Kissing Spines and Undiagnosed Back Problems/Performance Issues

Spins

Spins

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So I've decided to do a little report on my recent experiences with KS and other undiagnosed back in case theres anyone else going through this or who has done and come out the other side pls share your story too! Anything that could shed any light on what I'm dealing with and prognosis would be great! He's had all checks done. Sorry... Its a long one!

Background- I acquired Fionn during the summer, 7 yr old Irish Sport Horse who is the product of a one stand with my cousins mare. Broken as a 5 year old, he was then left off bar a month or 2 as a 6 yr old where a professional show jumping yard took him on in the hopes of jumping him (His sire was a grade A), he proved careless so was left out until this year when they brought him back into work in order to sell him. Long story short he didn't sell despite going very well and I ended up taking him. As I had a 4 year old at the time my OH agreed to take him on and jump him as he was still very green and I hadn't the time with work.

Him the day after he arrived:


He looks so weak.. but at the time we just presumed as a 7 year old who'd never had any consistent work he just had never muscled up properly. He put on a small amount of weight over the 3 months my OH had him and went well bar some teething problems in the first few weeks which seemed to be sorted by the osteopath. Towards the end he was jumping round 1m tracks with only the odd fence and schooled well over some little xc fences including carrying me around :P



Throughout this time I would watch him go and every so often I would think he looked unsound however as soon as the thought came to me I would look again and he would be fine again so put it out of my mind thinking I was just being paranoid. So he arrived almost 5 weeks ago and the day after he came he was lame so I decided he'd probably tweaked something honing around the field with his new mates so left him off for 2 weeks (there was no heat, swelling or signs of anything sinister) Brought him back in and rode and he seemed a little stiff behind but nothing major so rode on and he went well for 2/3 days. He then started feeling odd again so got the physio (wk 4 with me) and she was shocked at how reactive he was, he hit the roof while she was doing him and mentioned his severe lack of top line which has been worrying as was the fact he wasn't putting on anymore weight despite being fed, hayed and on good grass. Following treatment his behaviour deteriorated and I just knew something wasn't right. Got OH to sit on him and see was it just me que poor Fionn running straight through a 70cm jump in a blind panic and then this:



So decided there and then to follow my gut and got him referred to specialist vets. Day before he went I sat on him and he went beautifully and was so easy I was having serious doubts it wasn't just him being a prat but stuck with it and last Wednesday off we headed to horsepital. The patient was LOVING all the male attention:

Day before the vets:


Lameness tests, sacroiliac tests, KS tests, flexion tests and lunging all showed nothing. So vet (extreeeeemely good looking one at that) suggested I ride, thankfully I had thrown my tack in just in case, even though I was sure they would have seen something before now. So off I toddled off and tacked up got on and was hoping he would show what I have seen/been feeling for the past while.. Well he must have seen my ogling the vet because he decided he was going to make an absolute eejit of me and this followed:






Sorry about my riding I was NOT prepared! It did however prove that I was not insane and on the circle cantering left was extremely difficult and painful for him. I also think he was putting on a show for the audience that had gathered but hey-ho he did give everyone a laugh especially with the horrendous faces I was pulling! Prior to this he had only ever bucked once with me so at least I knew I wasn't wrong about what I was feeling. Que hock and back X-rays which showed up what they called minor impingement in 2 spots, KS. So following nerve blocks and local anaesthetic I rode again and this time he was wayyyy worse wouldn't trot without serious bucking, no pics as this was different... He was really trying to get me off, the last time he felt like he was just trying to get me off his back and stand in my stirrups as opposed to trying to dump me. This was a game changer for me he was obviously in pain but not from what they thought so I immediately resigned myself to PTS while I was still on him.. As far as I'm concerned I've given him every chance to come right he's had 6 years off at this stage throwing him out for another year just doesn't seem like an option and neither is passing him on, his quality of life is massively important to me because he's just such a pet and so civil. Vet convinced me that he had a chance with a blanket treatment of steroids and anti inflams to his back and a strict rehab for 6 weeks which brings us up to now! And one seriously cosy pony tucked up in his stable and loving all the extra attention he's getting.



Week 1 of rehab starts on Tuesday following 5 days box rest so if anyone has any tips or has any experience of anything like this please share! Sorry for the length and I'll keep you updated on the rest of his recovery (hopefully).

