Kissing Spine - surgery?

J

jojoebony

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Sorry, I've posted once or twice on this subject already.

Q was diagnosed with KS a few months back, we tried the steroid injections which have worked to a certain extent, however, the problem does seem to be affecting more verterbrae than originally thought. He also has a problem with his neck (arthritis in the facet joints).
Q is going for scintigraphy next week. My vet has advised me to be prepared that they will most likely suggest the op - I have previously been very against this idea (for several reasons).

For those of you with KS horses:
Has your horse had the op, if so what are your thoughts on the results so far.
If your horse hasn't had the op, how was it treated and how effective has it been.

I know this has been done before but your replies, advice, thoughts would be appreciated as I feel totally unable to consider a decision at this point having heard some very conflicting points of view.

J
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My 7yr old got diagnosed with KS back in Sept. He had 5 levels affected and was injected. We did the rehab programme and when I started riding him he was a different horse to the extent that if you had blind folded me I would have thought the horse had been swapped. After about 6 weeks he started to feel like a ticking time bomb. Ended up going for the operation at the beginning of November. After the operation it turned out that 3 levels were done rather than the 2 they origionally thought. also the vet said that it was worse than thought and that the op was the right thing to do.

He is now being turned out and lunged. He is definately better and more settled in himself. Although I found it really had to decide on the op basically as it was spinal surgery there was only one option and my horse was in pain and if we coculd make him comfy that was a positve outcome
 
The surgery does not always help. My horse had surgery end of May last year; his main KS symptom was continually disuniting in right canter when ridden. During the rehab it seemed that the surgery had not made any difference, he still disunited when on the lunge (in fact worse than pre surgery) and when cantering loose. Got go ahead to ride again in September, only rode for a week but he seemed no different from before surgery. Never got the chance to press on with the riding / lunging as he then developed an eye problem which put him out of action.
Anyway ... long story sorry, but if I could go back in time I would have tried another lot of steroid injections, yet more physio, tried other approaches rather than surgery.
But there are lots of people on here for whom the op has been an amazing success.
 
Lass had the ks op last august i havent looked back best decision i have every made a hard one but right.

She is a different horse all round i am into my second month of riding her and she is amazing.

The only thing i regret is i didnt listen to my horse and my heart and push for the xrays sooner for her to be diagonsed as i would say we wasted two years.

I hope you come to a decision that is right for you and your horse
 
Hiya
I know the op has about a 72%-85% chance of success. It depends what you want to do with your horse. Most surgery is now performed standing under heavy sedation meaning less risky and can lead to a shorter recovery time. How old is your horse? There are many factors to consider e.g. age, discipline, co-operation to box rest and rehabilitation work etc.
hope that helps
 
It does help, thanks.

Quin is a 9 year old ex racer.

He fractured his leg in May and had a bad recovery after an op to remove bone fragments - took hours to get him back on his feet and he injured himself quite badly, however, has recovered from this totally now. He was on box rest for months and was fine about it although does get very fresh when led out in hand. He will happily turn out in a small area and will be fairly sedate if there is grass available (which there isn't at the moment or for the foreseeble). He loves his work but is very switched on and likes to be challenged otherwise can get a little bit cheeky.

I only bought him in April and intended to do a bit of everything but would be very content just to have him back for hacking.

Re the success rate - do you know if it's unsuccesfull does that mean the op simply doesn't work or does that present further problems.

J
 
If I may just add a note of caution just to balance the conversation, despite having a successful outcome from KS surgery with my ned and absolutely no regrets except the time it took me to get to the bottom of his problems, I operated to ensure he was pain free and the rest has been a huge bonus!

I think you have to be a little careful on several counts making your decision. The op has the best chance of success when there are no other issues. The fact he has arthritis in the neck would make me question a vet very thoroughly about how progressive that is, as you wouldn't want to pay out for the op only to find that the neck will cause you issues in the short/medium term especially with neurological problems that could affect his legs, you don't want to go through the op only to have further setbacks. Also find out whether the leg can withstand getting back up after the op have been fractured in the recent past.

I'm sure passagealltheway is correct, but my horse was operated on 2.5yrs ago and it was under general. I was told that he had a good chance of the op resolving the problem because he was young (just before his 7th birthday) and the scintigraphy showed no other problems, he was able to get back on his feet very quickly despite being overweight and unfit as he couldn't be worked without major tantrums.

KS in a horse can mean secondary issues because of the way the horse holds himself to compensate, i.e., splints and locking patellas (mine suffered both as a youngster) and slightly more seriously spavins and arthritis etc. Please do have a serious chat with the vet about these issues and if you go ahead, may I wish you all the very best for a completely successful outcome and hope that you will be able to thoroughly enjoy a horse that you are clearly putting so much effort into helping.
 
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