|
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 972
  
Location: Texas! | I'd like to know what has helped everyone's horse who has dealt with this. What did not work for you? Massage, chiro, swimming any therapy BOT, magnets etc. before or after surgery. Also, for those that have had the surgery done what did you do to rehab your horse and how did they come back afterward? |
|
| |
|
 Thick and Wavy
Posts: 6102
 
Location: Nebraska | Bumping this up. I spoke to the acculife patch people at the brf and they told me they patch a lot of ks horses. |
|
| |
|
 Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | Here is my 19 year old's slides. She was diagnosed last October. I'm not doing a surgery on a 19 year old, so Dr. Hopper injected her. I just got her injected again last week. It doesn't work for every horse, but it's made a big difference on mine. Mine still runs 2D, but I'll probably retired her this summer due to the KS.
 |
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 972
Location: Texas! | Here is my gelding's rads
Attachments
----------------
 image.jpeg (42KB - 227 downloads)
|
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 5293
| I had a suspicion my horse has KS based on his behavior. My vet said Osphos is showing promise as a treatment so we used that. I may eventually Haul him to equine Hosp for rads. |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 2604
Location: Texas | Injections didn't help my guy at all. Had the surgery done, four months off, and now he is working better than I could have ever hoped. You would never know anything was ever wrong except for the scar down his back. I didn't do anything special to rehab him. I have him on Curost Total Support.
ETA: One thing I did specifically do was invest in a good saddle that I know fits him and a Thinline saddle pad. Need to stay up off that spine!
Edited by TBone 2016-06-14 1:50 PM
|
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 972
Location: Texas! | TBone - 2016-06-14 12:47 PM
Injections didn't help my guy at all. Had the surgery done, four months off, and now he is working better than I could have ever hoped. You would never know anything was ever wrong except for the scar down his back. I didn't do anything special to rehab him. I have him on Curost Total Support.
ETA: One thing I did specifically do was invest in a good saddle that I know fits him and a Thinline saddle pad. Need to stay up off that spine!
I got a CSI pad the week before we did the injections and I believe my saddle fits him pretty good but vet felt there was some pressure over where he was sore so going to possibly look into a new saddle as well. |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 2604
Location: Texas | I put my saddle on my horse without a pad and then looked down the center at the withers with a flash light. You should have full clearance all the way thru. And make sure that even behind the seat cantle where they lace the two sides of the saddle leather together isn't putting pressure on where he is sore too.
Also, you might want to look at TheTruthTackReview.com. She has done testing & reviews on most of the high end saddle pads. |
|
| |
|
 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | If you are going to do any water therapy, do aquatred. Swimming is not recommended in horses with kissing spine because swimming hyper flexes the back. |
|
| |
|
 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| This is my experience... my horse is a minor KS Diagnosis. 3 processes that aren't actually rubbing but have hit and spacing is narrowed.
I do mostly lunging exercises over ground poles or cavaleties. I started out with Audrey Declure (sp?) instructions in an article to give me a starting point and bought a neck stretcher. I did like 5 minutes each direction at walk and trot both ways and increased it as I went. Now I can easily lunge for over and hour without barely breaking a sweat. At first I didn't go ground poles and slowly added them and then bumped up to cavaleties. And I also bought myself some long lines & surcingle and did a lot of with those and alternated when he got bored. I start all my horses with dressage basics and so getting proper carriage comes pretty naturally for him. The long lines and neck stretcher just assist a bit more so he doesn't get lazy. I also ride him in a training fork, draw reins or German martingale. I only ride about 1 to 2x a week and then 4 or 5 days lunging. I keep him heavily blanketed as it helps a lot to keep him warm. I try and keep a rain sheet on him so he's not hunching his back up. I bought him fly boots so he wants stomping all the time. I also get him regular massage and chiropractic. Long warm-ups and long cool downs and lots of stretching. My geldings is low, almost rump area so I do a lot of stretches for that area.
I try and do different variations to keep him from getting bored. But he is what I considered semi-retired. If I can keep his back where it is, I would be happy with that. I let him go compete when the weather is good, its one of his favorite arenas and he is feeling good. But it is only a few times a year that I actually go. Otherwise we do a lot of trail riding for fun.
I did do the mesotherapy early on after the diagnosis but I wanted to try and do the least invasive techniques first. That way if it worsened, I had avenues to explore. Meso did help but since I seem to be managing it without (fingers crossed) I haven't re-done it. My current route is probably more expensive but I feel better about attacking the source and trying the rehab first.
|
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 1440
Location: Texas | I had two horses with KS. Horse number 1 took a while to diagnose. Injections only helped him for maybe 2 weeks. I also tried chiro and also tildren and they did not work at all. Had surgery and he has come back stronger than before. He does everyone in a while cheat me and refuses the second barrel and ducks off. I think this is due to him being run in pain and believing gets when they told me it was an attitude problem. He was previously a 1d-2d horse at local levels here in central TX. NOW he is consistantly 1d-2d at big shows here in central tx.
