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 Midget Lover
     
Location: Kentucky | I know this has been discussed before but the search isn't working that great for me.
If you had a horse diagnosed with KS - what were the symptoms that your horse had? |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1163
Location: Foot of the Smoky Mtns, East Tennessee | For us.....our horse started stiff necking the first barrel or running completely up the wall at the first. He never once refused to go in the pen and you could slow work him on the pattern and he would do perfect. We haven't been able to afford the surgery yet so for now he is just a pasture pet. We did try injecting him, giving him time off and swapping saddles and none if them helped. |
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 Texas Taco
Posts: 7499
Location: Bandera, TX | When we first broke my mare as a three year old she did wonderful. Fast learner, motivated and no buck. Perfect.
About a half way through her 4 year old year she started to be difficult at times. Would rear or buck completely out of the blue. Had a regular vet check which went fine. Everyone just thought that she is going through her teenage phase….
Her behavior would not get better. She had great days and very dangerous days. She finally bucked me off pretty good in January of last year. She went to a trainer after that. She did fine there until she flipped over with the guy. Luckily he was unharmed.
That’s when I took her to get her spine x-rayed. Bad case of KS. She is now a nine year old pasture pet. It is killing me, as she is out of my favorite very old mare. I’m worried that even after spending the 4K on surgery she would not be perfect… I also feel very poorly that it took me so long to get her x-rayed.
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 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| Mine was super cinchy and obvious back pain... He also seemed just sensitive in general. I also could feel how much tighter his back was in the areas of the KS. |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | cinchy, back pain on palpation, poor performance under saddle.. but i can't usually pin point what they do under saddle with one specific part of the body.. sometimes yes sometimes no. the biggest sign for me was the reach around and try to bite when you tighten the girth. |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | For me it was reluctantance to lope circles in one direction vs. the other. He would do a little crowhopping, but I wrote it off as attitude. Some days he would be fine, but just so happens that on the two days he showed recluctance happened to be the two times I went ahead and ran him and he bucked me off in both runs. One run was really nice and he bucked about two strides from the timer line.... That's how unpredictable it was for him |
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Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | I have a mare that is cinchy, crow hopping around barrels and when asked to lope, reluctance to lope in circles, reluctance to transition gates, flighty, and irritable. I have an appt at Rood & Riddle this Friday to get her checked and x-rayed. The internal medicine doc mentioned kissing spine and when I googled, I was pretty amazed at how closely the sypmtoms match up. |
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 Ms. Poutability
Posts: 2362
Location: In my own world | I am probably not much help. I have a mare that was diagnosed with KS via X-rays with 4 touching processes. Her "symptoms" were a back that was sore when palpated. No biting when cinched, no buck, no rear, she was running a pattern and improving (when I would actually ride like I knew what I was doing) I x-rayed on my chiro recommendation as she discovered and noted the soreness in several repeated appointments. I visited with Dr Honnas but since my mare wasn't showing many clinical symptoms we opted to not do surgery. I did back injections and ordered a Pessoa lunging system with Twisted k help. I have also added in "tummy tucks", "butt crunches" walking over poles and massage therapy. I have been doing this over the last 3 weeks, I haven't raced yet again as I think her SI is bothering her too, but wanted to take the time to get her physically moving with proper carriage before I raced again. If i can be of any help to anyone, message me! I am no expert but be happy to try. Also there is a FB page for horses with KS if you want to visit with people that have done surgery, many success stories with both types of surgery, however if I was going to do it, I would do the traditional reshaping vs the lig snip
Best of luck Murphy
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Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | Chiro did come out a few weeks ago and she was out in her mid-back, poll, and left hip. She doesn't have any bumps or anything on her back. |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | Murphy - 2015-09-29 10:30 AM Chiro did come out a few weeks ago and she was out in her mid-back, poll, and left hip. She doesn't have any bumps or anything on her back.
My gelding also had trouble holding adjustments, but I'm not sure if it was KS related... I am assuming so. He was carrying himself awkwardly (he had trouble staying collected). Like Livinonlove said.... Back would be sore when palpated.
Best of luck to you! I was told that I could do shockwave and laser therapy for my gelding since he wasn't a candidate for surgery. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 462
Location: Louisiana | My mare got stir crazy in the holding pen, always tried to work but her times dropped off and she gradually got to the point where she felt like a hopping bunny in her runs.
