Kissing spines. Prognosis

[Bay horse 2012]

My horse who is seven had been getting quite humpy recently when I have been getting on. After I have ridden a while it eases off and he goes back to normal. Naturally I got his saddle checked out while I was told the saddle was slipping ever so slightly it wasn't anything to cause any pain and it would only be slightly annoying for him. He has always been a bit of grump when getting girthed up and he trots up sound. Anyhow my next stop was the back person. My dressage instructor recommended hers and advised me that he was visiting her yard. The back person is also a qualified vet. I arranged to leave my horse up to her for him to be checked out.

I got the phonecall today to tell me the prognosis. I wish she spoke to me with someone else as I was that upset I can't remember the details. What I remember is as follows, He was trotted up and it was noted that he was sound. One of his thighs was more developed than the other and in walk he wasn't stepping through as much in one leg than he is in the other. In his opinion he was sure it was kissing spines. Sorry I can't remember the rest of the detail.

He is a TB and wouldn't be worth alot of money so I don't think it would be a good idea to go down the surgery route and he is not insured. I was wondering if I should get him xrayed at my vets so I get a proper diagnosis and get an idea on how to manage it.

My dressage instructor recommends me lunging him before I get on so that his back is warmed up. I don't know if the colder weather has effected him recently. She reckons that the problem has arrisen now as I am now asking him for a bit more collection and getting him to carry himself. I had hoping to produce up to medium level which isn't going to happen now.

Has anyone kept a horse with kissing spines sound without going down the surgery route. And is there any excercises I can do to keep him comfortable.


My options at present are as follows;
Ride away with management until he gets uncomfortable and then retire him and then if he gets really sore, pts.

Loan him out to a more novice rider who wouldn't be asking to ride in an outline and therefore he will be more comfortable. But also keep an eye on him so if he gets sore I will retire him etc.

I am so devastated as I adore my little horse. However it explains maybe why he can sometimes be a bit difficult and considered hard work.

Looking forward to hear other peoples experiences.

 

[FfionWinnie]

It seems to me KS can be diagnosed quickly and the real problem missed. Was speaking to some one who has an event horse that had the KS op a couple of years ago. It seemed to be a mild case and a textbook success story. Until the horse started falling over and wobblers was diagnosed. Now he thinks it was wobblers syndrome and it not the KS was not causing the problem.

 

[kezimac]

firstly you need to get a proper diagnosis from an xray - then you can decide what to do - depending on what they find and how many processes are involved you may only need steroid injections in the spine or could consider surgery - there are other options than the traditional route - mine is booked in for her surgery at the end of november after having two sets of steroids.

look at .. http://www.cottsequine.co.uk/about-us/recent-surgeries/standing-kissing-spines-operation.shtml

also horses with ks need to be worked in a more round outline and not allowed to go hollow

 

[Bay horse 2012]

Kezimac

Thankyou for that link. That is best article I have seen so far. It is interesting that horses with KS need to ride in an outline (which he does every time he is ridden apart from hacking).

It is also interesting where it mentions about the core fitness of the horse. My horse is not overally fit at the moment which I think is adding to the problem. I lunged him before I rode him today and he wasn't humpy at all thank god and he went OK.

Looking back he is generally more difficult to ride when he isn't fit. Last year he had a five month break and he was horrendus to get going again. But by June he was riding better than ever but he was incredibly fit at the time. He felt ready at that stage to move up to novice. Unfortunately he had breaks between then and now and has lost alot of his fitness.

I plan to ring my Vet on Monday morning to discuss it further with him.

 

[simionet]

Try not to panic just yet. I would get an xray done and speak to the vet about eliminating other causes first.

My horse was diagnosed with KS and had the op. I took him to the quine hosp for another prob and mentioned that he´d been getting very lethargic (he was 16yo at the time) and the vet xrayed him and he had the op. I put a LOT of time into the rehab and it didn´t make a jot of difference to him. He was up and down all the time in terms of poor performance. Very frustrating, he was retired about 5 times in one year!

When I took him barefoot I get exposed to a whole load of info trying to learn about what I could do to help improve his feet and decided that his lethargy problems may be due to Cushings not musculoskeletal probs.

He´s now been on pergolide (cushings drug in case you don´t know) for 6 weeks and is like a different horse, I finally have my super hprse back.

It´s not that I think your horse has Cushings, the moral of the story is that diagnosing problems in horses is difficult and I feel it´s important to cast the net wide rather than jumping in with a diagnosis (unless it´s something very obvious of course). I seem to remember that xray findings correlate poorly with KS symptoms. ie lots of horses will have the appearance of KS on xrays but no issues with it.

I believe my poor horse had the misfortune of being seen on that one occasion by a vet that specialised in KS surgery. Ask anyone who works in human medicine and you´ll find people who specialise tend to get tunnel vision according to their speciality.

Obviously the drugs will have been the thing that made the major difference to my horse but I also think that getting his feet in good shape has made a big difference to him. Imbalances in feet can have a knock on effect all the way up the body.

It also may be worth having a look at changing your saddle if your horse does have KS. I use a solution saddle now, I´ve found that since the surgery my horse can no longer tolerate a treed saddle. There´s loads of info on the solution website, some vets are recommending their saddles for KS horses. It was expensive but not as expensive as spinal surgery!

I suppose the long and short of it is, from my experience, it´s important to make sure all avenues have been explored before subjection your horse to surgery or losing faith.

18 months ago my horse was diagnosed with KS and now he´s jumping, hunting, competing in dressage and hacking out for up to 3hours at a time.

Good luck