Oh God!! Fred Is Missing A Vertebrae!!!

F

fredthoroughbred

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I hope someone can maybe help me!!

I took Fred on a mass journey to the vets in Glasgow today to hopefully get to the bottom of his lameness issues. My vet at home had done flexion tests and referred me to Glasgow with a lame off hind and near fore.
The vet in Glasgow confirmed this after more flexion tests, lunging etc and so I had hoped the next stage would be to nerve block and x-ray him. The vet wanted to do a bone scan which we are unable to do at the moment because we are really pressed for time to go and collect him in a week.
So I asked if whilst we had the equipment and everything to hand could we perhaps x-ray his back where there has always been a large hard lump followed by a dip. After lots of ooing and ahhing and making comments like "there really is no point without doing a bone scan" and the vet feeling his back and saying that if felt "normal" they decided, begrudgingly, to do it. Anyway, the x-rays came back and I couldn't believe what I was seeing...Fred has a vertebrae completely missing!!!! I have never heard of this and I have no idea what to do next as all the vets think that the lameness is still caused by some leg/pelvis related problem but I just think that it's a little weird that he is missing quite an important part of his spine and he is lame on his diagonal!!!
Does anyone have an opinion or a similar experience???
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were the vets concerned about the missing vertebrae? I seem to remember that certain breeds of horses do have a different number of lumbar (??) vertebrae.
 
Well I think they were a bit shocked that they hadn't noticed it themselves so didn't seem to talk much about it
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The x-ray actually showed a large gap between his vertebrae where one has been removed. What the vets did say was that if he had kissing spine, they sometimes remove it but I have absolutely no idea about treatments for KS so I am a bit lost...HELP!!
 
ne of the top chaps for kissing spines is Sven Kold. He did one of ours and it is back eventing. The man is a genious.
 
I know, that's what I thought and I think they would have been helpful had they done all the examinations they had wanted to do but I really don't have time to go and pick him up in a week because I live miles away and also a bone scan is such an invasive procedure, I would rather not leave him at all during this time.
I know I should have asked more questions but I was so flabbergasted and shocked I didn't really know what to say. They injected some of his other vertebrae with steroids and gave me a two week course of bute so I will phone them in a fortnight if there is any change. Do you think I should ask a chiropractor for their advice or just leave it for now??? Very odd situation
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Hi Scotsmare,

We are up near Arisaig/Fort William...My vet said he would phone the vets and get it in laymans terms but I think I fully understood what the vet said, frankly not very much!! but for now I think I will give Fred a couple of weeks and reassess him then. I feel really crap about the whole thing as none of my horsey friends have heard of anything like this and I want to do what's best for Fred but I don't know what route to go down without using the dreaded bone scan
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So is the thinking that he had KS surgery before you bought him?
Did you know about that?

Bone scans arent at all invasive, they can be a very good diagnosis tool
 
It's not really that I have anything against them but I do think they are quite a big deal and I live three hours away from the vets and I would rather be there. Also, if I had left him there, I wouldn't be able to pick him up for at least two weeks and the bone scan alone is very expensive.
They think he has had the operation for kissing spine, I had no idea about this when I bought him. I was working at a riding school in Cornwall and I fell in love with him and the owners were talking about selling him back to the dealer so I said I would buy him instead
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I always new he had a lameness issue but I would have thought out of all the back people, vets, saddle fitters etc someone might have picked it up
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Anyway, this is unimportant now, I just want to know if his lameness could be mechanically or clinically caused by having kissing spine or having the operation for kissing spine??? If I could find this out then I would rather not have the bone scan and put him through another long, horrid (the dreaded Loch Lommond stretch
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) journey to the vets.
 
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