Home made mince pies and hot chocolate for anyone who manages to get this far! :D
 
Thanks you both so much! He's such a sweety he deserves it.

Will hopefully update in a week or two, also have profiles of his back/top line so should be interesting to watch it improve hopefully! Couldn't find anything on it when I searched so said I'd throw something up in case anyone else ends up in this position.
 
Thank you for posting, really interesting, and will be following the updates - he has such a gorgeous face :) really hope he comes right for you.
 
I had a very similar story with a tb, she looked weak and unfurnished despite winning races and would go well one day and not want to know the next.....had vet out several times, cue lots of headscratching until he xrayed her back and declared she had bad KS and had broken her withers at some point and was unrideable without a serious operation to fix things.
I refused, vet refused to sent her for scans, was certain he was right and I referred her myself to the Glasgow Vet School where she was used as a guinea pig for their new scan machine. She was suffering from sore shins, the worst they had ever seen and yet there was never any heat or obvious pain there.
Sometimes we just don't know what is wrong or indeed if anything is and I can't help but feel that a lot of people are jumping on the KS or ulcers bandwagon as they are the latest ailments to be in vogue !
 
bonny said:
I had a very similar story with a tb, she looked weak and unfurnished despite winning races and would go well one day and not want to know the next.....had vet out several times, cue lots of headscratching until he xrayed her back and declared she had bad KS and had broken her withers at some point and was unrideable without a serious operation to fix things.
I refused, vet refused to sent her for scans, was certain he was right and I referred her myself to the Glasgow Vet School where she was used as a guinea pig for their new scan machine. She was suffering from sore shins, the worst they had ever seen and yet there was never any heat or obvious pain there.
Sometimes we just don't know what is wrong or indeed if anything is and I can't help but feel that a lot of people are jumping on the KS or ulcers bandwagon as they are the latest ailments to be in vogue !
Click to expand...

Very interesting! I completely agree.. as did the vets, saying that it could be something completely unrelated in a fore limb or some other sort of random ailment but the bone scan they said would show up everything is over in the UK (we're in Ireland) and is 2k + VAT so not an option for the unknown quantity that Fionn is currently :( Thanks a million for your reply definitely something to bare in mind.. Did your horse come right in the end?
 
I was lucky in that Glasgow School were looking for a guinea pig for their new scanner and my mare was perfect as she showed no obvious symptoms of what was wrong. She had 6 months off and was sold to be a hacker/riding club horse and I know she was fine for the rest of her life, her sore shins were bad enough to mean she could never race again.
 
bonny said:
I was lucky in that Glasgow School were looking for a guinea pig for their new scanner and my mare was perfect as she showed no obvious symptoms of what was wrong. She had 6 months off and was sold to be a hacker/riding club horse and I know she was fine for the rest of her life, her sore shins were bad enough to mean she could never race again.
Click to expand...

That was handy! And a positive outcome for the mare too despite the end of her racing career! It gives me hope! He'll never have to jump much higher than 1m so not like he's going to have a seriously heavy workload either so fingers crossed!
 
Hey Spins,
Keep me posted....I'm currently in a similar situation with my boy. Same age as yours similar back story. He's on down time until the new year when I'm hoping to manage his KS (3 close - not touching) with steroids and a long, slow year of rehab to open his back up....strengthen it, and hope to avoid any kind of an operation. He's currently un-rideable due to bucking :(
 
st5050 said:
Hey Spins,
Keep me posted....I'm currently in a similar situation with my boy. Same age as yours similar back story. He's on down time until the new year when I'm hoping to manage his KS (3 close - not touching) with steroids and a long, slow year of rehab to open his back up....strengthen it, and hope to avoid any kind of an operation. He's currently un-rideable due to bucking :(
Click to expand...

