Medicating a kissing spine

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blackpony

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My horse has a slight kissing spine under the saddle area, which causes a bit of inflammation which shows as a raised bump on his back. He has been injected with cortisone which seems to of worked, he never showed any really bad reactions just lack of going forward and stretching down.
The injection was four months ago and I'm working hard at keeping him muscled. but I wanted to know how long before I can re inject and does anyone have any experience of managing this problem.
Is there anything else I can do ?
As it's slight I'm seeing if we can avoid surgery unless it's necessary.
So any advice or experiences would be welcome.
 
I would highly recommend getting Kay Humphries to look at your saddle. She is extremely experienced in fitting saddles to horses with problems. My horse has KS, and although no longer able to compete, is very happy hacking about in the saddle which Kay adapted for his condition. We also used physio and a lot of lungeing in a Pessoa.
 
Technically it is safe to reinject after 6 weeks as that's how long the steroids stay in the system. However I don't think vets would be keen to regularly inject that often. I was told that most horses need doing every 6 - 12 months, though mine lasted 2 years - he has just been re-done as he had a relapse.

Keeping the horse fit and well muscled as you are doing is the key.

Could I ask how soon after the injection your horse showed an improvemen?
 
When my horse was first injected he was quite sore, so I gave him a week off then started lunging, the difference in stretching down was pretty instant, then probably slightly longer when I started riding as I think he thought it was going to hurt, rather than did.
As the intial reaction to the injection wasn't good I gave him a course of bute, which helped with the swelling.

In terms of riding at the moment he seems fine, but i do get a small bit of heat in the area of the lump but no pain reaction.
I was hoping to avoid injecting too soon, I've also given him a joint supplement and was considering a flaired saddle.
But hence the post, I know I'm not the only one who has this issue and wondered if there's anything else that helps.
The horse is exercised 5/6days per week so he's nice and fit with good muscle tone. Lots of pessoa work with that too.
 
Mine had a raised bump on his back-It looked like a little bit of raised muscle on his back. This was rectified by a Mctimoney Chiropractor. It is a vertebrate that is slightly out of place, the chiropractor just knocks it back into place, and hey presto the back is all flat and smooth- no bump there anymore!
Not sure that is the same as yours but sounds similar. This does happen in horses and is unrelated to the KS

As for reinjecting, ONLY reinject if the horse is in dire pain and is obviously very uncomfortable under saddle. You really dont want to give too many cortisone injections, because they cause progressive damage to the cartliage in the long term. If the horse is going well I would leave him be,.
 
My boy's KS was injected 5 months ago, there was only a slight change in his was of going, more noticable on the lunge. We've had other issues to consider as well but we're back in work and now aiming on building muscles!!

I won't consider injecting again unless he starts showing pain through his back again. I'm currently looking at different saddles to aid his back muscle development, we're currently in a Saddle Company saddle though I don't think this suits either of us. I would LOVE a Barry Swain saddle though not sure finances will stretch this fair, I'm hopefully trying a Wow saddle as soon as I can get a fitter out.
 
My mare had kissing spine quite badly in 2 places, I opted for the physio instead of surgery which involved pushing her spine up and apart with lots of excersise. She was worked in an outline with lunging and riding eventually and when she came back to me from the back clinic she looked a differnet horse. I done the Badminton ride x-country on her the week after she came back, it just took a lot of work keeping her in that prime fitness, she had to ridden or lunged in an outline all the time, and couldnt have more than a day or two off from excersise incase she lost that shape, just like a body builder really, hard work but good if you got the time to put in.
 
My dressage horse was diagnosed with kissing spine directly under the saddle area 9yrs ago! he used to struggle slightly with half pass and other lateral work but managed ok so long as I had him working very light and up in a dressage position with his neck & shoulders. I am fortunate to be married to a Vet so I discussed at length the pro's & cons of surgery but my husband felt he would be fine to avoid the op! 9yrs on he still works at top end medium level but I maintain this by lungeing him in a pessoa 4 times a week and regular physio which has almost made the swelling around the vertibrae disappear, he has a maintainance of 1 bute sachet daily as he is now 14 but works & looks like a 6 yr old. Hope this helps. Good luck
 
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