KISSING SPINES SURGERY

J

Jenniferdella1

Member
Joined
30 November 2008
Messages
22
Visit site
l have a 7 year old ex racer (P2P) who last raced April, 2007. l bought her from a dealer in November, 2008. l've discovered the dealer had only had her for a few weeks tops.

Holding my hands up here as l know l've been a fool as l didn't get her properly vetted. l was dealing with a woman l thought l could trust.............hmmmm, NEVER again!

Anyway, problem is: My mare started bucking and misbehaving after only a week of having her. l am a very novice rider (dealer told me she was TB cross and had never raced..........again, l've been a fool as l took her word for it and discovered the truth once l was handed the passport...........post delivery of the horse. Just quickly here, l asked for her to have the horse returned and my money back within days of having the horse and she refused......................l'm sure there's many folk out there with similar experiences).

Right, situation now is that as l'd really outhorsed myself and became frightened with her bucking etc, l was given a fab opportunity to have her professionally schooled and brought on so she was moved to their yard but within a couple of days of her being there the bucking started up, some rears and a very reluctant horse with cantering.

Mare was taken to vets (Willesley clinic) this week and kissing spines was diagnosed. lt has been recommended that she has surgery for this. lt appears my poor mare has had this problem for years.

l don't know what to do now. Do l go ahead with surgery, all the rehab and the likelihood of my £5k max claim being used up before the rehab is finished? l'm worried as l don't have funds to continue looking after this post-op care once my insurance is paid out.

l don't know if my horse is in constant pain but it appears that way as she has only ever had very light riders since November, 2008, she has not been worked hard just light schooling and hacking and now she cannot even bear to be lunged with no rider at all.

Do l consider euthanasia? Do l consider sending her off to the blood bank for a quiet life? l've never been in such a dreadful dilemma.

lf l was told that the surgery was hugely successful and that it would be the best choice then l would try and find funds somehow somewhere but what if l end up with a crippled horse if the surgery fails and then still have the same dilemma but with no insurance?

Any advice would be most grateful.

Thanks

Jennifer
 
Well she is going to be off for a long time if you go down the surgery route and funnily enough when i saw the title of your thread i though i bet that has been to Willersley. They are very good there but seem to do rather more diagnosis of kissing spines than any other place i can think of and always seem to advise surgery, although this isnt always the only option.
i would have to say that saying the operation has a good success rate is probably true if you are just talking about the operation itself. How true that statement is if you are talking about those horses successful re-introduction into working life is quite another. if all you want is to hack about you are probably fine but as i said the horse will be off for a long time and may have decided bucking etc is a really good trick, which will be continued regardless. Frankly i have no faith in it, looking at the horses i have seen traeted.
To be honest, given your level of riding i would go for an alternative and if her back is that bad then being euthanised is as kind as anything. you will only be throwing money at her for months with no guarantee that she wll ever come right.
feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. I know this must be really difficult for you.
 
Hi Jennifer
I recall your email to the RoR with regard to this mare and was so pleased after our emakl exchange when you advised that you had found someone to take her on.
Bearing in mind the hassle and distress you have already had with regard to associated "matters" + there is no guarantee that the mare will be 100% + your own limited experinence then, as Lucretia says, euthanasia is probably the kindest option for the mare although very hard for you given her otherwise sweet nature.
Please do not hesitate to get back in touch - PM through this board if you do not still have our direct email address.
Rowena
 
Oh dear! I had a exrace horse that went through the KS surgery at Willesly, the outcome was very successfull and afterwards he was winning at Elementary dressage, and jumping beautifully. The physio said that he had the best back and muscles that she had ever seen.However it was a long hard road to get to that point.

Willesley claim to have had many horses back successfully competing ( internationally) after this op. But of course I've since heard it isnt always successfull and so much can go wrong.

Its a complete lottery.
 
Firstly apologies for the typos - always in a rush!

Appreciate that reading both mine and Lucretia's thread, our suggestion seems harsh, but in Jennifer's case she does not have the luxury of unlimited funding. Having had the benefit of emails to the RoR poor Jennifer has had a rough time of late and it won't be a decision she takes lightly - if she does indeed go down that route. 1000 pities no-one can say that the operation will be successful or there is, say a 99% chance that it will be. The mare, from her history, has been suffering for a very long time.
Maybe someone may be able to offer a companion home or similar.
 
