Kissing Spine - has had first steroid injection

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babybgirl

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Hello. My 9 yr old 17.2hh Belgian Warmblood Mare has recently been diagnosed with Kissing Spine which is located just behind the saddle area. :(

Since I have had her for 2 years, she hasn't used her right hind leg correctly in the school, (is stiff for a horse of that age) and she had never had big strides for a horse of her size. So when she went for a bone scan, hot spots were shown in the back area. After further x rays all over, hind legs were all clear and the back area was confirmed as kissing spine.

She has had a steroid injection, and a week later as the vet said to, she is back in light work. Since she has had the injection 3 weeks after, she seems to be back to her normal self, full of life, fiesty, kean to be worked, forward going, spooking, which made me smile beacuse I feel I have my horse back. She certainly feels better in herself.

Her stride lengths have improved slightly, but I doubt they will improve much as she is so used to working like that. I think as a youngster in Belgium, she was just beasted for show jumping - which is what she is and what i brought her for. And she loves it.

I was just wandaring, I am still new to this, if the steroid injection works,. I understand it is not a cure - just simply a pain relief and it does not last forever. Is it a case of while the pain is eliminated, working them to strengthen their back muscles and to open their spinal discs (i.e pessoa work)...or would surgery be the best option?

I just want to do whats best for her and hope we can carry on in the future doing what we both love. :)
 
My 10yo TB had extensive kissing spine diagnosed last August from T12-L3. It is too severe for surgery and he was given 10 steroid injections and I was advised that after a week's field rest to get the physio in. The physio came every other week for 6 weeks (3 times) and I was given exercises for him, and advised to lunge him using a draw rein device - not as standard draw reins but a system to get him to drop his head, lengthen his back and stride which we did in very slow increments - 5 mins each way at walk to start and then increasing to 15 minutes involving walk, trot and short canter. After that the physio and the vet came and checked him over and I was allowed to start hacking him out for a short time, on good level ground only. From there we upped the pace a little and after further checks he had a short day's hunting at the beginning of December. We have now achieved another 8 day's hunting, including a couple of really long ones on the hills, and some jumping and he's absolutely fine so far.

Unfortunately he had to be confined to quarters and was off games with appalling mud fever for the best part of a month so I had another physio visit to check he wasn't stiffening up or in pain - she gave him as clean a bill of health as he can have and said carry on.

I think the key is to develop the muscles around the area so that they support and carry the horse and protect the spine. I know it's never going to go away, I don't know how long we have, but so far so good. I believe steroids can be used more than once so I'll go down that route again if necessary, and with regular physio work will hopefully have more than the original 12 months prognosis I was given. My intention is to make sure that he is regularly worked and will certainly re-use the draw rein system as it has made a phenomenal difference to his outline, way of going and general comfort.
 
pole work pole work pole work :D:D:D:D

as well as strengthening the back muscles dont forget about the abdominals. pole work and raised polework often gets over looked in favour of pessoa work and the like but i have found that my lads back muscles and topline has improved by doing lots of raised polework rather than the pessoa work. i also do in-hand polework with him before i ride him and this seems to help.
 
My then 16 year old TB show horse had back injection in August. Vet advice was very much to work on the lunge in pessoa, twice a day initially for short periods and then building up to lunging and ridden work for 45 minutes, working properly, flexing, lateral work etc. Horse now has another problem but has definitely been working much better since the injection.
 
Hello, thank you very much for sharing your story and experience. It has opened my eyes alot how working them correctly and physio can help them to overcome KS more.
 
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