Melatonin for Headshakers

[Flamboyant]

I've been dealing with my mare's headshaking for the last three years. I've tried countless things to help with her headshaking, but never could find something that worked.

My vet suggested trying melatonin. So I ran out to a health food store and bought some. I started noticing a difference in three weeks and its now been five weeks and in the field, she has not been shaking her head at all. There is a bit of shaking present under saddle, but when my mare is asked to work hard, she entirely stops shaking her head. I'm thinking it might have just become a habit, so hopefully with time she will realise she does not need to shake. She currently gets 18mg of melatonin a day.

I thought I'd share in hopes that maybe melatonin could also help other headshakers out there. Its a very frustrating condition and its taken me years to figure this out. Its been one very huge relief to me!

On a related note, does anyone know where I can buy melatonin powder in bulk? My mare currently just gets the melatonin in pills, but I'd rather just be able to mix in the powder in her feed so I know she is getting all of it. Or even liquid melatonin would work if I could find it in bulk.

[Highflyer]

I haven't started it yet...do you crush the pills up? Do you give it once a day or twice?

[Flamboyant]

I got capsules, so I just break them open and then mix them into her feed. She gets the melatonin once a day, at supper. She's a large pony, so 18mg might not be enough for bigger horses.

[Eventaholic]

Do you just buy regular for human-consumption melatonin? My mother was trying this to help her sleep better, just looks like a regular human vitamin supplement- got it from the grocery store. Do you just buy a LOT of the large bottles?

Headshaker I'm working with is currently on MSM, and seems to be helping a lot for many of her symptoms including CONSTANT snorting outside- but she still does occasionally shake especially in transition form light-dark, we've also wondered if it has become a habit, or fear- she expects it to hurt and doesn't know how else to react.

[Flamboyant]

Yes, I just bought the human-consumption melatonin. I'm hoping to find it in just a powder form that will be easier to give to horses, but at the moment, that is all I can find. One bottle lasts me 30 days. The bottle has 180 capsules, 3mg each, and she gets 6 of them a day. It costs me about $18 Canadian for each bottle. If I can't find it in powder form, I'll just continue to buy the capsules. My local health food store offers a 10% discount if I buy it by the case.

[CrowneDragon]

I had some success from melatonin with my guy. He got it every day at 5 pm...I was told this is important to simulate shorter day length and is why this approach works for horses with a neurochemically-based seasonal disorder. The best thing for my guy has been spirulina. On spirulina he is very mildly symptomatic and times when he would normally be miserable, and asymptomatic the rest of the time. Magnesium did nothing for him, and cyproheptadine worked for a while and then stopped.
Best of luck to you.

[lolalola]

You could try herbalcom.com

[baytraks]

Melatonin has helped our headshaker some, and it is the first thing that has. Got clued in by the Practical Horseman Article. I buy it at "Sam's Club" and it is pretty inexpensive. We just put the small white pills in his feed and he eats them with his grain.

Does anyone have the full protocol from UC Davis or a link to it? I know there was magnesium and spirulina involved, too, and I do not think he used the Melatonin all year, but I have not found the details on-line.