I would agree with the other replies, I have had two horses with KS, one had surgery which was moderately successful, although for the rest of his life (another 10 years or so) you always had to be careful when getting on him - he'd had too many years of discomfort ever to completely forget that a person getting on board might hurt. The other at 15 years of age at diagnosis and not a chronic case was considered not a suitable candidate for surgery, his KS stopped him doing dressage and flatwork so he's now on loan as a happy hack. There is no way of telling what this horse would be like even if surgery was successful, and IMO, bearing in mind the enormous amount of very specialised intense rehabilitation required to recover a horse from this type of sugery, and the huge amount of money involved personally I would not go down that route. I'm thinking of you while you make the decision, as you will see, I know what you are going through.
 
I feel I must respond to this post as I myself (who was pretty novice when I got my horse) have a horse who has undergone KS surgery at Willesley with success. They are the most experienced at this op as they have a lot of referrals from vets around the country suspecting KS in their clients horses, if you decide to give your mare a chance make sure it is Svend Kold that operates.

Reading these posts and at the risk of annoying people, it is very easy to dish out advice without being the one that actually has to make or live with the decision, especially one as difficult as putting a horse to sleep. My horse had huge behavioural issues all of which can be put down to pain caused by KS. I am not saying he was an angel after the op by any means but with a bit of understanding, perseverence and some fantastic help from great instructors & vets, I did have a horse that I was able to move forward with. There are also quite a few members on this forum that have had said op and are happily enjoying their horses, there are also some who are not but for many different reasons.

I obviously don't know you or your horse and if you are quite Novice, the question is how much exactly are you going to be wanting to do with your horse and also are you prepared to put in the work. I am thrilled at how far Ryan and I have got, even without KS, I never thought I would be taking out to shows and competing him albeit at a fairly low level but I operated to put him out of pain as he is a much loved part of my family the rest has been a huge and wonderful bonus.

The op and rehab is a long hard road but I have learnt so much and my horse is ridden 5 days a week, has been out doing prelim dressage and will move up to novice soon and has been given the all clear by vets to jump, my instructors and physio say that it is hard to believe he ever had the op and that his back is amazing. Admittedly the behavioural issues you get can be hard to tackle but with good teachers and a bit of determination you can suceed.

The op has the best chance of success with nothing else being wrong with your horse, as an ex-racer there is likely to be stress on joints and it is worth checking for other issues before you proceed. If you want to pm me for honest answers to your questions please feel free and may I wish you the best of luck with the choices that are so very difficult to make.
 
I will hopefully be back on my mare next week!! Svend is a lovely man, and my horse is so much happier post op so its the best thing i could have done! I only have a 5k limit on my insurance and im sure there is still some left over.. (op cost under 3k!)

I had tried injections but for me i see this has a short term solution and you would have to keep up topline! injections didnt work and i feel wasted my time and money so she had op and im glad!

x
 
Yep, ditto to BethH who helped me out greatly at the beginning of Wills KS journey.
I've just posted on GL re how well he is finally going but it has been a very long and hard journey and he is seven in April, he definatly has mental issues but I've worked through them and he currently has minor tension in his back which is treated by an osteopath. I have no doubt he will compete at a decent level in Dressage but I will never jump him. Hacking well that is a whole different issue which has nothing to do with back and a huge amount to do with being a full of beans excitable beasty.
I honestly know what you are going through and I did consider euthanasia when things were at their worst as I felt I was faced with keeping a very young boisterous pet horse, however I bred him and the fact he was my beloved mares baby was probably his saving grace.
It is easy for me to say how I worked through problems as I'm a very experienced rider and competitor and if you are novice, I can't lie, it will be very hard work.
 
I eally feel for you. I had to make the decision on Friday. My horse went lame back in December, I took him to the vets following a particularly fierce bucking/rearing spree which ended up with me on the road on my back and my horse shaking like a leaf pressed up against a hedge, wondering what terrible thing I was going to do to him for his naughtiness. The vet diagnosed suspensory damage to the proximal ligament and medial branch. H had three months off but I still felt there was more going on - I explained this to the vet; sometimes in his box he would go completely blank as if he was in a trance, his body would tense, ears go back and eyes glaze over. It was as if he was experiencing pain in his back/quarters somewhere. The vet dismissed this. I got a physio out, she mentioned he was a horse in pain and started at the poll for his first treatment.

