Kissing Spines

[Caritas]

Common now, how many people on this forum have horse that have or have had kissing spines? How many have had the op? And what were your outcomes? Just interested in all of your views and piccys pre and post op if you have some!! My horse had the op nearly a year ago now and is doing great, back working at medium level dressage, starting his changes and doind a little piaffe.

 

[jayvee]

A gents heavy hunter type was tried on a days hunting with manners to die for, had it 5* vetted (passed), was a kind person, and so purchased.
4 mths into ownership it started to get grumpy and started to broncho buck! Had the horse x-rayed and showed up with severe kissing spines in 3places. the horse was not insured and the owner was on the heavy side (shall we say). Owner decided not to have op (due to not being insured)! So the horse eventually went to a charity rest home for retirement (aged 10) they couldn't bare pts.
I personally feel if the horse had the op (and assuming succesful) it would have only been suitable for a light weight rider and not the rider it should have been able to carry.
In hindsight the horse must have been unfit as the problem showed when more work was asked. Also it questions the pre-purchase vetting it had. Our vet did a simple test (by pulling the tail side to side to flex the spine) and the horse was very guarded and pretty ridged and showed no normal flextion and also did not have a reflex (ie dipping back) to a penny being run along the back.
The horses I have viewd since I have carried this simple test out myself! Another lesson learnt.

 

[Bert&Maud]

As previously reported, current horse undergoing drug treatment for KS. I'm also researching the possibility of saddle/girth issues, as something happened to him to make this problem worse - if you read the research on "Total Saddle Solutions" website you will find that if you have any experience of KS many of the problems reported there are very familiar! Will probably go for the Kay Humphries/Barry Swaine one though - does anyone have any experience of these? Previous horse also had KS, eventually diagnosed at 14 years of age after a lifetime of bronco bucking when first mounted, and operated on by John Walmsley. I was never convinced that it was entirely successful, as until he was PTS at the age of 25 you always had to be very careful when you got on him, but some of that may have been memory of 14 years of discomfort. I should add that I only got him when he was 13, so it wasn't me who put him through all those years of pain!

 

[LucyDT]

My 9yo DWBxTB, who I had only owned for a couple of months, had an op for kissing spines last May (see my previous posts). All went well post-op, he came back into regular work and we'd just started doing some dressage.

Then in Feb this year he went lame. A total barrage of investigations revealed that he had (amongst other things) nerve damage, which would have been caused by the spines 'kissing' for a number of years prior to him being diagnosed.

He has now had to be completely retired and is looking like a big shaggy pony! He's happy and not in pain provided he's not ridden. I feel bad that I put him through all the stress of surgery when it hasn't helped him at all, but I suppose at least we gave him a chance.

 

[BethH]

Hi Caritas

We are continuing to do well - nice canter in my lesson yesterday! Progress indeed! Very sound, had physio check on Tuesday and he is in a better state now than most horses my physio sees - quite a feat bearing in mind op only 8 months ago and absolutely no pain or soreness in the area at all, even having calm hacks out alone for up to an hour! Well worth having the op!