topline development - help needed!

[opinionuk]

My horse has recently been diagnosed with mild kissing spine and has had cortisone injection to reduce imflamation, initially the horse was sent to the equine hospital as she was lame on her hind leg, all nerve blocks were inconclusive, the legs were xrayed and nothing was found and all seems ok.

The vet suggested 4 weeks of physio and longreining and lunging to build up her topline in hand, I'm getting confused as she although she is better and not lame in walk she works well on the lunge in trot but sometimes strides were short I have no idea as to how to progress with this, do I continue with the trot work to build up the topline or take it back to walk, I find it hard to justify working a horse when she is still off on her one hind leg surely I should wait until she is sound??

The vet doesn't seem to think that the back problem and hind leg problem are related due to various tests that have taken place.

The Chiropractor suggested riding her in walk but i have no idea if this is a good idea while she is off on the hind leg its nothing dramatic she drags her toe a little and doesn't push forward.

Getting really confused!

 

[Bug2007]

Building up the top line should help the hind leg issues if that is what is causing the lameness.

I wouldn't ride her just yet continue with the lunging and long reining, maybe you could ride and lead her see if she is lame in trot on a straight line.

 

[opinionuk]

I do a lot of inhand work with her over poles, we have acres and acres of field margins and I wonder if that would help just leading her around them in walk, some of them have slight inclines?

 

[Bug2007]

It certainly won't hurt her doing the inclines inhand.

Pain when there is no quick fix for something.

has she had x-rays on her spine. Very hard to diagnose Kissing spine without them, and even then sometimes the angle is as such that you still can't confirm 100%.

 

[opinionuk]

yes shes had xrays on her spine when we couldn't find out what was causing the problems with the hind leg as the vet wanted this to be checked.

So xrays of all 4 legs and spine have been done, legs were all ok, spine showed 2 vertebrae really close. She had 9 xrays in total and guess what she wasn't insured!

 

[Bug2007]

Expensive comes to mind.

Lots of build up work and see what happens then.

I know it's not nice to keep working if they are un level but sometimes when there is nothing obvious wrong. Sometimes you need to work the horse through it and they become sound or they get worse and it's then easier to locate what is going on.

Good luck with it all though.