Put yourself in my shoes - WWYD?

What a horrible situation
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personally I would get a second opinion from Willesley regardless of whats found, but from your opening post 1 & 2 pts and 3 if there was a good prognosis operate.
I suspect from the way you worded it that were it me posting and you answering than sadly you would be saying the same as me.
 
To update!

Xrays of the neck and fetlock were absolutely clear, so for the time being they are being ruled out.
KS was confirmed, T12-16.

The plan of action of for Boo to trial a new therapy, called Mesotherapy. It involves a cocktail of long acting anti-inflammatories, steroids and Seropin, which is an anti-irritant. They are all injected just under the skin along her back, and if all goes well I should have a 'normal' horse in a fairly short period of time. The effects could last anything from a few weeks to 12 months or more.
It should break the cycle long enough for me to be able to begin to work her properly and do a whole load of physio stuff to strengthen her back up. Depending on how that goes we might opt for surgery in 10months or so, before the insurance runs out.

If there is no improvement at all with the mesotherapy then we will continue pursuing the neurological aspect of it all.

The neck - there is obviously something brewing there, even if it is not clear on xrays so that will have a close eye kept on it. Can chiropractors influence C4/5 under all that muscle? (that's a question for you to answer TPO! ) I'm sure the physio will have some massages and stretches too.

I am so pleased to have her back home - poor pony is ultra stressed
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but hopefully she will settle by the morning.
 
There are 4* horses out there competing with injections to the spine for KS, so I'd say that you're in with a fighting chance now!

Hope it does the trick for her...........
 
re Option 1.
Sadly I had this scenario some years ago. However in my case operating wasn't an option. The options I was given were to just retire him to the field and just wait for the day when he maybe rolled and couldn't get up again.
I tried the retirement route, but I have never in all my years seen a horse so unhappy so I made the enormously sad decision to PTS. It broke the hearts of myself and my OH and son, but we truly feel we did the right thing for the horse.
I had insurance, but not for Loss of Use. They paid the vets fees (He had been to Cambridge vet school etc) but would not pay his value for being PTS.
God how I still miss him. He was our horse of a lifetime.
Not sure if this helps you but whatever you decide you will know you have done your best for the horse.
 
Bounty I'm so sorry - have read all your posts, what a nightmare. I don't know what I'd do in your position. I just had a couple of things to add:

1) Ronnie only really sweats on one side (but no sign of other neurological problems) - perhaps just a quirk in some cases?

2) My old mare, Cass, was bone scanned about 13 years ago at Cambridge as she was about 0.5 of a tenth lame in front. They found spinal compression and offered to PTS there and then as they could see no hope, they said it was so severe her back end would lose control in days and that would be that. My vet refused to give up on her so did loads of research and found out about the early pre-cursor to cortaflex-type stuff, imported from USA at great expense. Needless to say, it worked a miracle - not only did Cass survive to her dotage, she also came completely sound. I didn't push it and she was a field ornament after that, but I think she could have been ridden.

BUT, and it's a big BUT, if your horse is real competition prospect, I'm not sure how the spinal compression treatment could allow 101% function to allow her full potential to be reached. And she's very young to be a field ornament forever.

Thinking of you x
 
Hi Bounty

Glad you've got something more definite to go on now.

I'm in no way qualified to answer that but from what we've been getting trained and what my lecturer says then the answer is yes. I'm presuming you got my email; that's my work address so won't pick up any reply until Monday.

If you want I can get the contact details for the lady I was telling you about and a chat with her might answer some questions for you? Or if you want to email me a synopsis of the issues I can forward that on her so she's got a chance to think about it before getting in touch with you?

Let me know if there's anything I can do. All the best
 
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