Will do! Knew there had to be more people dealing with it too! Don't think Fionn's are touching either in one spot maybe just but in the other there's evidence of bone remodelling where they may have been touching.. But nerve blocks showed it isn't his problem spot really so I have no clue! His rehab for week one is bute and walking for 5/10 mins this gets longer as the weeks go on and then in week 3 he also gets 5/10 mins lunging in canter.. No trotting to prevent concussive forces.. Should be interesting when I get back on in week 5 and have to skip the trot, the reports may end there haha
 
Hi OP, i'm also currently in a similar situation with my boy, he started 8 months ago with a sore back, i thought he's just pulled something in the field.. hes a bit daft. physio agreed that yes his back was sore so he had a few weeks off to recover, anyway que 6 months later horse still not right, bucking into canter, no impulsion to go forward generally not looking right in himself. referred to newmarket for nuclear scintigraphy and x-rays, diagonosed KS (3 touching under saddle area) and navicular. back and feet injected, 2 weeks off and then 2 weeks lunging long and low, i've just had my first ride on him this week in what feels like forever and felt like a totally different horse!! i'm now just building up the ridden work with regular physio and vet checks to ensure everything is still ok. The most difficult thing is trying to get them out of the thinking that ridden work is going to equal pain after the treatment, my only regret is i didn't recognise the signs earlier, and just assumed he was being difficult.
 
coloured_c0b said:
Hi OP, i'm also currently in a similar situation with my boy, he started 8 months ago with a sore back, i thought he's just pulled something in the field.. hes a bit daft. physio agreed that yes his back was sore so he had a few weeks off to recover, anyway que 6 months later horse still not right, bucking into canter, no impulsion to go forward generally not looking right in himself. referred to newmarket for nuclear scintigraphy and x-rays, diagonosed KS (3 touching under saddle area) and navicular. back and feet injected, 2 weeks off and then 2 weeks lunging long and low, i've just had my first ride on him this week in what feels like forever and felt like a totally different horse!! i'm now just building up the ridden work with regular physio and vet checks to ensure everything is still ok. The most difficult thing is trying to get them out of the thinking that ridden work is going to equal pain after the treatment, my only regret is i didn't recognise the signs earlier, and just assumed he was being difficult.
Click to expand...

Delighted to hear he's coming right!! Sounds exactly like Fionns symptoms and a bit of switching behind too! People are still trying to tell me there's nothing wrong with him and he's just taking the piss out of me bla bla but now I've the X-rays to prove it.. Not happy he has something wrong with him obv but happy I've been vindicated ya know?
 
I am going through very similar with mine. After 'backing' him very gently when he was nearly 4 we set about planning his ridden career.
However it all went pear shaped as he dumped me twice and then just completely freaked out just merely having a saddle on. I lost my nerve dealing with him as he'd had panicked and reared up when I tried a saddle on him which ended up with him landing on me.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I did a lot of groundwork, played with saddle fittings and eventually has one made. I sent him away to be re-backed this summer at although it initially went ok he stared again with the extreme behaviour when saddled and almost had the rider off!
Physio found nothing wrong (he had previously be very sore after the first incidents) so the girl continued. However he then went oddly intermittently lame which went on too long so vet came and referred to Rainbow equine vets. Of course they couldn't find any lameness and, after ultrasounds and scintigraphy of his back thet diagnosed him with ligament desmopathy. Essentially the ligaments between some of his spinous processes behind his wither were inflamed

I was relieved we appear to have found a cause as i was sure he wasn't just misbehaving. The vets found absolutely nothing else wrong with him but he's now had steroid treatment, shockwave therapy and will go to be re-scanned in Feb. The vets want me to work building up his top line by doing lunge work in a pessoa so I will start with this in the new year as we don't have facilities at ours and I work full time.
The vet said as an as alternative I can work on sepertines with him and leading him over raised poles. The idea is to ger him to drop his head carriage and flex through his back.

It may be worth doing similar with yours to help build him up. The vets said mine doesn't have kissing spines but they are close and they said this can often be a result as the ligaments get tight and sore when the processes are close together.
 
ladyt25 said:
The vets want me to work building up his top line by doing lunge work in a pessoa so I will start with this in the new year as we don't have facilities at ours and I work full time.
The vet said as an as alternative I can work on sepertines with him and leading him over raised poles. The idea is to ger him to drop his head carriage and flex through his back.

It may be worth doing similar with yours to help build him up. The vets said mine doesn't have kissing spines but they are close and they said this can often be a result as the ligaments get tight and sore when the processes are close together.
Click to expand...

