Kissing spine treatments.

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Scarlett

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Has anyone on here used shockwave therapy to treat/manage kissing spine on their horse? Or any other types of non-evasive treatment with any degree of success? Horse in question is 16 and not insured for vets fees so there is a limit to how far owner can and will go with treatment due to other circumstances...

Any stories, good or bad, would be great...

Thanks...
 
Kissing spines is not a soft tissue problem it is bone so if the vertibrae are touching then the best way is to chisel out sections of the spine that are causing the iritation, a soft option will not sort the problem out. Unfortunately your horse's age is against him for insurance etc, how bad is the KS? have you spoken to a Veterinary Surgeon that specialises in this surgery? when was it diagnosed?. If not too severe then schooling & lungeing can ease the situation.
 
thanks - thankfully its not my horse, its a friends and as horse has never ever been straight forward nor a 'happy hacker' she is in limbo with how far to go into treatment and is assessing her options, I am merely being curious on her behalf...

Unfortunately it doesnt look too positive as surgery is out of the question....
 
Oh dear sorry to hear that surgery is really out of the question
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Owen had shockwave treatment, and it helped a tiny bit.Not worth the money really.

I think that H wave therapy works better. If he could have H wave therapy once a month that might just be enough to keep him comfortable. ( the physio should have her own machine) I totally swear by H wave, I want to save up for my own machine, a lot of the top dressage yards have them now because they are the absolute best for really loosening up the muscles and tight knots.
So I think that H wave would really help your friend's horse symtpons, wont sort out the cause but if the muscles can just be kept looser and more supple via H wave, then he should be feeling a lot more comfortable. Also a magnetic blanket. And a saddle co saddle! Oh and making sure that the toes are very short with good heel support.
 
MY horse has kissing spines really badly. My insurance managed to back date an exclusion on his back so I wasnt covered, sooo crafty!

So my options where limited. As he has about 5 vertebrae impinged surgery was going to be a big job anyway so we decided to go down the shockwave therapy route. After the first treatment I got on him and he was back to his old self it was amazing but after two weeks he started to seize up again and I started to have problems. I took him back for a second treatment but this made no difference too him. I decided not t go down the spinal injection route as its only a short term fix and can also cause abcesses in the spine. I had also been working on building his topline mucles up with the assistance of a Passoa prior to finding out he had kissing spines and the vet said his back Muscles where so good that they really couldnt get any stronger to support him any futher in being more comfortable.

Sadly he has been living in a field for the past 4 years, it breaks my heart but he was never going to be a light hack so I didnt see the point of putting him through an op or endless injections.

If it had been one or two kissing I may have felt differently.
 
Hils had shockwave treatment for kissing spines and injections into 3 vertebrae last year.

He was originally competing at PSG when it was diagnosed and it was very succesfull, he returned back to competition although not quite to the level he was at.

He was certainly much more comfortable after and we hadn't ruled out the possibility of repeating the injections and SW at a later date if we thought he needed it.

Unfortunately he broke his leg in the field last month and was PTS so we did not have to take it any further.
 
Speak to the vet again, they don't all need surgery.

A friends horse has had injections along the spine and an intensive course of pessoa work which he still has to do twice a week. This strengthened the muscles to hold the spine in a more correct position.

Its still early days but he is going very well and started jumping again. I believe he had a grade 2 or 3 seriousness - not sure if this means anything?
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Its worth a try, it doesn't cost anything other than the pessoa itself and of course school hire if you have to. I hope it goes well, its heartbreaking to have a broken horse
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Triggers has some good points in her comments, I think it depends how fit your friends horse is and what her plans for him would be if he couldn't be ridden. If he has a very strongly & correctly muscled back, chances are that he is as good as he will get, the injections are mainly to give the owner time to do a bit of rehabilitation work to get the back strong to support the affected area as horses with KS tend to carry themselves incorrectly and find it difficult to use their back ends effectively, this is why pessoa's are often recommended to get them to work long and low. By the way my vet never even mentioned spinal abcesses as a potential problem when giving him the injections.

Many people don't realise that kissing spines in horses can be degenerative and therefore worsen over time especially if they loose fitness, personally for my horse the injections didn't work (well only for a couple of weeks, he had to have 2 weeks box rest and by the time he was allowed out the effects had worn off!) He underwent successful surgery which I preferred as it has permanently resolved the issue and he is working well.

Success rates in older horses especially if there are any other issues is something to discuss with your vet, I think fitness is the key answer to this, especially as he is 16, making their backs as strong as possible is the best thing your friend can do. I used long reins rather than a pessoa as my horse objected strongly, if you need any tips or help please pm me as I have probably asked my surgeon every question in the book about this condition.

By the way, the injections in to the spine weren't horribly expensive, I think mine was around £200/£250, the expensive thing was the diagnosis, it almost cost more than the op!
 
Hi, My horse is 19 , and has also just been diagnosed today with KS. He too is not insured - and I dont think its fair to put him through such a big op at his age . Am really interested to know what exercises I can use to strengthen his back - and also whether any one else has had a horse at this age that has returned to work - and what type of work ?
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