Kissing Spine op at Cotts Equine (update)

I think in the 6yrs since my horse was operated on, Kissing spines has become much more well known and discussed and huge advances seem to have been made with how best to help. There seem to be so many success stories out there and 3 or 4 different ways to tackle the problem all of which seems to have a good chance of working which is wonderful. When my boy was operated on it was a very scary thing to have done and many young horses were PTS.

I liked Svend because at the time he seemed to have a much more intelligent approach to the surgery (removing just one of the crossing bones rather than both so only half as invasive and half the surgery time) than other clinics who just cut the lot out and the aftercare at Willesley was superb, my horse had a very good experience, but I can only wish anyone who has to go through this the very best of luck. It is a bit of a rollercoaster especially when your horse first starts to flare up and I am certain no one would decide on surgery unless they were certain they were doing their absolutely best for their horse, so I can only wish you all the very best of luck and hope that your outcome is as good as mine. The pain relief immendiately after the op and the rehab is key IMHO, take it slowly but surely i.e., take your time but keep moving forward, you will most likely have the odd setback but should get there in the end. Fingers crossed for you all and as for the box rest, it goes surprisingly fast, my horse can be a nightmare on box rest but he coped well, it was as though he knew he needed time to mend.
 
Apart from the obvious, I know nothing of KS. So, what's the long term prognosis, following a successful operation? With the O_P's horse, the repair, muscular as well as spinal, seems to be near spectacular, but would a horse be able to be brought back into work?.... and at what level?

Another question, what is thought to be the cause of the complaint? Is there no hard and fast reasoning, and is it thought that it can be brought on for a variety of reasons? It's often called a "Disease", but is that what it actually is?

I'd be grateful for Layman's explanations!! :o

Alec.
 
Alec- causes- not sure about genetic, but can be caused by poor riding/management. I.E its so common in racehorses because they are ridden off the contact, with their heads in the air from a young age, causing the vertebrate to move closer and closer together on an already weak and immature skeleton.
I'd imagine the same sort of process would happen in any horse that is ridden/exercised in the incorrect outline. I.e Ridden excessively in draw reins in the wrong way, or in rollkur. Also horses ridden in poorly fitting saddles would carry an incorrect frame over a long period of time.

Ironically, the vast majority of horses- as much as 80-90%- show very close vetebrate upon x-rays, so it wouldnt take much mis-management for those vertebrate to move closer together and bony remodeling to start occuring.

I had the op done on one ex racehorse, very successfull,about 6 years ago now,afterwards he won a lot of dressage up to elementary ( unaff) and is still going strong age 14 doing dressage and showing and riding club activities.
 
...in terms of causes there is some evidence of genetic but it is called a syndrome for good reason which is that they are many root causes which IMHO are almost all solvable if caught in time with non-surgical methods. In many cases 'simply' balancing the horse and rider is all that is required to release the tension in the back muscles which are holding the bones in an unnatural and painful position. Of course if you file away bone and cut ligaments you cure the symptoms but you are not addressing the cause.
 
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