He went back to the clnic on Friday, 3 months after his suspensory disgnosis, and was still 1/10th lame. I managed this time to get his back x-rayed and surprise, surprise - many of his vertebrae were fused and mis-shapen where they'd been pulled in two different directions by the ligaments. I was advised surgery wasn't really going to help, they could remove every other bone but he would need working correctly to keep his topline and as he was still lame with no guarantee of fully recovering from the suspensory problems, it wasn't difficult for me to realise that euthanasia was the kindest option.

I did research KS a lot in December when I was trying to establish whether the behaviour my horse exhibited was similar to a horse with KS and many people have had success with the op. One thing to mention, my physio told me that there are specialist rehab yards who will bring the horse back into work following the op and your insurance should pay half of this cost - might help you?
 
Our story is quite similar to yours. Bought a horse (but did have him vetted which he passed with flying colours!!!) and he had KS which can not be picked up by a vetting.

He was similar to yours would buck bolt etc and became quite dangerous.

Diagnosed with KS last March and decided on the 4 hour drive to Willesleys for the op. It was a risk as we didn't really know the horse and he could have turned out to be not what we wanted.

Surgery went well but the KS had deteriorated quite quickly in the 4 weeks from the original diagnosis.

Svend was great and kept in contact with us the whole time Spike was with them.
Came home and the rehab started almost immdediatly. Inhand walking increasing up to an hour then after 6 weeks the intensive lunge programme started.

It all went so smoothly we were very lucky.

Back on him in 12 weeks and we had a new horse!!!

We are now nearly a year down the line and he is now hacking out happily (even I ride him now which I wouldn't before!!!)

He has a pleasure ride planned for March and it falls nearly a year to the day from the op. He is my partners horse and he just loves him - he is one special horse and we are so pleased we went through everything for him.

We didn't reach our insurance limit on him either.

If you need any advice please feel free to PM me.

Good luck
 
I am sorry to hear about your mare. I have the chiro out to my horse tommorow but I suspect he might have KS too. If he thinks he has I will get him xrayed at the clinic asap. My friends horse went to a blood bank down in Milton Keynes. He had inoperable KS. It is important to realise that the blood banks will only take certain types of horses, ie. the criteria I believe is over 16hh middleweight types that are capable of living without medication. They obviously have to be amenable types, good to lead, and be good out in company with other horses and be okay having their feet trimmed, etc.

I wish you luck however you decide to proceed and hope I do not have the same dilemena in a few weeks time myself. x
 
I sent my mare away for the rehab as i wanted it done properly and wanted her in a good routine, if you want details of where she is let me know, they are fantastic! unfortunately my insurance refused to cover this...and hospitalisation....and transport....as a result im broke and dare not use my card until i get paid!
 
my horse has had the op at willersley and ive never looked back he is so well now and pain free, even though im still not back on board after a year, due to personal reasons not him, but just started his rehab again.
Holly-p could you please pm me and tell me where you sent your horse for the rehab, and was it really exspensive?
If i never do get to ride my boy again i will retire him, and do not regret doing the op.
 
I would go with the surgery, we had a gelding on my yard, with a very similar story to yours. The vet wrote to the insurance company as did the owner and explained the situation and they paid out over the £5k mark I think the horse was insured with Petplan. He had exactly the same symptons as yours and he was operated on at Rossdales in Newmarket and had an authorised Physio afterwards and was a totally different horse in all I think it was 6 months before he was ready to compete.
 
Hi,

Sorry to but in on your post, but my mare has today been diagnosed (after 4 months of lamness issues) with KS and arthritis in the KS vertabraes. The vet did injections today.

Can anyone point me in the right direction as I need to find out more about it all.

Vet suggested I tried ridding her in 5 days, but I'm now worried I may do more damage to her back. I should of asked the vet at the time, but my head was in the clouds after he had diagnosed KS!

Jeffifer1 good luck with your girl. Do what you feel is best, but try not to rush into anything.

Thanks
Shanny
 
What injections did she have?
Spike had steroids and a long lasting local anaesthetic. This worked initialy but when they wore off (about 4 weeks) we were back to square 1.
I would advise you talk to Svend Kold and Willesleys. He is the one that operated on Spike and was a great source of information when we were making the decision to operate or not.
 
Hello to everyone who has been so kind in taking the time to read my post and reply with their experiences/knowledge.