OP this is also exactly what my vets recommended too, long and low work to engage the back, i'm currently doing 2 short sessions in a pessoa, and trying to encourage long and low in the ridden, (thats the difficult bit as its his favorite time to impersonate a giraffe)
 
ladyt25 said:
I am going through very similar with mine. After 'backing' him very gently when he was nearly 4 we set about planning his ridden career.
However it all went pear shaped as he dumped me twice and then just completely freaked out just merely having a saddle on. I lost my nerve dealing with him as he'd had panicked and reared up when I tried a saddle on him which ended up with him landing on me.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I did a lot of groundwork, played with saddle fittings and eventually has one made. I sent him away to be re-backed this summer at although it initially went ok he stared again with the extreme behaviour when saddled and almost had the rider off!
Physio found nothing wrong (he had previously be very sore after the first incidents) so the girl continued. However he then went oddly intermittently lame which went on too long so vet came and referred to Rainbow equine vets. Of course they couldn't find any lameness and, after ultrasounds and scintigraphy of his back thet diagnosed him with ligament desmopathy. Essentially the ligaments between some of his spinous processes behind his wither were inflamed

I was relieved we appear to have found a cause as i was sure he wasn't just misbehaving. The vets found absolutely nothing else wrong with him but he's now had steroid treatment, shockwave therapy and will go to be re-scanned in Feb. The vets want me to work building up his top line by doing lunge work in a pessoa so I will start with this in the new year as we don't have facilities at ours and I work full time.
The vet said as an as alternative I can work on sepertines with him and leading him over raised poles. The idea is to ger him to drop his head carriage and flex through his back.

It may be worth doing similar with yours to help build him up. The vets said mine doesn't have kissing spines but they are close and they said this can often be a result as the ligaments get tight and sore when the processes are close together.
Click to expand...

Wow his reaction sounds way more extreme than what I've had to deal with! Have also been given the pessoa prescription lol with no trotting just walk for 20-25 mins and then straight to canter for 5-10 to start with. Think thats in week 3/4 of the programme though so still a bit to go! Maybe that could explain his pain? He had a complete blanket treatment of his back so I'm hoping they've treated whatever is causing the issues. Trying to get him to drop his head once he starts ridden work will be interesting though.. He goes lovely in trot but really struggles in canter but I guess theres been a reason for that up til now!


Coloured_cob: thanks yeah I'm gonna have issues with the giraffe impressions also!
 
I have posted this story before and will try not to make it too long.

I purchased a 3 YO Cleveland Bay stallion, 5 stage vetting for his licence and pre-purchase vetting.

A 17hh gentle giant gave nor problems after backing until we started canter work. He did not want to canter on the left rein. Several vet visits, I was told I wasn't working him correctly on the bridle!!!! So I sent him to one of the top ten dressage riders in France.

She loved him but agreed with me that he had a problem and said 'don't waste your money with local vets, send him to the Professor'. The Prof is an FEI vet at Nantes hospital. He was given a thorough examination which showed an old badly healed fracture in his neck, bone chips on his right front fetlock and two kissing spines.

Diagnosis was that he had had an accident as a young horse, probably in the first year of his life. NOT a congenital condition. Recommended spinal injections and physio but we were not convinced this would 'cure' the problem and he would have missed young horse competitions in France by the time we got him right.

Outcome, he has a very happy life as a stallion and produces foals of quality. We hope he will give us a stallion son as nice as he is.

NB It has made us ultra careful with our foals, the Prof said 'too much activity at too young an age'.
 
Rollin said:
I have posted this story before and will try not to make it too long.

I purchased a 3 YO Cleveland Bay stallion, 5 stage vetting for his licence and pre-purchase vetting.

A 17hh gentle giant gave nor problems after backing until we started canter work. He did not want to canter on the left rein. Several vet visits, I was told I wasn't working him correctly on the bridle!!!! So I sent him to one of the top ten dressage riders in France.

She loved him but agreed with me that he had a problem and said 'don't waste your money with local vets, send him to the Professor'. The Prof is an FEI vet at Nantes hospital. He was given a thorough examination which showed an old badly healed fracture in his neck, bone chips on his right front fetlock and two kissing spines.

Diagnosis was that he had had an accident as a young horse, probably in the first year of his life. NOT a congenital condition. Recommended spinal injections and physio but we were not convinced this would 'cure' the problem and he would have missed young horse competitions in France by the time we got him right.

Outcome, he has a very happy life as a stallion and produces foals of quality. We hope he will give us a stallion son as nice as he is.

NB It has made us ultra careful with our foals, the Prof said 'too much activity at too young an age'.
Click to expand...

How lucky he was nice enough to breed to from without having to have a successful career, he was obviously bred very well himself! Here in lies my issue with Fionn without being ridden he has no purpose and if he doesn't come right I think we'll have to make the hard decision to PTS I need a riding horse and he's had so long off already that leaving him off again really isn't an option.
 
