News on Spike

[Halfpass]

Ok so Spike is now nearly 7 weeks post KS op and seems to have developed a strange hollow to one side of his operation site.

We started to do a small amount of lunge work with him and on his left rein he just looks so lovely

You can actually see his back moving and him using it which is a totally change to before the op. I must admit I did nearly cry

On the left rein however which is the side where this hollow is although better than pre op he still looked awkward and uncomfy

I called our local vet who before coming to see us tried to get hold of Svend. Those of you that have been to Willesleys will know how hard this is!!! So he came out anyway and his thoughts were nerve damage leading to severe muschle wastage - this is what I had already thought. I was mortified, it turns out of all the KS ops Svend has done only 4 have had this happen - Why us??!!

Anyway Spike is also 1/10th lame on the right hind which isn't suprising really.
So the plan from Svend was to start him on Danillon and carry on working him as planned.

Well I lunged him yesterday and tightened the Pessoa up as instructed by Svend and wow what a difference. That horse can really work well

I have only ever known him with KS so to see him moving so beautifully is a real treat. He is only doing about 10 mins on each rein (mostly in a good active walk with short bursts of trot) so far but I am amazed at how fit the walking out for an hour a day has kept him.

We are not sure how this muscle wastage will pan out. Vet hopes that with proper work it will rectify itself mostly. However the area is quite large so may take sometime to completley recover if at all

Hope to introduce some raised poles in the nexy week or so and will try and get some piccies of our lovely boy. He is looking more like a proper horse now as he has had all his feathers chopped off his mane pulled and his tail cut too. Looks very smart

 

[BethH]

Hiya, read 1st half of your post and was about to tell you not to panic and then read the second half and thought great!

The fact that he can move well is a really good sign will keep my fingers crossed for you that it all sorts itself out, don't forget to take some photos or video clips as it is amazing how they continually improve and change am so pleased he is doing well. 2 yrs on Ryan is still getting better and better. We have spent so long with him teaching him how to use his legs again, he looked a really odd shape to start off with as he had held himself incorrectly for years and was muscled in the the wrong places. At one point I has to put a post on here about tying up as I had the vet out to see him, he started looking really odd in his movement again and went really stiff behind, you can imagine I had a bit of a panic and a few tears at that point, but it has all sorted itself out and he is going well, Mandy said that she couldn't tell Ryan had op just by looking at working him in the school, so I think although it may take a while to sort it, there is a good chance you will be fine, have you introduced some physio or sports massage yet for him?

By the way, one of our setbacks was when I introduced Ryan to the ground poles, he got a bit cocky when he saw them, blundered through them and tripped and landed on one jarring his back really badly, am only mentioning it so that you can make sure Spike is going well and paying attention to his speed as it set me back about 6wks and cost me a load in physio bills!!! Think Ryan thought I hadn't paid out any vet bills for a couple of weeks so he would give it another go!

Let us know how you get on and give Spike a hug from me, he sounds as though he has been really brave.