My horse was assessed by Amanda Sutton, Equine Physio today and she's found a very sore spot on her withers......so sore that my horse went up and she feared if she kept on feeling the area that she'd go over. Amanda said t was not a nasty rear just one that told her she was in a lot of discomfort. She thought it looked like a scabby area that may have been caused by her heavy winter rugs but she's been stabled for weeks now and has much lighter rugs on. The vet came, sedated her, shaved the area, removed a scab but assured us that there' no infection or abscess. We're now concerned if this is masking the KS symptoms, if its a totally different thing altogether or if its the real reason she's been upset and bucking??? Amanda said she freely examined my horses KS problem area with no resistance or painful response from the horse, in fact she said she was closing her eyes and happy for her to fiddle about around the KS area in her lower back.

To the best of my knowledge the vet didn't examine this area. Amanda was a bit disappointed that though it has been advised my horse starts 4 weeks intensive lungeing from the ground with a pessoa training aid she felt that to not give her any pain relief is rather harsh. What does anyone think?

Now the dilemma has become somewhat more complicated. Amanda is advising getting this withers area thoroughly checked out. She also suggested my mare is sent for intensive rehab and physio for at least a month before any operation decisions are made. She said that up to 70% of horses have KS's (post mortem stuff) that never displayed symptoms! l don't know what to do. l guess the next right thing is to see if my insurer's will cover this if the vet agrees to put it in writing.

Amanda did say that at least if she's being rehab'd in a specialist yard they can give me an honest opinion about her prognosis.

Any feedback welcome...........and thanks again.

Jennifer x
 
I know Amanda well, lives next door to my parents. I am most intrigued that there was no pain when palpating the back area- that is very interesting and a very good sign indeed! I think if she is offering to have the horse in her yard and you can get the insurance to pay for it, that sounds like an excellent solution.Indeed it is true that a lot of horses have KS but never show symptons. When the horse is being rehabbed, ask the girls in the yard ( warner equestrian )if they can help with getting you back on board the mare and starting up a good relationship with her. Ask them specifically to do this- give you lessons etc, then you could somehow get the insurance to pay for the brunt of it at the same time ( not the lessons obv, but livery costs ) Sounds like a good move, I would go for it!
 
Thanks O_B, yes its a route l'd much rather take than surgery but the predicament l'm in is that as soon as l bought my mare l knew l'd outhorsed myself (was lied to about her height and racing history and dealer refused to have her back). l didn't want to just sell her on and when her bucking started l felt l shouldn't even have her up for sale as l knew something wasn't right. (l did seek legal advise and know l can sue the dealer but it would mean the mare going back to her and goodness knows who else she would stuff her into). Now she's mine l just feel l have a responsibility. l like the suggestion of riding etc but l'm too scared, she too big and athletic and l'm just not experienced enough. My hopes were to have her professionally schooled and then sell her on to a decent home, perhaps even an eventing home which is why l've stuck with it. She's presently down at an eventers being brought on but only after a few days of being there her bucking started, the KS's was dx and now Amanda's flagged something else up............l'm hoping the withers thing is an infection and that's all its been all along...........l can but hope.

Jennifer x
 
i am very sorry for you, you have really been dealt the s**t end of the stick. is the mare insured, because then you can at least get loss of use on her. I am really thinking that, hard as it will be, you will save yourself much more grief if you take the hardest option.
and also i know amandas practise pretty well. i would be inclined if you are going to keep the mare to take her advice. KS is a complete craze these days. i reckon alot of these horses would have been cured by six months off in the field because if kissing spines was that common, with all the advances in saddle design and such, its a wonder any of us ride at all. The trouble is as amanda says, horses can show a 'kissing spine' on an x-ray which means all investigation ends there, when like your mare, really detailed examination finds another probably unrelated back/spine problem.
it is still going to cost you money but if you are going to trust anyone trust amanda in this instance.
 
Hi just to add that if you can go the paliative route and if it works then great, it works for some and not for others and sadly not for mine, it is true that many horses have KS and cope well, possibly because they are kept well muscled enough and are ridden to a good enough standard that the muscling around the weak KS area is strong and helps support the back.

A technically correct rider is a light rider and in many many cases the horse can cope but if it carries itself incorrectly even though it is working, it can then cause other issues in the longer term. If you turn your horse away for 6 mths in a field the muscles will go and the back will deteriorate, it is IMO the worst thing you could possibly do if it is KS. Even with ground work and trying to take my horse the palliative route with injections in to the back, it wasn't good enough to stop this deterioration hence surgery and now a happy horse although as I said earlier it was a very hard choice and an emotional rollercoaster.

