|
|
 Don't Wanna Make This Awkward
Posts: 3106
  
Location: Texas | I have a mare the will just stop and plant her feet in the alley. Works great at home through the barrels and warming up, but refuses the alley. We've never had to turn out because of it. she'll usually end up backing in or just going. She has come up 100% sound at every lameness exam. Could kissing spine be something they are missing? |
|
| |
|
 It Goes On
Posts: 2262
Location: Muskogee, OK | Radiographs will give you an idea if there is any narrowing of the spaces in between the dorsal spinous processes of the vertebrae and any associated bony changes. This is the best (and only) way to truly diagnose kissing spine. Now...Determining if those radiographic changes (if there are any present) are to blame for performance issues is a whole other ball game! |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 3514
| Have you considered ulcers? They will cause a horse to refuse. |
|
| |
|
 Miss Positive
Posts: 3554
Location: Crowder, OK | ESMS in Weatherford is where mine was diagnosed w/xrays and then Animal Imaging in Dallas is where I had bone scan done. Mines always been a bucker, but hes been inconsistant over past two years Ive hualed him. would run real good and then run like poo.....he would tie up and be entire body sore but really bad through his back half of body....we didn injections, i changed saddles & pads and so far all has been good.....mine never refused alley, but he could run 1d a run or two and then just not even feel like he wanted to move forward on the next run.......I wish I woulda found mine before now but so glad I did get some answers.....its very managable to deal with. |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 499
Location: ARKANSAS | I would have your horse scoped for ulcers, this is a classic sign!!!
|
|
| |
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1163
Location: Foot of the Smoky Mtns, East Tennessee | What type of saddle and pad did you go to Tinkerbell?
|
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 1440
Location: Texas | The only way to diagnose kissing spines is via back xrays. My horse has KS and he would go up the fence when I ran him. All lameness exams were negative. I have know quite few horse with KS and they all ended up either going up fence, bucking or ducking barrels. My guess is your horse has another issue could be ulcers. I would treat it vs scope as it ends up being cheaper in the long run pulse you would know for sure if thT was his issue or not. Good luck |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 25
Location: siberia it seems | My mare never bucked, or ran up the fence or anything like that. She was very hesitant to go in, but bless her heart, always tried. She did however, drop more to her front end when it first started really bothering her. She had 5 places of impingement, and was back sore when the vet first recognized it and we did x-rays, which is truely the only way to know. |
|
| |
|
Don't Wanna Make This Awkward
Posts: 3106
Location: Texas | No ulcers.
Trust me this horse done this for 2 years, we have gone through just about everything.
I've had 2 friends in the past week take horses in because of alley refusal and both horses had kissing spine. This why I'm questioning this now. |
|
| |
|
 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | outrundaizy - 2014-09-24 1:58 PM No ulcers.
Trust me this horse done this for 2 years, we have gone through just about everything.
I've had 2 friends in the past week take horses in because of alley refusal and both horses had kissing spine. This why I'm questioning this now.
The best thing to do is take her in to the vets and let them X-Ray her to see if there is any K-S going on. Hope not  |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 1440
Location: Texas | This is just a side note.....just because a horse shows on X-ray to have kissing spine it's does not necessarily mean that is what is causing the performance issues. There are some horses out there that show positive on X-ray that perform perfectly. A really great way to know if KS is indeed the problem causing behavioral issues is to do one or both of the following things
1. Inject back and give a few days off then see how they do. If there is a significant change in performance that is indicative of it being and issue
2. Do a block of the neves in the back and then run horse within 4 hours. Again if horse performs significantly better then that would be more diagnostic then just X-rays
Just my experiences with my horse. He is one year post surgery and back 1d/2d against though tx competition |
|
| |
|
 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| Most horses I have seen with kissing spine, show back soreness. |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 514
| I too have a horse with kissing spine. I ran him a year and a half with no problem . Than just out of the blue he developed an ally issue. Did a whole process of elimination. X rays showed ks. I can get the surgery done but im also afraid he will have it in his mind and still give me a problem. What is anyone's experience with their attitude after surgery? |
|
| |
|
Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| I have a horse that just will not run, i have injected hocks, stifles. Even alcohol blocked his his hocks whicj will klll the nnerve and fuse hocks. Then injected stifles. Then we injected stifles and si. Not,any better. Also, he was tested for epm. Came back neg. I sent the test in to,another vet the one in fla. He is nero sore on rifht rear. And more imride him the more sore he get. I talked to,vet today, but we can only test with nsaids the back and hind limb. Tyat s where we are at. I will send test off for lyme disease and crp. The vet does not know we are at the ehd. I am not spendimf money for anything else. The worse thing and ver mentiineda he is a nice horse and he is sweet as he could be. But i did notmtellhim that imsent off blood to another place. Should kmow by monday. And willsend a lyne diseaase and crp test. That wikl tell the tale. Butmfrom what i read about lyme hemhas it a chromic case hust like thenvet suggectied. Imtold,him i think he has epm. I also read that people who horse have tested for epm who came back neg. When the horse died they where tested and camemback,with protoza in there csf i cant believe that. I have a nice horse who,as a 4 year old won a furtity by. 5 second and tipped a barred second day. Now,is running in then4-d. Sucks. |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 3514
| This is just my opinion. But you said she works fine at home. A horse with something like KS would not work anywhere. The pain would be the same . I'm still saying ulcers. Stress is a trigger for ulcers. |
|
| |
|
 Texas Taco
Posts: 7499
Location: Bandera, TX | bigblackhorse1 - 2014-09-24 10:42 PM I too have a horse with kissing spine. I ran him a year and a half with no problem . Than just out of the blue he developed an ally issue. Did a whole process of elimination. X rays showed ks. I can get the surgery done but im also afraid he will have it in his mind and still give me a problem. What is anyone's experience with their attitude after surgery?
I'm interested in that too.... Dr Honnas suggested to start with injections and see if that makes a difference.... if it does then he would recommend surgery.... |
|
| |
|
| I have a horse that has bucked on occasion in the middle of a pattern... but mainly her problem is rearing at the second barrel on the back side of the barrel. I did lamness exams and only the stifle was a bit sore we injected it several times with no luck at fixing it the rearing. she wont ever do it at home only at shows and only about 50 % of the time. if she quit she'd be a 1D horse.
So could this also be kissing spine? how do they know where to inject and how much does this cost? i'm about at my witts end with this horse too and trying to figure her out...
ETA: Sorry OP! I dont want to steal your thread! I hope you dont mind!
Edited by Kgirl 2014-09-25 8:51 AM
|
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 34
| If you suspect ulcers ...has anybody heard of people trying 60 cc of Pepto before the run ? |
|
| |
|
| Rookie4ever - 2014-09-25 9:03 AM If you suspect ulcers ...has anybody heard of people trying 60 cc of Pepto before the run ?
I did this for my one of my mares.. i did it for about a week twice a day... she picked up appetite and was really starting to work nice. so i went on GastroGuard and all her issues cleared up :) it is a cheap way to diagnose imo
ps... my mare hated the cherry she only liked the mint
|
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 1440
Location: Texas | readytorodeo - 2014-09-25 4:41 AM
This is just my opinion. But you said she works fine at home. A horse with something like KS would not work anywhere. The pain would be the same . I'm still saying ulcers. Stress is a trigger for ulcers.
I normally would agree with you but that was not the case with my horse. He worked great at home but when we went to a jackpot he pulled his stuff. Ultimately it was the kissing spine that was his problem. |
|
| |
Folks on-line