Spondylosis

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Charliechalk

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Hi, Has anyone had any experience of this in horses? What symptoms did the horse present with and what is the long term diagnosis?
Thanks
 
Hi Ya, yes my mare has it and to be honest your the 1st person i have seen that actually has a horse with it , my mare was diagnosed 2 years ago ill pm you xx
 
I'm not sure, getting very confused. The horse does have kissing spine, but has now started to stumble when being tied up, the vet said it was probably because he has spondylosis and shouldn't be ridden. The vet said it was okay to ride him when he diagnosed kissings?! so im now getting confused if its the same thing. A discussion with the vet i think!
 
My understanding is that spondylosis is a type of degenerative joint disease... that's why you would have been told not to ride your horse.. because is painful! its a degenerative osteoarthritis.

Kissing spines is where the spinal processes impinge on each other.. they therefore rub and cause low grade bone changes..

again.. my understanding leads me to think that kissing spines can lead to spondylosis...

please correct me if i am wrong as I would be very interested in knowing the true answer
 
Spondylosis is where there are "bony bridges" forming between vertebral bodies.

spondylitis is inflammation of the intervertebral disc.

So Kissing spine and spondylosis are very closely related (I am not sure if they would be the same thing, but it wouldnt seem unreasonable for them to be cross diagnosed unless xrays were taken!)

Spondylitis can also result in spondylosis .................. hehe don#t u love veterinary terms?! (and i am trying to learn them all at the moment! brain hurts! :( )
 
x -rays were taken and thats how we know he has kissings, he has now started stumbling backwards when tied up, and vet said 'ahh yes that will be because of the spondylosis' ! Is stumbling a symptom of this and what happens when it gets worse?
 
ok well then I would assume the vet identified spondylosis on the xray....... so either your horse has kissing spine with subsequent spondyles OR they are the same thing.....

I am gonna go check with my lecturer and will let you know for certain when I do.

The wobbling etc when tied up is likely to be due to pressure on the spinal cord due to the kissing spine (sort of like having wobblers lower down their back) hence why it is often not recommended that you ride a horse with kissing spine as its putting a lot of pressure on a very sensitive and anatomically abnormal area of the spine...
 
OK!

They are 2 different conditions:

Kissing spines: Dorsal vertebral spines impinge on each other and can occur anywhere along the spine over the back to the hips. It may not be cause of any problems.


Spondylosis is new bone on the lower aspect between vertebrae, rarely clinically significance.

The two may be related in some cases but are not the same.

Ahh glad we have clarified that! This helps with my musculo skeletal revision! :)
 
Thanks for your reply, makes me think that the stumbling backwards may not be the result of the kissings or the spodylosis but maybe something else. He has had kissings for quite some time, and this has never really caused him any physical problems. He is 21 and everyone is convinced i should just retire him, although if out of work he loses condition very quickly and goes down hill, also he is also a horse that likes to work, gets bored and grumpy otherwise. Decisions, decisions, what to do?!
 
So he doesnt actually fall over, he just stumbles backwards?

Is it like a collapse? Or loss of balance? Or sort of like an ataxic (uncontrolled) movement?

Do you have a video of him doing it? (might sound like a stupid question but often visual aids like this help compared to trying to describe what you mean he does...)

Also, this might sound stupid, is there any chance he might have laminitis or a joint problem like arthritis which means that it might be difficult or painful for him to lie down to have "deep sleep"? As horses that do not lie down to sleep get sleep deprived and can often present like this as sort of almost "collapsing" horses.

Also, if he is doing this, I would think it would not be wisest move on your part to ride him.... Lunge him etc if he needs to be worked, but sitting on board I don't think would be recommended ..... sorry. :(
 
When he first started doing it the vet thought it might be narcolepsy, he never does it when he's ridden or lunged, only really when i bring him in at night and changing his rugs etc. he has spavins so this might be the cause. The vets are at a loss really. Thanks for your help
 
Narcolepsy is randomly falling asleep (often due to a stimuli e.g. feeding or in horses being tied up)

Sleep deprivation is genuinely falling asleep due to exhaustion

Narcolepsy often results in the animal falling over.
Sleep deprivation the animal will often wake up before hitting the floor

Hence why I asked bout whether the horse fell completely or just sort of appeared to lose his balance.

If he has severe spavin (or just particularly painful/arthritic spavins) then this could mean he is not lying down as much so not getting enough deep sleep (horses have light sleep stood up (which we often see) and deep sleep when lay down (which we often don't see))

Horses have GOT to have a certain amount of deep sleep each day and if they don't then they do become sleep deprived (imagine just napping sporadically throughout the day, and never actually having a good 8 hours in bed.....)

so it may be worth mentioning this as an optino to the vet to see if they think he could do with pain relief or something to help him be able to rest properly (not saying use drugs for no reason at all, just mean it may be worth mentioning)
 
We had a horse with spondylosis of the spine, he had spurs growing on the bottom of his spine. He did not stumble, he was just not happy and would not go forward when ridden and then after time was not happy on the lunge.
 
Hi, just found this thread. My horse has just been diagnosed with spondylosis. How did it affect your horse. I have been unable to find out much about it so any info good or bad would be really appreciated. Many thanks in advance:)
 
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