Back muscle spasms - anyone had a horse with this?

[lpenaluna]

Following from Zolas vet visit (he was bucking violently, disunited at canter, showing cold-backed behaviour) it seems he has a muscle spasm in his back. Palpation almost saw him drop to the floor.

Vet thinks its been long-term and has made his vertebrae sore (can anyone explain what this means exactly?) So hes been on bute, 2 sachets per day for 5 days and this is his first day on one sachet. But hes still uncomfortable and the slightest touch along his back sees quite a reaction from him.

The vet is coming tomorrow again to see him.

Do I push for xrays? Has anyone had a horse with this?

Im imagining a horse that im never going to be able to ride again

 

[kerilli]

yes. i would highly recommend muscle release therapy and shiatsu. (it is very gentle and has made a huge difference to my mare's comfort and rideability. her neck muscles go into spasm, even down as far as affecting the obliques across her tummy.)
i don't know as x-rays will help, tbh. perhaps when the vet says his vertebrae are sore what he means is that the muscle spasms have pulled at the ligaments where they join the vertebrae, this would be very sore.
(i pulled all the ligaments off my ribs on one side once, getting bucked off... absolute agony, indescribable, but did heal and gives me no problems at all now.)

 

[YorkshireLass]

I would get the advice of a physio and a saddle fitter before pushing fof x-rays. If it is a muscular problem the x-rays will tell you nothing.

Horses with muscular myopathies have mucscular spasams. This is a bit like tieing up. A change in diet can help this.

 

[suzysparkle]

Yes, I had a mare a couple of years ago who had terrible problems. She didn't buck, but whenever I put my leg on her ears went back and she wouldn't go forward. She was lame on all 4 feet under saddle, sound without. Her previous owner had used a badly fitting saddle and this was the start of the problems.

Mare went to a vet college who could find nothing wrong (did X rays and a scintigraphy scan) yet couldn't explain why she went better on painkillers! They advised me (you'll love this) to ride her while someone lunged her and MAKE her go forwards, oh, and, use draw reins!!! My faith in vets went severely downhill that day.

In the end, it was equine bowen therapy that got to the bottom of it. She had 4 treatments, then I did about 2 months of lungeing in a pessoa. I was also introduced to the saddle company saddles (by the bowen girl) and have used nothing but them since. What was the worst thing to get over was the psychological aspect, and that took a very good sympathetic instructor who got us doing lots of lateral and polework.

He'll be sore because he'll have been carrying himself awkwardly to avoid the pain (which is very painfull) which in turn will have caused secondary pain. My thoughts are that unless it's in black and white (which this won't be) vets aren't always the best. You need to find a good bowen or physio and be prepared to do some remedial work. Plus, make sure you get a second opinion on saddle fit.

 

[Louby]

I bought a horse that a few months after buying her started with spasms from her withers downwards, sort of in front of her saddle. We found out she was lame in both fore legs and nerve blocks and xrays confirmed Navicular. I found out about a year later she had been off work for 12 mths prior to me buying her although the source wouldnt tell me why. I suspect they new and sold her, she was cheap though.

 

[Worried1]

Diva had severe muscle spasm in her back at the beginning of the year. She became very resistant in ridden work and unhappy when rugged.

She was sent to the vets for investigation - xrays should nothing but she was very sore to touch and would drop away when touched.

Saddles were all fine - we think she either got cast or slipped over.

The vets prescribed 2 weeks complete rest with daily turnout on high levels of Danilon and tensol application 3 times a day.

Using a physio recommended by the vets we used a combination of magnetic therapy, stretching and massage. I also used hot water bottles, heat pads and arnica.

After two weeks we began walking in-hand building up to 20 minutes over 2 weeks, then we intoroduced poles and then side reins to put her into a correct outline and ensure she was working correctly.

This continued for another two weeks until we were able to start lunging her on a very large cirlce and inlcuded poles and raised poles.

After two weeks we sedated her with sedalin as it is also a muscle relaxant and got back on decreasing the dose over a period of a week. For the next 4 weeks we hacked out around the fields and on the quiteter roads. We started trotting up hills and round the fields.

Eventually it was time to come back into the school where we had some issues to quietly deal with - she associated pain with the school but also she is very intelligent and worked out that if she resisted we stopped.

She is now better than before and last night the physio came back out to see her and said she looked amazing and fine

 

[Sneedy]

I'm another fan of equine muscle release therapy, my chap had his saddles sorted by Kay Humphries at the beg of May and then she recommended a course on EMRT as he is very twitchy on his back esp when being girthed.
Ginger beast has had 2 treatments so far (3rd tomorrow) and I am absolutely astonished by the results (I am extremely cynical about these things!!). The amount of twitching has reduced significantly and he's also much easier to ride (almost as tho he feels more comfortable in himself!).
So in my opinion, give it a go, you've got nothing to lose!!

 

[hellspells]

My mare use to go into muscle spasms all through her lumbar spine and sacro - illiac and was not 'right' (but not lame) on her near hind. I spent 3 years of torture with people not believing me that she wasn't right (I was the one ending up on the floor and dealing with major temper tamps every time my leg went on or she was asked to go forward).

I eventually got her refered (countless saddles etc later) where she had spinal x-rays and syntigraphy - this showed very little. - Another year of not much happened - complete lose of preformance, dressage scores shocking (never over 60%).
Last December I was at my wits end, she was dreadfully unhappy (not in pain - just not full of life like normal) and I was beside myself not knowing what to do for the best - I even considered PTS.

In Feb after I'd more or less given up on her my YO sugggested simple systems feed. I was very (very) against this to begin with and didn't see how this could help at all. But she eventualy wore me down (literally) when she pointed out I have nothing more to loose. It seems to be the best thing I ever did she is a different horse. She's so less argumentative - happy to be ridden from my leg to my hand and is really improving in her lateral work. It appears my poor beastie is a bit Azuturic (spelling) (bio-chem for this was all within normal ranges but...) so she was storing the sugars her body could not metabolise in her muscles causing a toxicity.

I should also ad that she does get very regular physio treatments. We have a solarium which are brilliant for muscles and a massage rug (it vibrates and everything - horse love it

).

From someone who dragged her heels majorly on the muscles v feeding thing - its the best thing I have ever changed and I really kind of owe my YO my horse

 

[darksecret99]

Mine had this too, physio helped the muscle spasms, but he needed chiro to manipulate his pelvis and back to get it all aligned properly to stop triggering the spasms in the first place.... all seems ok now though!! (TOUCH WOOD!!)

Also seen this as a result of seams in saddlecloths, or lumpy flocking in saddle etc applying pressure on certain points when you ride.... (the saddle had been fitter by a master saddler too!!). Again, treatment was successful, but it was important to address the cause as well as the resulting muscle spasms....

Hopefully the bute will take down the inflamation, so the vet can find out whats going on...

Your vet, physio or chiro should be able to reccomend the best course of action and might reccomend some massage tenchniques or exercises that you can do with him to help.. inbetween treatments... some are better than others at giving out thsi info tho, so ask them lots of questions on what you can do and not do to help!!!

You should see a marked improvement after physio / chiro treatment (after the initial few days soreness after treatment), so you will soon know if thats working or not... I went down that route before anyhting else and I'm glad I did cos I could have paid hundreds for my horse to be sent away for scans, x-rays etc, only to be told that it could be treated by the local chiro!!!

Good luck!