She would paw the ground, then fall out and groan similar to colic symptoms but never rolled.
I did all the injections, and anything that I thought might help but it only worked for a short time. Finally got tired of dealing with the crap and bit the bullet. Dr Honnas did the surgery a year ago this Oct. She is a fireball now. Still working on getting back to clocking where she should be but it does take time.
Feel free to pm me if you have any questions. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 617
Location: London Ontario | Ahhh, this is scaring me, my three year old is a little back sore, I thought it was just from being stiff or poor saddle fit.... |
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Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| livinonlove&horses - 2015-09-29 10:19 AM
I am probably not much help. I have a mare that was diagnosed with KS via X-rays with 4 touching processes. Her "symptoms" were a back that was sore when palpated. No biting when cinched, no buck, no rear, she was running a pattern and improving (when I would actually ride like I knew what I was doing) I x-rayed on my chiro recommendation as she discovered and noted the soreness in several repeated appointments. I visited with Dr Honnas but since my mare wasn't showing many clinical symptoms we opted to not do surgery. I did back injections and ordered a Pessoa lunging system with Twisted k help. I have also added in "tummy tucks", "butt crunches" walking over poles and massage therapy. I have been doing this over the last 3 weeks, I haven't raced yet again as I think her SI is bothering her too, but wanted to take the time to get her physically moving with proper carriage before I raced again. If i can be of any help to anyone, message me! I am no expert but be happy to try. Also there is a FB page for horses with KS if you want to visit with people that have done surgery, many success stories with both types of surgery, however if I was going to do it, I would do the traditional reshaping vs the lig snip
Best of luck Murphy
My gelding also didnt show me much behavioral. He has always been a bit cinchy, just prefers you cinch him up lightly and then tighten it after a few minuts but it was worse than normal. He didnt struggle with his leads, transitions, patterns were great... He was diagnosed with mild in 3 processes. His are also very far back. He never had a sore back a day in his life until he fell down at a barrel race. He wasnt even sore for a few weeks but it gradually got more noticeable.
I also do massage, meso therapy and a lot of lunging with a neck stretcher. We do stretches, ground poles and I keep him blanketed when its 60 degrees or below, especially when its raining. He does better with constant exercise.
Good luck, its a very frustrating thing but isnt a death sentence. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 383
| there is an awesome book called straightening the crooked horse - I highly recommend everyone to get it even if they don't think they are having issues- it is absolutely incredible and I believe it could really help horses who have been diagnosed with ks |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1165
Location: California | livinonlove&horses - 2015-09-29 9:19 AM
I am probably not much help. I have a mare that was diagnosed with KS via X-rays with 4 touching processes. Her "symptoms" were a back that was sore when palpated. No biting when cinched, no buck, no rear, she was running a pattern and improving (when I would actually ride like I knew what I was doing) I x-rayed on my chiro recommendation as she discovered and noted the soreness in several repeated appointments. I visited with Dr Honnas but since my mare wasn't showing many clinical symptoms we opted to not do surgery. I did back injections and ordered a Pessoa lunging system with Twisted k help. I have also added in "tummy tucks", "butt crunches" walking over poles and massage therapy. I have been doing this over the last 3 weeks, I haven't raced yet again as I think her SI is bothering her too, but wanted to take the time to get her physically moving with proper carriage before I raced again. If i can be of any help to anyone, message me! I am no expert but be happy to try. Also there is a FB page for horses with KS if you want to visit with people that have done surgery, many success stories with both types of surgery, however if I was going to do it, I would do the traditional reshaping vs the lig snip
Best of luck Murphy
My mare was just diagnosed Saturday and she was the same way. A little stiff to the left warming up but that's it. We even shaved 3 seconds off our run times! Our only difference is I had the chiro out for her stiffness and then she was completely lame and just progressively got worse through the month. She was moving pretty good at our first vet appointment and he said she was completely fine. Completely lame again 2 days later so I drove 2 hours to a better vet. A whole lot of money later and I finally have answers! I want to talk to Dr Honnas and get his opinion. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 615
Location: Wyoming | I have an appointment on Friday with Dr Honnas for my horse. She is cinchy, has trouble picking up her left lead, can get very heavy on front end, and has on and off lameness that we can't figure out. She is also pretty compact and her back is rounded.. I'm hoping I'll get some answers on Friday. |
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 IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| If you do not get any answers let me know. Dr. Leick is amazing at solving problems in horses such as this should nothing turn up in the x-ray. I can forward his information on if you need it. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 615
Location: Wyoming | magic gunsmoke - 2015-09-29 8:14 PM
If you do not get any answers let me know. Dr. Leick is amazing at solving problems in horses such as this should nothing turn up in the x-ray. I can forward his information on if you need it.
