The Great Kissing Spine Epidemic

Diagnosis is better. The horse we had with it was diagnosed by our vet's new toy (an extremely high powered state of the art deep x-ray machine). TB ex racehorse by the way, so had been first worked hard before he was fully matured. And he was a bit of a rubbish racehorse so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he hadn't had back issues from the off.
 
I think you've summed it up there Tarrsteps. Horses are huge, they don't have an NHS, and the technology used to diagnose and treat problems is in the dark ages compared to humans. Like with navicular, the vets may find out in the future that a lot of the horses diagnosed with KS at this point in time actually had something more complicated going on that is not yet understood or diagnosable.
 
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Horse: Pure bred Arab mare
Conformation: Very good, back neither long or short
Breeding: Top class, for racing and endurance. From a long line of big strong horses, half brothers and sisters excelling in all disciplines.
First sign of problems: Age of about 14 months. Investigated, but no xrays done so put down to muscle problems in sacroilliac area.
Backed: Lightly aged 4, started to work gently at 5 with attention paid to correct working.
However... odd days of tense working and resistance (when at other times very good and relaxed), so she kept being given periods of rest as the vets couldn't see what was wrong with her. She had very subtle hind leg lameness, and gradually a weakening in the appearance of the hind end.
KS finally diagnosed aged 6.
What I'm saying is... who knows? (We don't have a crying smilie, but I would need one here).

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yes exactly, who knows
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What a shame, will you have her operated on?
 
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