No one can make up your mind for you, but if KS is the underlying cause then as the horse ages, there is a strong chance that the back gets worse despite your best efforts.

My personal opinion is that you really need to clarify the problem before you consider rehab or op - could you ask your physio to talk to the vet about the withers etc. There is no point operating if your horse can cope with the KS in the back and actually the issue is elsewhere, similarly I wouldn't be wanting to pay to send your horse away for schooling if there is a problem not sorted that could cause more pain, you don't want your mare to fear working, she needs to feel positive about it and if there is pain no matter how sympathetic the place you send her too, she will still hurt and and be worried.

You sound as though you really trust your physio, if she is that good, personally I would consider investigating before you decide, try and establish whether she feels there is muscle damage, arthritus etc etc and proceed from there.
 
[ QUOTE ]
KS is a complete craze these days. i reckon alot of these horses would have been cured by six months off in the field because if kissing spines was that common, with all the advances in saddle design and such, its a wonder any of us ride at all. The trouble is as amanda says, horses can show a 'kissing spine' on an x-ray which means all investigation ends there, when like your mare, really detailed examination finds another probably unrelated back/spine problem.


[/ QUOTE ]

IME horses are usually only treated or operated on for kissing spine if they have responded positively to a nerve block of the area therefore proving it to be a site of pain and discomfort, or there is shown to be ongoing activity with a scintigraphy.

Vets are fully aware that not all KS cause a problem (or at least the specialist ones are which i hope would be involved in this type of problem) and that many horses will show them on X-ray without them being a clinical problem.
 
Thank you again everyone, all this feedback is helping me form a more informed decision...........l don't want to leave a stone unturned. My gut tells me the withers issue is more of a problem for Whoopi than her KS.

l will keep you posted but thanks so much. l'm relatively new to the forum and never realised what a great source of information and advice it would be for me..............all because we love our equines. x
 
Hi Jennfer

I can hear the desperation in your last post. If you want to pm me feel free I am happy to have a chat with you see if we can find some common behaviour which occurs with KS or if I have come across anything similar, I have received a large no of messages from various forum members concerned about their horses behaviour and linking it with KS and have been through terrible behaviour issues with my own ned so am happy to lend an ear.

Is she still being worked at the yard you have sent her too as if she is in pain she will just panic more and more. I really think you need to assess her underlying personality, is she gentle in other respects but just difficult under pressure? It may be there are other things going on too with your mare that you need to find out about to allow you to make some informed decisions. If she is papered can you get details of parents to see if their are any issues with them to give you some clues, some x-racers can suffer from other back issues etc etc

Hope you manage to find a way forward and let me know if you need to chat anything through
 
Hello and thanks Beth

My mare had to stop doing anything, and I mean absolutely anything. She got to the point she couldn't even be lunged without a rider, just nothing on her at all and she showed she was very uncomfortable. I've traced her to the woman who had her (for about 4 weeks....long story) late last summer but she was a very different looking horse then. She looked really well and meaty whereas when I had her she arrived with absolutely no topline and quite ribby. She has meated up again (and it cost a blurry fortune) but the photos I have of her when I tried her out show she hasn't any topline........and in the 2 weeks prior to her being delivered to me she seemed to have lost weight also. She had absolutely no energy until I had her on a regular feeding routine and then it was still lethargic. She is the sweetest natured horse I've ever known, a real poppet so I know her behaviour (because of the vet's investigations and the physio's report) is because of pain. It seems she was ok for a while to be ridden but in regular work she obviously started to feel it and having no muscles in her back her problems were exacerbated.....it explains why she's the only TB any of my horsey friends know that needed a whip to get her going (and no cruelty here I assure you). She just seemed SO slow and laid back and its obvious now it was because she didn't want to work too hard. We're back at the vets on Wednesday to have the withers x-rayed but my mare is still very stiff and up to recently she was still on daily bute. It breaks my heart as I went along to see the young woman who is keeping her for me compete at Stileman's today and she was fantastic........and we had such great hopes for a new career for my Whoopi. Its not looking good at all and even the possibility of her being able to be a light hack has been ruled out as she can no longer carry a lightweight rider. I'll know more of her future on Wednesday.

