Kissing spine - rehab. Experiences please

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Leanne1980

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Long story short but my 5 year old is having kissing spine surgery today. She is having two processes removed and the ligament cut between two others than could be a potential issue in the future. She will spend 5 days at the vets then come home.

Can any one advise on what happens next? What rehab? Any turnout?

Also any success stories please x
 
From my understanding every horse is different and vets advice differs as to the ideal rehab, you should be given a detailed plan when you pick her up, hope it all goes well, my friends horse had just the ligaments cut and the rehab is going well so far, it was done at the vets and she came home the same day.
 
My girl is having the traditional surgery so needs to stay at the vets for 5 days after. Hope all goes well for you and your friend x
 
All cases are different but my boy had traditional op last year on 3 processes. He spent 7 days in Newmarket Equine Hospital being walked out in hand starting the day after the op. He came home to me and was on box rest for 1 month being walked out in hand twice a day, starting with 10 mins per session and building up to 45 mins per session at the end of the month. He was then turned away 24/7 for 3 months and at the end of this he could be brought back into work. This took us to November and as you need to be consistent with the rehab I decided to wait for better weather and brought him back into work at the end of Feb. Then it was 4 weeks of conditioning work in walk starting at 10 minutes and increasing to 40 minutes daily, which can be in hand, (ride) and lead if you have another available to do this or on a horse walker. Then walk and trot on the lunge for 4 weeks gradually increasing the trot from 1-2 minutes in a 30 minute session to reach 10-15 minutes trot in a 30-40 minute session. We had to use as large an area as possible and alternate within each session periods without and with training aids to encourage different spinal positions. Then it was shock wave (for his ligament damage) muscle relaxants and bute and introduce ridden work - continuing with the ground work but adding ridden work every other day starting with 5 mins and by the end of about another 8 weeks the ridden work is increased to about 15 mins of trot in a short bursts in a 45 mins session. The rehab is a pain in the butt however in our case it has all been worth it. Today (with just 8 weeks ridden work under his belt my boy went out with my yard owner and did a walk trot dressage test and won his class!!!! I am a very happy mum, who had tears in her eyes when my boy came out of the ring today and best of all I now have a happy willing horse. There is still loads more work to do and we will be introducing canter shortly so there is still time for things to go wrong but so far it is looking promising.
 
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