Spondylitis and Kissing Spine

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welshy101

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My horse has been diagnosed with spondylitis and kissing spine. I was told they could correct the kissing spine but not the spondylitis and the spondylitis is what is causing the problem.

Anyone else had the same? What were your horses symptoms?

My horses were:
Unwilliness to work from behind
Lame on uneven ground
When riden took longer to warm up due to stiffness
Over-reaction to the smallest changes. For example, if there was slightly too much flocking in the saddle hed go cold-backed. One tiny spook would quickly escalate.

I had his back checked every year, always resulted in slight adjustments but nothing big. Vet was even reluctant to xray.

I can find no information on this at all except in forums and even then people seem to be getting spondylitis and kissing spine confused.
 
My horse went to Svend Kold at Willesley Equine clinic in Gloucestershire to have a KS op 8yrs ago, he has done well ever since (apart from an unrelated problem this year). Svend is a brilliant expert at this sort of thing. Not sure about the spondylitis as I am guessing that is some sort of compression, but if you wanted a second opinion on the xrays he might be a good person to talk to, there seem to be many ways to help KS these days. The symptoms you describe fit. As an aside my friend has a ks pony with damaged/compressed discs and now she drives him so he doesn't have to bear the weight of a rider and has proved to be brilliant at carriage competitions! Everyone thinks that KS is fusion of the spinal processes but in fact this is incredibly rare - I would just clarify exactly what & where the spondylitis is so you can understand exactly the impact on your horse. Fingers crossed for you.
 
welshy101 said:
My horse has been diagnosed with spondylitis and kissing spine. I was told they could correct the kissing spine but not the spondylitis and the spondylitis is what is causing the problem.

Anyone else had the same? What were your horses symptoms?

My horses were:
Unwilliness to work from behind
Lame on uneven ground
When riden took longer to warm up due to stiffness
Over-reaction to the smallest changes. For example, if there was slightly too much flocking in the saddle hed go cold-backed. One tiny spook would quickly escalate.

I had his back checked every year, always resulted in slight adjustments but nothing big. Vet was even reluctant to xray.

I can find no information on this at all except in forums and even then people seem to be getting spondylitis and kissing spine confused.
Click to expand...

Hello

I have never heard of this condition so probably cannot advise but my horse sounds very similar to yours even after KS surgery. How was the spondylitis diagnosed, you mention X-rays but has the horse had nerve blocks or scintigraphy to narrow the problem down further?
 
Last year my 12 year old warmblood was diagnosed by Newmarket Equine after a bone scan as having 8-10 impinging dorsal processes and active spondoloyis. I wasn't able to get much info on the spondoloyis as it is pretty rare in horses. They said that there was no treatment as such, as even though you could treat the KS, there was nothing that could be done for the spondoloyis. I think they expected me to PTS, as they said she was unrideable but as she is field sound and happy she is just a pet.
 
So yes, Newmarket Equine told me that there is nothing they can do for spondylitis as they simply cannot get to the effected areas to work on them (underside of the vertebrae) I saw the radiographs of my mare's back following her bone scan and it was all a fused mess. Poor girl.
 
BethH said:
My horse went to Svend Kold at Willesley Equine clinic in Gloucestershire to have a KS op 8yrs ago, he has done well ever since (apart from an unrelated problem this year). Svend is a brilliant expert at this sort of thing. Not sure about the spondylitis as I am guessing that is some sort of compression, but if you wanted a second opinion on the xrays he might be a good person to talk to, there seem to be many ways to help KS these days. The symptoms you describe fit. As an aside my friend has a ks pony with damaged/compressed discs and now she drives him so he doesn't have to bear the weight of a rider and has proved to be brilliant at carriage competitions! Everyone thinks that KS is fusion of the spinal processes but in fact this is incredibly rare - I would just clarify exactly what & where the spondylitis is so you can understand exactly the impact on your horse. Fingers crossed for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks BethH thats where my boy went, Svend was brilliant. He suggested I retire my boy completely. Said there is a small chance of the bones fusing together but hes never seen it happen to a horse and that he has only seen spondylitis on 5 other horses (all older). On the other hand he said as my boy is so young its promissing. He also said it is likely to get worse before it gets better.

I have owned him since a 6 year old. At 13, after a training session (and years of difficulties as above) kissing spine was suggested by Patrick Print. Called the vet, who wasn't keen on sending him for xrays but eventually refered him to Gloucestershire.

He is now 19 and seems quite happy in retirement.
 
springtime1331 said:
So yes, Newmarket Equine told me that there is nothing they can do for spondylitis as they simply cannot get to the effected areas to work on them (underside of the vertebrae) I saw the radiographs of my mare's back following her bone scan and it was all a fused mess. Poor girl.
Click to expand...

Springtime thats what they said about my boy, that its under the vertebrae and theres nothing they can do except hope it fuses together. At the time he said the pain is due to it not fusing and the bits of vertebrae rubbing together. But that was 5/6 years ago, I am not really sure what the xrays would show now. I have thought about having him PTS but thats more if the pain gets bad.

Hes TB X Arab X Welsh mountain pony. I was told not to rug him at the time but I have had too in the winter because he loses weight so easily. Were you told anything like that?

Any idea what causes it?
 
No, they didn't say anything about not rugging. Mine was rugged all last winter. Have you noticed any deterioration in your boy? Newmarket couldn't give me a time limit on what would happen with mine. She also has significant erosion of her right stifle and they thought that would effect her more than her back in the short term. I did notice she was slightly struggling in the mud over winter but seems 100% sound now the ground is hard. I'm really not sure what to do with her long term.
 
Hi, Mine has evidence of spondylosis on his ventral lumber. I was told by Rossdales that spondylosis can only be found via a bone scan as you cannot image the ventral lumber spine by xray due to the sheer mass of muscle to get through. Same goes for being able to treat it.
When i spoke to my referring vet/s about it, they were not too concerned with its relevance.

My horse has a long back and lacks flexibility through it.They found one impinging DSP (as well as PSD and SI pain!) His lameness is very mild (1/10) but he has reduced impulsion from behind (When i ask for it, but he is more than capable of propelling himself along when it suits him... )

He has had regular physio checks and has never had any problems and his saddle is checked regularly too, so i was surprised when they found this.

I've just started riding him again just in walk after a few months off for medication and lots of handwalking and he feels horrendous. He feels like he has just stiffened up because of the time off he has had, but i can't to do much with him whilst we are treating the PSD.
I am going to buy him a Equilibrium massage pad which will hopefully help relax his muscles.

I also read somewhere about being careful how their rugs fit, as rugs that are too tight will cause to horse to shorten his body and hold a hollow posture, which make sense.
 
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