Thanks, don't you have a Perks Alive colt? This mare is a Perks Alive, she's very talented even with her problems... I can't imagine what she would be like completely sound. |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | Mine didn't exhibit symptoms until he hadn't been ridden for a while and he had like no topline. I'm sure it was brewing for a long time with minor pain, but the day I knew something was really wrong I was just brushing his back and he practically folded in half when I got to his back.
I'll add a link to an article I read just today that is very helpful. The whole thing is a very good read but if you scroll down a ways they have a scoring system that goes from 0 (no pain) to 5 (severe kissing spine) and details some of the symptoms of each "level".
http://horsetalk.co.nz/2015/02/04/help-horse-kissing-spine-goodbye/#axzz3nBtmFQsd
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1165
Location: California | cavyrunsbarrels - 2015-09-29 10:02 PM
Mine didn't exhibit symptoms until he hadn't been ridden for a while and he had like no topline. I'm sure it was brewing for a long time with minor pain, but the day I knew something was really wrong I was just brushing his back and he practically folded in half when I got to his back.
I'll add a link to an article I read just today that is very helpful. The whole thing is a very good read but if you scroll down a ways they have a scoring system that goes from 0 (no pain) to 5 (severe kissing spine) and details some of the symptoms of each "level".
http://horsetalk.co.nz/2015/02/04/help-horse-kissing-spine-goodbye/#axzz3nBtmFQsd
My mare is a level 5 and hardly had any behavioral issues. She was pretty much just stiff to the left... I will definitely try these exercises when we get her rideable again! |
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Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | cavyrunsbarrels - 2015-09-30 12:02 AM Mine didn't exhibit symptoms until he hadn't been ridden for a while and he had like no topline. I'm sure it was brewing for a long time with minor pain, but the day I knew something was really wrong I was just brushing his back and he practically folded in half when I got to his back.
I'll add a link to an article I read just today that is very helpful. The whole thing is a very good read but if you scroll down a ways they have a scoring system that goes from 0 (no pain) to 5 (severe kissing spine) and details some of the symptoms of each "level".
http://horsetalk.co.nz/2015/02/04/help-horse-kissing-spine-goodbye/...
This was very helpful. In looking at the scoring, it seems as though my mare does score fairly high. She seems to be between a 3 and 5, but will know for sure on Friday. Here is a picture of her. She does have a low/slight sway.
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Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | X-rays show kissing spine, two vertebrae. They just got done injecting her. |
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Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| Murphy - 2015-10-02 12:06 PM
X-rays show kissing spine, two vertebrae. They just got done injecting her.
It is a long frustrating road sometimes but it could be much worse.  |
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Ms. Poutability
Posts: 2362
Location: In my own world | stayceem - 2015-10-02 12:46 PM Murphy - 2015-10-02 12:06 PM X-rays show kissing spine, two vertebrae. They just got done injecting her. It is a long frustrating road sometimes but it could be much worse.
Can't wait to see how she feels! I will post pics tomorrow of what mine looked like. your horse looks great compared to mine |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 926
| I have a very laid back guy. I noticed he would always back up to the feed trough in his stall. It hit him right at the bottom of his butt. He' back into it and put pressure on so it rounded his back. Thought he was just wierd. Then he would get out of the trailer after a race, and literally lope to his stall to stretch his back. Then, the anxious behavior before the run just in general at the arena. Then times got slower and slower.
The last time I took him, he just freaked out when we were ready to go in, I knew something was wrong, that just wasn't him. Never bucked, never refused, never was cinchy. 2 rounds of injections and mesotherapy failed.
Honnas is doing his surgery in 10 days.
I'm curious if anyone else had their horse try to stretch their back that they eventually found had KS. |
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Kissing Spine - Symptoms