I wouldn't give up just yet as he is still very young and possibly still growing /developing. With correct work to build up the supporting muscles you may just find he comes right. Mine is only 5 and a big lad which may have contributed to the issue (ie I started him too early!). His reactions were extreme because I think he didn't know any better. He was reacting to pain (he has a low pain threshold as it is). It was almost like he had an electric shock basically, the look in his eyes was also just one of panic/worry. I missed his early, subtle signs which I could kick myself for now but I'd put it down to him being young.
I certainly don't think mine wants to chuck me off, he loves to do stuff, loves people but something was happening to him that he didn't understand. He was reacting in the only way he knew - having a saddle on hurts so he tried to get it off!!
 
Hi OP, I'll be following your updates too as I'm also going through something similar. Realised my boy had a problem end of 2013, and tests in Feb 2014 showed he'd damaged his spinal ligament just behind his withers and he had mild, active kissing spines in the same area. He had shockwave therapy and a few months off and then I slowly started bringing him back into work - completely groundwork until I rebacked him a month ago. The thing that's undoubtedly made the biggest difference is building up his topline to give his injury area some protection and cushioning and encouraging him to work long and low to open up his spinous processes. It was canter that he really struggled with, a lot of KS horses do, and I'm yet to put that to the test under saddle but he's cantering perfectly on the lunge - a world away from what he used to be like!
 
Can I just point out something to people who are dismissive of kissing spines being the latest 'fad'?

The first is that it is more common than not for kissing spines to be associated with one or more of ulcers, sacroiliac damage, PSD, hock changes. Which means that relieving pain from the back may not change the horse's behaviour. It does NOT mean there was no pain from the back.

Two, in stoic horses, it's entirely possible for a strong minded rider to 'persuade' a horse to work through pain. Just because people send horses to a pro who has no trouble with it, does not mean that the horse is not in pain, or that the original rider was a rubbish rider.

The hard task is working out which horses are which, but calling kissing spines a fad when the damage can clearly be seen on an x ray is, I think, not at all helpful for the horse :'(
 
coloured_c0b said:
OP this is also exactly what my vets recommended too, long and low work to engage the back, i'm currently doing 2 short sessions in a pessoa, and trying to encourage long and low in the ridden, (thats the difficult bit as its his favorite time to impersonate a giraffe)
Click to expand...

At the recent BD convention that German orthopaedic vet was very clear in his view that riding long and low was not the answer if the horse wasn't working over his back. The important thing was to get the hind legs coming under the body to as near the centre of gravity as possible which would help to open up the gaps between the spinous processes
 
Also following with interest.
In a nutshell, I have a gelding who randomly tanks off in a panic when ridden. A pro rider had him for about two months and he did it a lot with her and although she could ride him through it, he got worse. Since then, he's had a diagnosis of disruption of the dorsal ligament over his withers and treated with steroids and shock wave and slow rehab. But he still did it. He's been to rossdales for scintigraphy and has had numerous x rays and nothing definitive found. We don't know if the reaction after treatment was a learned behavior or if he's still in pain but I'm not brave enough to try again. He was about to be sent to a trainer who our vets felt could help to make the distinction but then strangles struck our yard and everything put on hold. I don't know what to do with him. He's 9 and will always have a home with me but when he's good he's lovely ride and seems to enjoy hacking so I don’t want to give up but feel like I've tried everything. I so wish he could talk :-(
 
cptrayes said:
Can I just point out something to people who are dismissive of kissing spines being the latest 'fad'?

The first is that it is more common than not for kissing spines to be associated with one or more of ulcers, sacroiliac damage, PSD, hock changes. Which means that relieving pain from the back may not change the horse's behaviour. It does NOT mean there was no pain from the back.

Two, in stoic horses, it's entirely possible for a strong minded rider to 'persuade' a horse to work through pain. Just because people send horses to a pro who has no trouble with it, does not mean that the horse is not in pain, or that the original rider was a rubbish rider.

The hard task is working out which horses are which, but calling kissing spines a fad when the damage can clearly be seen on an x ray is, I think, not at all helpful for the horse :'(
Click to expand...

