Kissing spines experience please! Advice needed.

[ImmyS]

I bought an ex racer in march last year who hasn't put a foot wrong since owning her, I have been using her for light schooling and a lot of hacking with no problems.

I didn't know any of her history util recently I found the person who bought her from the race sales as a rising 3 year old. She was bought as a showjumping prospect and was doing very well until 3 months into heavy schooling and jumping her attitude changed and she began to rear, refuse to tack up etc.. She was taken to the vets and x rayed, the X-rays showed that she didn't have kissing spines however two vertebrae came into contact with movement, causing the pain. She had injections and painkillers, returned well to normal work until a month later where the symptoms began again.

Between then and now I'm not sure where she had been and what had happened to her. I bought her as a just turned 5 year old and will she be 6 in march. She was very poor when we bought her so we built up feed and exercise appropriately and she is now in full time work, hacking for around 8/9 hours a week. She has shown no symptoms of back pain since being with us whatsoever however will be monitored carefully from now on now we have this knowledge. Is it possible that as she was only rising 3 growth may have widened the tighter gap between her interacting vertebrae? Or is it an irreversible process which is likely to get worse? Any information appreciated

Thank you

 

[maxine1985]

I would imagine that you're not asking enough of her only hacking for it to be a problem and that if were to introduce lots of schooling (lateral work etc) and jumping then the problem may re occur

Having had 2 event horses diagnosed with kissing spines the vets have said to me that more performance horses are diagnosed than leisure horses as more is being asked of them i.e working correct and through their back, basculing over fences, whereas horses who arent doing this ie just hacking can cope far better if there was a problem, hope that makes sense!

Hopefully it may be that as shes grown and strengthened up her back is now 'sorted'

 

[Wagtail]

Do you have her insured?

I would do nothing unless she starts to show symptoms as many horses have KS but it doesn't actually affect them.
My horse had the worse case of KS the vet had ever seen and was explosive after you tightened the girth. Because he was so bad, vets decided to operate without doing a bone scan (that I had requested they do). The op itself went very well but sadly his symptoms remain. I suspect that his explosiveness is actually due to something else entirely and that he had the operation done needlessly. I would urge anyone with a KS horse to have a bone scan done forst in case the KS is not actually causing the problem (if it is, it would show up on the scan). My boy is now retired. He had a needless operation. I could continue to poke and prod him to find out the cause of his problems, but I think it would be selfish and unfair. He had already had a hock operation too the year before.

 

[ImmyS]

Thank you for your replies, I understand that she is probably not in enough work work at the moment for it to be causing a problem. I'm not planning to do anything about it, just going to progress with her as normal and if or when we do more work and symptoms reappear then I'll accept she has a limit and would probably semi retire to light work and/or investigate treatment.

Yes wagtail she is insured however I doubt she would be covered due it bring a pre-existing condition. Thank you for your Information, something to look into with the bone scans etc.. Sorry to hear about the circumstances of your boy. I'm just so glad I did some digging into her history and found this out sooner rather than later!