Horse 2 was diagnosed very easily. He palpated very sore in his back so we xrayed and bingo KS. I was doing injections and they would hold him around 3 months. He is an up and coming horse who has been anywhere from 1d to 3d and he is still really green as far as hauling. I chose to do surgery on him to make it easier on him in the long run. He came back fine but I did not get many runs on him until I eneded up having neck and back surgery. The runs that he did make were really nice and he continued to just hit the 2d coasting through. I can't remember if you asked about rehab but both had. Rehab time of 4 months and it was mostly just getting them legged back up and did not relate specifically to the back |
|
| |
|
Chi Chi Mama
Posts: 11212
Location: Spokompton, Wa | Not to hijack the thread but has anyone who has has a KS horse, has your horse been muscle sore everywhere? Or just in the back? |
|
| |
|
Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | Scotch - 2016-06-15 1:09 PM Not to hijack the thread but has anyone who has has a KS horse, has your horse been muscle sore everywhere? Or just in the back?
No. I went through 3 vets before finally saying screw it and hauling to Rood & Riddle. First thing they did after knowing her symptoms was x-ray her back. Showed right up. My mare never compensated for anything and was only sore in her back. She didn't palpate sore, btw. She is pretty dang stoic. |
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 972
Location: Texas! | Scotch - 2016-06-15 11:09 AM
Not to hijack the thread but has anyone who has has a KS horse, has your horse been muscle sore everywhere? Or just in the back?
Might is very just body sore but primarily along his topline |
|
| |
|
 Legal Beagle
Posts: 2809
Location: Central Okla. | A friend of mine has a KS horse. She tried everything. Finally did a "new" surgery by a very good vet who has moved and i cant remember the name. But she was running that horse again less than 6 months later and he's still doing good.
|
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 972
Location: Texas! | Pebbles! - 2016-06-15 8:29 PM
A friend of mine has a KS horse. She tried everything. Finally did a "new" surgery by a very good vet who has moved and i cant remember the name. But she was running that horse again less than 6 months later and he's still doing good.
What was the new surgery? Was it the lig snip? |
|
| |
|
Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| Scotch - 2016-06-15 12:09 PM
Not to hijack the thread but has anyone who has has a KS horse, has your horse been muscle sore everywhere? Or just in the back?
Mine has some overall soreness from just standing around and being tight. But last time he was really body sore, it was his feet. Put his shoes back on and he was fine. Might be worth looking in to |
|
| |
|
Chi Chi Mama
Posts: 11212
Location: Spokompton, Wa | stayceem - 2016-06-16 9:50 AM
Scotch - 2016-06-15 12:09 PM
Not to hijack the thread but has anyone who has has a KS horse, has your horse been muscle sore everywhere? Or just in the back?
Mine has some overall soreness from just standing around and being tight. But last time he was really body sore, it was his feet. Put his shoes back on and he was fine. Might be worth looking in to
Thank you! |
|
| |
|
Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | My horse was diagnosed just about 2 years ago. He has several DSP's that are a little closer than normal and one spot in his lower back where they are overlapping. I had his back injected and lunge him with vienna side reins or over ground poles. It helped but he was still hit or miss. He had good days and bad. After his second set of injections he was REALLY good for a while. I couldn't believe how nicely he was reaching down for the bridle and carrying himself. It was like a new horse! That lasted maybe 2 or 3 months. Then he started to be more hit or miss again. This last time I had him injected, it did nothing. He's still just as sore. I admit life has gotten in the way of lunging him every day, but he is out on 20+acres with lots of hills now so gets more exercise than he did before. At this point I am considering trying shockwave therapy or skipping that and going straight for surgery. If worst comes to worst, I'm going to learn how to drive and teach him and just do that. |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 291
| stayceem - 2016-06-16 11:50 AM
Scotch - 2016-06-15 12:09 PM
Not to hijack the thread but has anyone who has has a KS horse, has your horse been muscle sore everywhere? Or just in the back?
Mine has some overall soreness from just standing around and being tight. But last time he was really body sore, it was his feet. Put his shoes back on and he was fine. Might be worth looking in to
Have you had your horse tested for PSSM? Do you have any other symptoms |
|
| |
|
Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| Tinker - 2016-06-17 2:43 PM
stayceem - 2016-06-16 11:50 AM
Scotch - 2016-06-15 12:09 PM
Not to hijack the thread but has anyone who has has a KS horse, has your horse been muscle sore everywhere? Or just in the back?
Mine has some overall soreness from just standing around and being tight. But last time he was really body sore, it was his feet. Put his shoes back on and he was fine. Might be worth looking in to
Have you had your horse tested for PSSM? Do you have any other symptoms
If you are referring to me, we have discussed PSSM and my vet didn't see any other symptoms and since his tightness is in the same spot as the KS, we believe we know the source. |
|
| |