I think I've been misunderstood... What I meant in agreeing was that although KS is present there may in fact be something else going on causing pain aswel but I think some people (obv not all and each horse is different) may be quick to just write off the pain as KS.. My vets didn't have to nerve block, a lot wouldn't, they could have just injected with steroids said there's your problem off you go! Sorry I didn't explain myself very well on that point!
 
eggs said:
At the recent BD convention that German orthopaedic vet was very clear in his view that riding long and low was not the answer if the horse wasn't working over his back. The important thing was to get the hind legs coming under the body to as near the centre of gravity as possible which would help to open up the gaps between the spinous processes
Click to expand...

Very interesting thank you! Do you know the vets name by any chance? I'd like to read more on this? I think for now I'll have to stick with my instructions though!
 
AshTay said:
Also following with interest.
In a nutshell, I have a gelding who randomly tanks off in a panic when ridden. A pro rider had him for about two months and he did it a lot with her and although she could ride him through it, he got worse. Since then, he's had a diagnosis of disruption of the dorsal ligament over his withers and treated with steroids and shock wave and slow rehab. But he still did it. He's been to rossdales for scintigraphy and has had numerous x rays and nothing definitive found. We don't know if the reaction after treatment was a learned behavior or if he's still in pain but I'm not brave enough to try again. He was about to be sent to a trainer who our vets felt could help to make the distinction but then strangles struck our yard and everything put on hold. I don't know what to do with him. He's 9 and will always have a home with me but when he's good he's lovely ride and seems to enjoy hacking so I don’t want to give up but feel like I've tried everything. I so wish he could talk :-(
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I really wish Fionn could too... Just to narrow down the search for the source of pain a little! Sounds like you've done everything for your boy and that he's really coming on hopefully with time he'll learn that pain isn't coming and he'll stop panicking.. Having been worked in a pro yard for a short amount of time pre-sales, Fionn was drilled on his lead changes but when OH had him and we began to notice the symptoms he'd run blind if he got the lead changes wrong/ switched in front so we never asked looking back it makes sense but then we thought they'd just been hard on him.. Fingers crossed your boy comes right!
 
happybear said:
Hi OP, I'll be following your updates too as I'm also going through something similar. Realised my boy had a problem end of 2013, and tests in Feb 2014 showed he'd damaged his spinal ligament just behind his withers and he had mild, active kissing spines in the same area. He had shockwave therapy and a few months off and then I slowly started bringing him back into work - completely groundwork until I rebacked him a month ago. The thing that's undoubtedly made the biggest difference is building up his topline to give his injury area some protection and cushioning and encouraging him to work long and low to open up his spinous processes. It was canter that he really struggled with, a lot of KS horses do, and I'm yet to put that to the test under saddle but he's cantering perfectly on the lunge - a world away from what he used to be like!
Click to expand...

Thank you so much you're really giving me hope!
 
Spins said:
I think I've been misunderstood... What I meant in agreeing was that although KS is present there may in fact be something else going on causing pain aswel but I think some people (obv not all and each horse is different) may be quick to just write off the pain as KS.. My vets didn't have to nerve block, a lot wouldn't, they could have just injected with steroids said there's your problem off you go! Sorry I didn't explain myself very well on that point!
Click to expand...


We agree violently then :)

I've heard a lot of people say the kissing spines is just today's fad diagnosis. Of course it isn't, it's just that we only recently got x rays strong enough to show just how many horses have it.

My vet told me that Cotts, which pioneered the ligament snip operation, say that sixty per cent also have sacroiliac problems. We need a lot more research about which comes first and why.
 
cptrayes said:
We agree violently then :)

I've heard a lot of people say the kissing spines is just today's fad diagnosis. Of course it isn't, it's just that we only recently got x rays strong enough to show just how many horses have it.

My vet told me that Cotts, which pioneered the ligament snip operation, say that sixty per cent also have sacroiliac problems. We need a lot more research about which comes first and why.
Click to expand...

EXACTLY!! We only know about it's existence in recent times making it an easy scape goat even though many horses may be working without pain directly related to it. I honestly thought his issues were sacroiliac but he was unreactive to all the physical tests they did but I'm still a little on the bench tbh. We shall see what the next 6 weeks brings! Thank you very much for ur replies very interesting and shall be doing a bit more reading up re: the link between sacroiliac pain and KS.. However I'm certain Fionns issues are inherited in the vets words 'He has inherited the worst of conformation from both sides' lol which doesn't help him out any!
 
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