My poor horse - need advice on shockwave therapy and kissing spines

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RachelMcTimoney

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www.mctimoney4animals.com
I am gutted after everything we've been through my 7 year old mare has been diagnosed as having mild kissing spine, two lumbar vertebrae are close and she has some deep soft tissue damage in the middle of her back.

Plan of action is shock wave and physio and injections, i know very little about the use of shockwave in spinal problems has anyone used it for kissing spines?

Has anyone found any relationship with colic? as this poor mare had colic surgery a few months ago and i'm wondering if potentially could be pain related?

Thank you!
 
Hey Im waiting to get my mare xrayed .... and the vet said if we find anything on the spine next step is shock wave therapy....

how did you find out about the KS?
 
One of mine has just had electric wave treatment - it has worked wonders for him and really loosened the muscles in his back (he was fighting with another horse and pulled both of the long muscles either side of his back).

I also bought him a magnetic rug. He loves having it on and stands really quietly (he is usually a fidget) and I also use it on my other horse who has a sacroiliac injury.

The EWT is not cheap though - mine cost £300 a session and he needed 2 sessions (although could have been anything up to 4 but I think the rug really helped). The treatment is non-invasive but they can sweat up a bit. It takes about an hour and they usually fall asleep except my boy spent the entire hour pawing at the ground and trying to eat the vet.
 
Hi Holly, she was xrayed yesterday and scanned also. If you mean re. symptoms her back was sore after 3months rest following surgery, previously myself and the physiotherapist thought she had a mild SI strain, but i knew something more serious when it hadnt changed after all that rest so got vet who agreed as still lot of muscle soreness.
Thank you both
 
As luck would have it, my other one has a mild sacroiliac injury so I know about that too!

He has muscle soreness near his pelvis as well caused by compensating for his SI injury. It was the reason that I had the vet out as he was not unlevel behind, he worked well through his back but I always felt a bit of tenderness after a ride. It wasnt a tack issue so thought perhaps he had done something to his back as well and then vet diagnosed aggravation of old SI injury.

He is having chiro for that - didnt need EWT although I do use the magnetic rug on him as well. With him it is more a case of keeping him in regular work, maximising t/o and keeping him supple.
 
Hi, your kissing spine issues sound reasonably mild so the 1st thing I would say is please don't panic. I know nothing about shockwave treatment but I do know a fair bit about KS as my horse had surgery 2yrs ago and is doing well, I have asked every question in the book about KS plus a few more!!

I suspect that if your mare has been out of work, then losing fitness could be the reason the problem has come to light, all the while she was being worked it was keeping the muscle in the back that supports the area where the bones are a problem strong. It is possible that palliative treatment will work as the problem is mild, the bones are only close not crossing and it is only in one area/1pair of bones, my horse had 2 sets of bones actually crossing and a 3rd touching and surgery has resolved the problem for him. The muscle damage could be possibly whereyour mare has been carrying herself incorrectly, possibly long term without you realising as this can be a common theme.

I would follow vets advice and give shockwave a go if they think it is beneficial and if you feel you can keep your mare supple and fit hopefully that will deal with the problem, I choose sugery as the palliative route didn't work for Ryan and as his back deteriorated, he was in pain and became dangerous on the ground and ridden, surgery is possibly the only way of a permanent solution.

The most important thing with the palliative route is to do your ground work correctly, use a pessoa and lunge/long reins so that she works very long and low in to an outline to lift and stretch the back out and strengthen it, that may well work. If you want to pm me to get any advice or chat about surgery please do so as I feel that Ryans experience was excellent and I am very positive about the way the surgeon operated on him. Iam happy to try and answer any questions you may have. As for the colic, I think you need to investigate this further if you opt for surgery and investigate post op success rates for horses going back into work, not suffering post op infection etc etc.



Good luck
 
My boy had shockwave therapy when he was diagnosed. He had about five vertebrae impinged so a lot more serve.

The first treatment went well and for about two weeks he was like his old self again but then after those initial weeks he started to seize up again. He then had a second treatment but that had no affect.

Unfortunately for us Surgery was not an option because our insurance company decided that because we had had a vet out two years prior to something relating to his back although not connected (we never claimed on it for insurance) they back dated an exclusion for the whole of his spine meaning that all treatment on his back would have to be out of our own pocket (which isnt very deep!). To be honest he was always a very sharp horse and never one to be a happy hacker so we wouldn’t have put him through it anyway.

Luckily for us we have somewhere that’s cheap to keep him on grass livery and he is as happy as larry.

Please don’t disappear though as my horse had quite an extreme case and I know many horses like yours who have responded well from shockwave, injections and the operation and these days the success rate seems a lot higher than when I went though it with my boy.

Good luck x
 
Hiya, Your mare sounds exactly like my boy, he has 2 close vertebrae, not sure which ones, he also has what can only be described as a hole in the tendon/ligament thing that runs along the spine - sorry not too good at the vets jargon and add to all that he has such wafer thin soles on his feet that if a stone pierced through the sole it would go into the bones in his feet! Anyway to cut a long story short he has been having shock wave on his back, he had the first session when he had, had all his tests, then 2 weeks later he had another session and 2 weeks after that he had his last one - that was on Friday just gone. It can be uncomfortable and they sometimes need to be sedated 9it is almost like a hammer drill without the drill banging up and down on them - sorry that is the only way I can describe it, it only lasts for about 5 mins if that and it kind of gives them a pain relief effect for about 48 hours after. It isn't anything to be worried about and I completely trust my vet, he now has to wait for 4 weeks before they can scan him to see if there is any change. The vertabrae thing apparently was not as 'concerning' as this damage to the ligament/tendon thing so they are not going in for treatment on that for the time being. Perhaps you could ask them not to do all the treatment at once otherwise you will never know what actually was the best treatment. My vet wanted to do one thing at a time to rule out what was helping what. I hope some of this makes sense - not great at explaining things
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but if you want any more info let me know. And don't worry too much - god I was in tears on the first nerve block before we even had any ideas!!
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