERT and diverts all of the body's biochemical resources to immediate survival. The body's self healing mechanisms are arrested (healing diverts energy and raw materials away from immediate survival), the immune system is suppressed, glycogen stores in the liver and muscle tissue are mobilized to raise the blood sugar level and digestion and assimilation are inhibited. The stomach lining becomes thin and ulcerated and the thymus gland and lymphatic tissue shrinks. In this stage the eyes usually become glassy. (2) The second stage ("resistance stage") allows the corticosteroids to continue fighting a stressor long after the short-lived "fight or flight" response has worn off. With chronic stress the adrenals become overtaxed and depleted, however if at this stage health is reasonably good the adrenals will rebuild themselves and actually grow larger. They will however continue pumping out excessive amounts of cortisol causing various symptoms. This stage can go on for a number of years before stage 3 is reached. (3) Adrenal exhaustion is reached when there is no reserve capacity to handle stress without "going to pieces." This may mean total collapse of body function or of specific organs or glands, especially the heart and adrenals, and impairment of blood vessels and the immune system, whatever is inherently weak. Loss of potassium becomes extreme and depletion of glucocorticoids becomes severe, often "instantly" leading to low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) symptoms, and a tendency for greater and longer lasting illness, and even to "nervous breakdown." LIVER CONGESTION Simultaneously, the build up of increased hormones & chemicals that has to be processed by the liver starts to cause problems. Already the horses liver has been flooded by perhaps a cocktail of drugs used to control his behaviour, (cypro/tegretol etc) together with the myriad of vaccines/chemicals that may have been partially/wholly responsible for his stress in the first place. This leads to serious liver congestion/heat that is not traceable by normal Western blood tests, in which large amounts of liver tissue must be adversely affected in order to show up as liver dysfunction . Before these are obvious, given the present imprecision of these physical tests, abnormalities of liver function are readily diagnosed according to abnormal emotional & physical reactions which is a very treatable syndrome in TCM. Any of the following symptoms may present themselves in horses suffering from this syndrome:
The treatment that has been proven to help combat this syndrome is a combination of TCM Herbal feed supplements.(See testimonials/case studies) There are several remedies readily available that will greatly benefit these horses. As in most dis-eases no one horse or syndrome is exactly the same, therefore the choice of herbs used will vary from horse to horse, depending upon its signs & symptoms. However, from our experience, all headshakers benefit from the use of Headshaker Formulas 1 & 2. We also believe that as well as the use of herbs, all types of stress should be removed from the suffering horses environment & he should be allowed to live as natural a life as possible until such a time as his organs have returned to their normal function. Exercise is very important and should be started again as soon as the horse appears to be calm & has energy. A very slow steady fitness regime should be introduced. On no account should the horse continue to be worked if it appears distressed or is showing any signs of headshaking . How long will it take? This of course will vary from horse to horse depending on the amount & type of stress that has caused the problem in the first place. Providing the horse is in a well managed stress free environment, and has been checked by a vet/dentist/saddler to rule out any physical problems, subtle changes will be noticed in the 1st 3 weeks.
It is a good idea to diary these things to check his progress. Weeks 3-6 more of these changes should become evident. Why do many horses start to headshake in Spring? |
