Kissing spines + other ailments, prognoses? Experience?

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4Hoofed

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Hi, long time lurker first time poster, but just wanted to pick the brains of the collective masses!

I've owned one of my geldings for nearly four years now, and absolutely adore him, and he seems to adore me right back, we've had quite a few trials over the last few years and seems to have reached the biggest hard decision so far. A wee brief history, Bart is a 16.2 Thoroughbred, raced from a 2 yo till he was 6 1/2 ish. Skinny when I got him, but put weight on him and got on schooling!

All going good, a bit cold backed when not in consistent work, but all round a charming little gelding, but then he was diagnosed with Navicular through blocks and X-rays, tried with corrective shoeing, wasn't working for us so took them off gave him a few months in the field and came sound, and has been since on that front!

However he never came in to work a proper again, as I had him as a jumper, and felt that wasn't in his best interests so invested in a youngster and mainly he just mooched about hacking a bit, being a pet and light schooling. This year though I thought we'd have a crack at doing a bit of dressage. However we've moved to a yards to a group turnout situation in a large herd with 50 odd acres, and one day came in non weight bearing on near hind. Vet came, we buted,rested, and 2 weeks later we came out ready to go back in the field for a months before starting work again. However he came in 'off' behind, cue full work up, Xrays, scans, and diagnosed with damaged Suspensory ligaments, so we began treating, and having now spent a lot of time chatting to vet, we decided to Xray his back and discovered he had (as we had suspected) Kissing Spines.

Now originally I was pretty down hearted and just wanted to focus on getting him comfortable to live out his days in the field, however my insurance is happy letting me separate the claims, so I have the full 5k to play with for his back. And being at the end of his ligament rehab my heart is telling me whilst he's never going to be a competition horse or anything, judging by the fun he's having being long reined and in the field, I don't feel he's ready to retire and want to give him more of a chance!

Now my question is just really has anyone had any experience with any horses with this combination of ailments? Any experience of injections vs ligament snip vs tradition surgery? Or am I being a dreamer even thinking he could come right?

Many thanks if you made it through!
 
Watching with interest as mentally preparing myself in case my pony has kissing spines on top of sacroiliac injury, liver problems and PSSM. My brain is mush so some positive experiences would be welcomed!
 
Hopefully I'm positive, especially after todays physio session :-0)

KS diagnosed and operated on 1st Sept. SI injury diagnosed at the same time. 2 separate injections later on two separate weeks, lots of walking in hand, 4 sessions of physio and today for the very first time my boy has lunged sound :-0))) !!!!!!!

Still can't believe it !!! Lots more work to do building his muscles up as he has none.

So very happy today and very positive.
 
Really sorry to hear about your boy. I have had two horses with KS. One had the traditional op and over 1.5 years after op he is now being ridden but has taken a really long time. Other one had very mild KS and had the lig snip, wasnt successful as we then found out she had sever arthritus in both hocks :( but if you go on FB on the KS page, there are tonnes of success stories, best of luck :)
 
Thanks guys for the replies! It's one of the toughest things I've had to decide, as to look at him now in the field etc., there's nothing wrong, but he is super reactive to pressure on the KS area :/ though fingers crossed the rest of his legs seem in pretty good shape and his hock xrays were clear!
 
sorry mine is not positive. Lost my TB to kissing spines, 17 and his broncing just evolved over time and ended up having him PTS as he was dangerous and at his age he owed me nothing xxxx
 
I'm sorry to hear that, my vet and myself have already agreed that at 10 if he's not going to comfortable long term that it will be the kindest thing to do, and I'd rather know he was happy and pain free in his last hours if that is the best course of action, thank you for sharing your experience.
 
unicornystar said:
sorry mine is not positive. Lost my TB to kissing spines, 17 and his broncing just evolved over time and ended up having him PTS as he was dangerous and at his age he owed me nothing xxxx
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Yeah,, I think so
 
My horse is 6, had him since a weanling, diagnised at 4 by a bone scan with arthritis in the hocks, si issues and ks, treated the hocks and had lig snip, left si as he is so young i did not want to keep re injecting, just worked him on long lines for 6 months, he was still showing original discomfort symptoms so reinvestigated and treated for ulcers and hind gut, not quite there yet but the ks is now the least of his problems and seems it was all caused by his movement due to his tummy
 
My experience is a little similar. I went to vet after vet as mine was lame, first behind, then in front. At this point the vet nearly convinced me to go for MRI. Had another vet look at her. He took many x-rays and did a really good examination. At this point, he said she had KS, problems in her stifles and arthritic changes in her neck. I was horrified all this was wrong! Didn't know what to do.

Vet suggested an arthroscopy into the stifles, cortisone injections into the neck and then we'll treat the KS. She had the arthoscopy about 3 weeks ago now - they found bony growths and have filed down the cartilage, but it wasn't as bad as they were expecting. At this time she also had the neck injected via ultrasound. She had 2 weeks of box rest and is now in a small paddock for a few hours a day. We've had to have wedges in her hind shoes as her heels need building back up. Right after she came home I really thought that I'd done the wrong thing as she was withdrawn and sad and lost a lot of weight. She's VERY much back to being herself and dragged my mum right across the yard so I know she's feeling much better!

Wrt the KS. She's got to go back to the vets for a check up on the stifles around the first/second week of December and if all is ok she'll have the key hole surgery on her back where they shave the vertebrae rather than the traditional op.

I'm hopeful it'll all come right, but only time will tell!
 
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