Thanks for your support anyway............I still cannot believe it all, she's only 6 and looks fabulous right now. I'm just thinking that if the only reason she came to me was to be looked at properly then that's ok with me. I couldn't countenance anyone having her and smacking her because they think she's being naughty when in fact she's in pain.

Must go and repay the sleep bank.............goodness knows how many hours I've spent wide awake worrying about all this and I think I've cried myself numb.

Jennifer x
 
Well if its any help I feel much the same way about Ryan who I bought as a 4yr old, I knew within 2 wks of buying him there was something not quite right, 5 years on we are muddling along nicely (with the odd fraught moment!).

He loves people so much he would get in the car with you and pop home if he had a choice, but some of his behaviour was so bad that it was recommended we consider PTS. He bronced an AII instructor round the school non stop for 45mins and tried to climb over a post and rail fence to get out of the school leading the instructor to ask me if he had been sold on because he was malicious, this was within a month of buying him. It was horrific, especially because I am pretty much novice and he was my first horse after loaning for years! I believe he didn't have the strength in his back to carry a rider and went through a great deal of pain unbeknown to us whilst he was getting fitter and that helped tick him over for a while.

When I fell pregnant he did a lot less work and lost muscle and I believe that is what then triggered the problems that had always existed as when we upped his work again he had the most spectacular tantrums.

I had spent 2 years trying to convince vets something was not quite right, he found it hard to track up, was stiff and would completely flip out if you asked him to go down a hill, he threw himself out of a field on to the road on a hack one day and we narrowly missed a car which was pretty frightening!

I am telling you this as we finally got a diagnosis and put him through an op nearly 3 yrs ago when he was 6 rising 7 and haven't looked back since, we re-backed and started from scratch. It has been very very hard, but immensely rewarding, resulting in my sobbing my heart out last week when my instructor told me that he was finally allowing himself to be ridden well enough, that with work and time she thought he could make it to do medium advanced dressage. (probably with a better rider than me I hasten to add!) I can't tell you how proud I am of how he has dealt with it all but it has taken so much time, work and commitment, which is why I always try to strike a balance when people ask me about KS and its issues.

It is clear to me that you love your mare and want to help so I think whatever decision you make will be the right one to protect her best interests. It sounds to me as though if you are determined to get to the bottom of this then maybe you need to get her scintigraphy scanned to find hot spots, it could be that if she has KS and lost condition she has lost the muscle that supports her back causing pain when worked equally it could be any number of other issues, a horse that is sore will react especially if they are sensitive souls. I know that willesley do a lot of these op's but I found Svend Kold very straightforward to speak to and if you ask the questions he will answer you honestly.

KS maynot be the cause of her pain but I am certain that something is hurting her badly to cause such a reaction. Ryan got to the stage where he reacted first before he could possibly be made to do something that hurts and that sounds to me to be the path your mare is on.

As I mentioned before if you want to chat further once she has been back to the vets, feel free to pm me and I will let you have my tel no.
 
Thanks BethH

Well the latest is that the vet feels she carries too many uncertainties for the spine surgery though he is willing to do it......he is a vet surgeon after all...it is the 12 weeks post op intensive rehab that I have to pay for that'll kill me financially and the fact that this is a horse I would never wish to ride myself again after my confidence being knocked out of me (not her fault, she was in pain).

My insurance company which could be called No Flippin' Use!! have said they'll pay for her surgery up to 5K but will not pay out for euthanisation (insured for at 2.5K) or loss of use (£750) for which my policy says I am covered for!? I'm incredulous and what the heck do I do now?

I cannot give my mare away, I couldn't bare the thought of her being drugged and sold on, she's way too TB to be a companion, she needs to live in in the winter anyway and she cannot be ridden as the vet said she's too dangerous to carry a rider and her KS's and bone spurs are right under where the saddle sits!..............and he even said that even if she had KS surgery there's no guarantee at all that she'll ever be rideable.

I'm now in a real dilemma as I am sure she's in pain anyway........rider or not. The vet said it was impossible to get her to even canter on a lunge line (that was without a saddle or anything on her at all). He spoke to that insurance company and their vet specialist said they wouldn't pay for a euthanasia claim even though my vet is fully supportive of that. I cannot give her away as I'm scared she'd end up as live export. What can I do? Apart from being even more out of pocket by paying for her to be pts myself.........what the heck was the point of my insurance?

Any feedback welcome.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top