Fractured vertebrae at withers?

C

clairel

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 July 2008
Messages
1,236
Location
Northern Ireland
Visit site
My vet was out today scanning a mare and I asked her about my other horse who has been off work recently with a back injury. This is all better but he is still not going well and he has been sweating up on a little spot on his withers.

She suggested the most likely reason for this is a fractured or cracked vertebrae in this area, leading to inflammation.
The horse was in the field at the time and as she is coming back on Weds to AI mare is going to look at him, however this area is not at all sensitive and looks entirely normal.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing or have any other suggestions?
 
My mare broke her withers, 3 vertebrae, they snapped off entirely and have popped down the side if that makes sense, she has gone from 16.2h narrow saddle to 15.2 medium/wide.
It looks most bizarre and when she did it she was in huge amounts of pain, still able to walk but i could tell she was very uncomfortable.
She has now recovered totally, she was just turned out for the 2nd half of last season, to let the bones fuse.
I know this is slightly different to your horse as i could see it, but if it is the case many horses have it apparently, Silence competes at 4* with broken withers apparently.
 
My mums arab smashed 12 vertebrae in his back and now has no withers at all. He was 15.2 and as there is no withers to measure now i guess he is 14.2 at the shoulder. He has a positive gully between his shoulders when he bends down to graze and is as flat as a table the rest of the time. He spent 3 hours under sedation having bone chips removed from his withers. He is now totally sound if a bit deformed. All this happened at the ripe old age of 24!
 
richard maxwell has a horse called Kings Copy that he was given off Marys Kings friend who bred him. He had gone over backwards and fractured his withers and had all sorts of problems due to saddle fit, physique, etc. I am sure if you ring Max he would be more than happy to suggest something, or read up about the horse on the web site.
 
A friend of mine had a tb mare who broke her withers fairly badly, she had to have an operation to remove the bits of bone. This horse came back to full work/competition so I will keep my fingers crossed your chap will be the same.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys!

I suppose I'm wary as he looks entirely normal, didn't suffer any trauma (that I know off, although, knowing horses it is entirely possible!) and was never sore!

Where any of the horses kept in work during their rehabilitation?

Will try and upload a picture shortly!
 
We could have brought my mare back into work much sooner than we did, but i was away working and so it wasnt really viable, but we were told she could start walk work after 6 weeks but Mum said no way to her riding her
wink.gif

The biggest prob i had was fitting a saddle, good excuse for a new Devoucoux
wink.gif
 
I had a mare diagnosed with broken withers a few years ago - the vet even wanted to operate to remove pieces of bone. I wasn't happy that was the right problem and to cut a long story short finally arranged to have the horse scanned when it turned out the problem was very bad sore shins ! So be careful that your vet has got a correct diagnosis particularly if the horse hasn't suffered a major trauma to your knowledge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top