Please help - Kissing spines and SI problems

tzar31

tzar31

Member
Joined
15 January 2012
Messages
12
Visit site
After some advice and words of encouragement during a difficult situation, it's quite complicated so I thought I would bullet point the important bits
- Radley is a 10year old Irish cob
- Since buying he was always had regular physio sessions and saddle checks because he suffered from a sore back soon after buying him
- Over summer he competed in local shows
- In December he started to become unwilling to work forward and after X-rays he was diagnosed with kissing spines
- Dec-Feb in hand walking and long reining in straight lines until surgery to keep him as fit as possible
- Feb he had the ligament snip op which went well
- We followed vets rehab instructions perfectly
- Week 11 still at the ground work stage he began to show signs of unwillingness
- Back to the vets and he failed hind flexion tests and showed pain the SI region as well as his vertebra starting to close up due to working incorrectly
-Thermal imaging showed extensive heat all along the Lumbar area and shoulders
- His SI joint was medicated, which hasnt worked
- As a last attempt he is now on pain relief and muscle relaxants to encourage him to work correctly long and low in walk for 3 weeks

Radley is on his 2nd week of the walk exercise however he is still unwilling to stretch down and work correctly, does anyone have any first hand experience with any of the above. Or does anyone have any exercises or gadgets to force working correctly. Sounds harsh but the vets have said the only hope we have of getting him through this is to force him to do it so that he uses himself correctly.

Thanks in advance, looking for a miracle answer if possible 😀
 
I know some KS horses are rehabbed using a pessoa to encourage, or force the head down, back up that you are trying to get, there is no reason this cannot be used while walking in hand as well as lunging. Your physio should be able to give you exercises specifically aimed at your horse and his issues but I made up a few when rehabbing mine from a serious SI strain.

Not sure if you are riding or not, if riding use the dreaded draw reins, they may not be popular but they have their uses and in this case they may be exactly what you need to get him right down low, in the short term they will do no harm and as it is the last resort you have little to lose.

I did a lot of walking over poles and experimented to find what worked best, one of the most useful was to build a staircase effect with each pole slightly high than the previous one all at the correct distance for him to walk over taking a slightly higher step each time, I think I had 5 poles in the end any more would have been too high. Also walking him around my yard where he could step up and down going through the barn, you need things that make him focus looking down, possibly a sheepskin noseband would help, I found I had to keep changing things from day to day, going back to something each day became uninteresting.

Other things, poles set out like the spokes of a wheel, making him spiral in and out, raised poles, raised alternate ends, space them randomly and wander over them so he never knows where the next one will be, use your imagination, I am lucky it is my yard and I have a lit of poles that I can leave out which may not be possible if you are on a livery yard.

I also did stretches which I am sure you are already doing, I did them twice a day and my physio made up a new one just for H, I had to pick up each hind leg and get him to reach round me for a carrot while his foot was held up just off the ground, he found this almost impossible to start with but over a few days he started to pick the foot up in anticipation, he still enjoys this stretch and I could really see his back lifting when he did it.
 
I am so sorry to read this. I unfortunately have not one but two sets of experience of this. First was a TB ex chaser. It was a horrible end, I'm afraid. He got very aggressive as a result of all the pain, and the weeks and weeks of rehab did nothing except exacerbate the SI injury. We lunged in a passoa and an equiami for weeks and he ended up with huge shoulders and even less backside than he started with as he just used to haul himself along. He was PTS before he killed me.

The second is in a field in Gloucestershire with one of our HHO members. He is the ISH in my avatar. He was all but written off due to a crushed lumbosacral joint (not KS, fortunately) and torn left hind suspensory by Sue Dyson at the AHT.

He's had 2 years off - was supposed to be a year but I've not been in a position to do anything. He showed great improvement with the ArcEquine but the main recommendation was a year off out 24/7 somewhere hilly. That wasn't very easy to achieve living in the Fens as we were but thanks to him freaking out with fireworks we had to move him fast and _GG_ came to our rescue. She has done wonders letting him be a horse in a herd with hills. We're just going to see whether he will work now as he is sound as a pound, and jumps electric fences and gates from a trot.

I think that with SI injuries rest is really the only cure. A year of constant grazing head down on hills would probably be the greatest healer.

Good luck and again I am so sorry.
 
Wow thank you for all your advice, the pole exercises sound great. The physio has given us some exercises and we are using the equi ami but unfortunately Radley is still managing to evade them by fixing his head, over bending or tripping over the poles. He hasn't been ridden now for 6 months so riding isn't an option especially with him on high doses of painrelief and muscle relaxants. He has been doing carrot stretches for the last 6 months and seems to enjoy these, although he even became unhappy doing these a few weeks ago.

I hope your boy has recovered well, you sound like you have put 100% into his rehab
 
HeresHoping said:
I am so sorry to read this. I unfortunately have not one but two sets of experience of this. First was a TB ex chaser. It was a horrible end, I'm afraid. He got very aggressive as a result of all the pain, and the weeks and weeks of rehab did nothing except exacerbate the SI injury. We lunged in a passoa and an equiami for weeks and he ended up with huge shoulders and even less backside than he started with as he just used to haul himself along. He was PTS before he killed me.

The second is in a field in Gloucestershire with one of our HHO members. He is the ISH in my avatar. He was all but written off due to a crushed lumbosacral joint (not KS, fortunately) and torn left hind suspensory by Sue Dyson at the AHT.

He's had 2 years off - was supposed to be a year but I've not been in a position to do anything. He showed great improvement with the ArcEquine but the main recommendation was a year off out 24/7 somewhere hilly. That wasn't very easy to achieve living in the Fens as we were but thanks to him freaking out with fireworks we had to move him fast and _GG_ came to our rescue. She has done wonders letting him be a horse in a herd with hills. We're just going to see whether he will work now as he is sound as a pound, and jumps electric fences and gates from a trot.

I think that with SI injuries rest is really the only cure. A year of constant grazing head down on hills would probably be the greatest healer.

Good luck and again I am so sorry.
Click to expand...



You really have had your fair share, I have everything crossed it works out for you this time he looks like a very handsome boy and it's time you had some luck. Time out to be a horse can be a great healer but in this situation from what I remember the vet saying time out won't help Radleys SI problem because it has likely been aggravated from time off as well as never using himself properly his whole ridden life. His muscles holding the pelvis together have become weak and therefore causes pain when asked to work
 
Have you tried the lunging rope by that I mean over the back through the front legs to the bit ?
I would try that in walk only at first over poles dotted about loops ,raise the poles on one side randomly .
I would work in very short bursts working up to no more than then then minutes three times a day .
I would try to find an ACPAT trained physio with a special interest in rehab work , and I would have weekly physio sessions to try to keep him comfy
I would try working the horse while on pain relief .
Try to keep the horse outside bringing him in only to work .feed him only from the floor if he must be in .
If your not experienced with this type of work find someone who is to help you , you can't do this unless you have the experience and have been trained to see what your looking for .
If the horse was calm I would lead him in walk from another horse.
Has he had nerve blocks to the feet and hocks ? if not I would have had them done you may well have a problem somewhere else as well .
Finally I would consider turning him away for a good while it would have to be done in the right place a large hilly field with other horses would be perfect A small flat paddock might do more harm than good .
What's his foot balance like OP ?
 
Can he not have the bone cutting op? The ligament snipping op has never made sense to me, it deprives the structure of lateral stability.....
 
Thank you so much everyone for all your helpful advice and words of encouragement it is really appreciated. Hopefully we will be able to update you with a succes story in a few weeks time, but for now we will look forward to seeing the small improvements he makes
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top