Sacroiliac / Supraspinous ligament damage

pinklilly

pinklilly

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 January 2008
Messages
967
Location
Northumberland
Visit site
Any one any experience of sacroiliac joint problems or damage to the supraspinous ligament? My horse may have both, fairly certain about the sacroiliac joint but the other is a maybe at the moment. Had vet and mctimoney person out, he's going for scintigraphy but its going to be after xmas and new year now. The horse is an 8 year old ex-hurdler/chaser, symptoms are really just a very sore back, not lame but looks to be not tracking up with both hinds, rotated pelvis and muscle wastage. Gone from being ridden every day to not being able to be ridden at all in a month and a half. Neither vet or backman very optimistic. Any advice or experience? Thanks in advance!
 
If you do a search for supraspinous ligament problems you may come up with a couple of previous threads.

We rehabbed a race horse with this problem last year. He was referred to me by my phsyio.

Tom, the horse, was essentially on box rest with some gentle walking on our oval horsewalker. He was seen by the McTimoney chiro a couple of times during his stay and regularly saw the physio. At first he say the physio about 3 times a week but over time this was reduced.

As well as the laser treatment and use of traumeal we also used the back on track rug on him.

Tom had a bone scan prior to coming to check there was nothing more sinister going on but was given the all clear by the vet.

I believe his symptoms were that rather than pushing from behind he pulled himself along in front. this then led to a concussion type laminitis in his front feet which also had to be monitored.

I hope you can get your boy sorted. If you have any further question please don't hesitate to get in touch
 
My TB, Happy, came to me out of training in May last year and we had a few back issues which came to light after a local saddler fitted a saddle which caused him to get large white patches in the hollows of his withers. We got him right and he was going fantastically well, flying over hedges etc until he slipped going warpspeed down a v.steep hill in the snow and doing an emergency stop to avoid going through the back of our yard.

He didn't move as freely after that and started dragging his hind feet. He was diagnosed with spavin and had hocks injected as well as physio but still dragged feet. Had back scanned and he had large tears in his supraspinous ligament.

He had stem cell done in August of this year and has been turned away ever since. we are leaving him till March and will bring him back into work then. No idea if its worked but he's certainly not sore at all anymore. Will tell you more in March!! Thankfully he's covered by insurance.
 
Thank you for your replies. I've only had him since the beginning of September this year, he finished racing in May this year and was turned away until the end of August. Rode everyday, did a funride and a morning hunting then he had 4 days off as it was half term, the horses were really looning about in the field and the next day wasn't quite sound. Just a slight shortening of stride on his near-fore, and very tight in his back.

Had the backman out and gave him about 3 weeks off, restarted work, pulled shoe off on his off-fore, was foot sore and slightly lame.

Restarted work, didn't want tacked up. Reared, (hes never reared, very laid back and willing ) seemed uncomfortable, poking nose / twisting head / hanging.

Was very sore in his back, had saddler check saddle, it was ok, the saddler thought spinal problem.

Had the vet out, she is bypassing lameness workups at surgery to go straight for scintigraphy as he was terrified of her and had to be sedated twice.

And the backman looked at him today and he thinks theres damage to the supraspinous ligament as well as the sacrioliac joint. And thats it so far!
 
My horse was eventually found to have some lesions and areas of fluid in the supraspinous ligament following a history of bronching and muscle tightness through her back. It was picked up by my physio, who noticed some spots of heat and soreness and the vet then diagnosed it with ultrasound. She had steroid injections on the site of the lesions and a 6 month rehab programme on the lunge and with regular physio. Unfortunately she still wasn't right afterwards, but whether the ligament is the problem it's impossible to say.

I was told by the vet that lesions in the supraspinous ligament often go hand in hand with kissing spine, as the dorsal spinous processes effectively pinch the ligament. This isn't the case with my horse though. I think the prognosis is also better if it's an acute injury/can be linked to a trauma.

She had previously had scintigraphy when the bronching was initially investigated, but it didn't show up anything. Ultrasound would be the cheapest and simplest way of diagnosing the ligament injury, however scintigraphy would obviously be valuable if you suspected something else was going on as well.

Hope that's of some help!
 
p.s Guildford, do you know how much the stem cell treatment cost?

Unfortunately I have an exclusion on my insurance but this was never offered to me as an option.
 
I think it cost about £850 from my vets. Our total bill so far is about £3,000 but he's had his hocks done twice, numerous vets visits, shockwave, Tildren - you name it!! They threw everything at him.

I saw him yesterday and there is absolutely no reaction to any kind of contact on his back. He's def. improved!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top