Horse won't budge under saddle / possible kissing spines on xray

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vanrim

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Horse is reluctant to walk. Keeps begging and bucking on the spot. He has very slight changes in one area of his back (kissing spines) on X-ray. Vet has medicated with steroid but this has only made a small difference. Horse is only 6 and vet thinks he may never be ridden. Ideas anyone?
 
Has the horse had a full work-up? Often hind leg and/or SI problems go hand in hand with kissing spines.

Is he insured? A bone scan would give you a better overall picture of whats going on.
 
PorkChop said:
Has the horse had a full work-up? Often hind leg and/or SI problems go hand in hand with kissing spines.

Is he insured? A bone scan would give you a better overall picture of whats going on.
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He isn't lame and will lunge. We are scoping him next week then may take him to vet hospital for X-rays deeper into his back. I would have to pay for a bone scan and I'm not sure at the moment that it's worth it as the prognosis might still be the same.
 
You aren't going to know what the prognosis is without having the diagnostics though, it may well be the same but are you happy writing off a horse at 6 (which you will have to keep or PTS for it's own and other peoples safety) without knowing that for sure? I think you just need to do things in a logical order so as you say you are scoping see what comes of that (Though keeping in mind they are often secondary to another issue anyway) and then get a referral either for more and better xrays or a bone scan, or just another opinion, different vets spot different things.
 
I'm reluctant to send the horse to a vet hospital for diagnostics as they failed abysmally to diagnose another horse's problem and a friend's horse was diagnosed with back problems but turned out to be trigeminal nerve damage so they weren't even at the right end!!!
 
vanrim said:
I'm reluctant to send the horse to a vet hospital for diagnostics as they failed abysmally to diagnose another horse's problem and a friend's horse was diagnosed with back problems but turned out to be trigeminal nerve damage so they weren't even at the right end!!!
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unfortunately vets are not gods they can and do often get it wrong but on the whole most vet hospitals do a fantastic job, I know you have had a bad experience and you will probably find a lot of us have that have horses, but you need to get to the bottom of the horses issues and going to a proper equine hospital is the only way forward, if you know other people in the area perhaps they can recommend a good vet to go to.

where are you in the country?
 
A bone scan would show if there is fawchet joint involvement which won't show on X-ray .
Which could explain why X-rays are not dreadful but the horse is showing significant issue .
 
Pinkvboots said:
unfortunately vets are not gods they can and do often get it wrong but on the whole most vet hospitals do a fantastic job, I know you have had a bad experience and you will probably find a lot of us have that have horses, but you need to get to the bottom of the horses issues and going to a proper equine hospital is the only way forward, if you know other people in the area perhaps they can recommend a good vet to go to.

where are you in the country?
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My own vet is excellent. They just don't have all the expensive equipment. I am 2 minutes from Leahurst and used them for 30 years until they let me down dramatically. A friend's horse was referred there for a ct scan by her own well respected vet. Once at Leahurst they refused to do the ct scan and proceeded to run a huge bill up diagnosing a non existent back problem. The horse was eventually diagnosed with trigeminal nerve damage. My own vet is in a different league to many of the Leahurst vets. I don't have insurance but I'm quite happy to pay for relevant tests. I just think the hospital will want to override my own vet as happened to my friend.
 
You may have already looked at this but I had similar behaviour with my youngster now 5. He has just had surgery for OCD on his stifles. Not picked up by two vets. He used to buck going into canter and latterly would work for a bit then just refuse to budge. I had everything checked and knew he "just was not right" and this had been going on for over 6 months including diagnosis of a SI ligament strain, not surprising as compensating no doubt. Eventually the stifle on one side showed swelling presumably because a bit of bone had finally chipped off. I took him to Newmarket for diagnosis and keyhole surgery. He is now back on trot work. He also seemes to suffer from a respiratory problem which manifests in reluctance to move/ exercise intolerance. Hope this helps I know how frustrating it can be...if only they could talk!
 
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