Hi, my gelding is just now 8 weeks post surgery with 1 plate and 1 spacer at C6-7. The total cost for surgery so far… no pending bills was $18,000… But that included the $4,500 aprox for the CT Myography. They did everything at one surgery center in Southern California, San Luis Reyes Equine. Then 2 days later all vets confirmed surgery was option and was told $10-12,000 for that. My boy after 1 week went to the Rehab place nearby for 6 weeks and they charged $75 per day.[Bill was not part of the 18K.] I just got him home last Tuesday 21st. Hope that helps. I had him insured but now am way over that, but at least it helped cover more than half.
Glad to hear the trip went well. Good luck with your rehab.
gabapentin comes in capsules which they usually gobble right down. easier than grinding tablets. and it’s super cheap. and good to hear you got your boy home and he’s doing well.
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update. Sunny is now 1 year out from fusion. Prior to surgery he was swapping leads, picking up wrong lead etc. Yesterday he gave me some beautiful lead changes, the best he’s ever done. Plus, for the longest time I’d take him out to graze and he turned around to come back to the barn after 10 min. As of last week I have to drag him away from the grass, like a normal horse.
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Hi everyone! 8 month update -
Rose is doing great! She has started putting muscle back on her neck the past few months, and is rebuilding her topline with slow and steady work. She got the go-ahead to start trotting, then cantering on the lunge line after her 6 month x-rays; we worked up to cantering after about a month of trot work. She has also been walk/trot/cantering under saddle for the past month and a half or so. Her canter transitions are hardest for her since she needs to use her neck for balance, but she can pick up both leads without pain, and can maintain the canter once she picks it up. We continue to work on mobility and stretching in all directions with groundwork before her rides, and she gets monthly Masterson Method massage. Lateral movement of her neck is still very stiff, but a work in progress. We also work on 10m circles in-hand from the ground to encourage her to step under herself, work on her proprioception, and gain flexibility. She is able to graze, but does have a funky stance, with her front feet spread fairly far apart. I am overjoyed that she is comfortable!
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I am so happy for you that Rose is doing so well. Way back when, I trained under Dr. Grant and got to scrub in on some of those early surgeries! The man is a master surgeon and was a fantastic teacher!
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hi.
my guy is one year out and also still grazes w one leg way out the other pushed towards his hind end. Amy Johnson told me it can take 2 years to graze like a normal horse. So glad your girl is progressing. Can I ask what kind of groundwork you are doing? Carrot stretches?
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Good to know about the grazing stance!
We did carrot stretches and belly lifts in the beginning and up until about 6 months when I was able to do more under saddle work. She gets lunged twice a week or so. We have a new dressage trainer who is very into groundwork and suppling exercises, so we put a rope halter on, then practice yielding to poll pressure to allow her to release and stretch down. Once she realized what we were asking and realized she could lower her head more than she thought (she has been tentative since surgery and a lot of our exercises help her build confidence that she CAN do it), she relaxes, drops her head, and we work on moving her head down toward the ground. I ask for incremental drops in head position until she is as low as is comfortable for her. This is not a forced exercise and there is no aggressive pressure. We also ask for small movements to the left or right from the poll and working back toward the base of the neck, which is hardest for her, and also massage along her crest to loosen the muscles there (something that she loves during her massages, too). She is allowed to raise her head and return to neutral anytime, but as the session progresses she really relaxes into it and allows her head and neck to relax and drop, which should help a lot with grazing.
We also use a long line (attached to her rope halter) along one side of her body and around her hind end, then apply slow, steady gentle pressure so she will first bend, then turn while stepping under herself to turn herself around. This exercise has helped a lot with her proprioception in the hind, and she is stepping more surely and lifting her hindlimbs instead of toe dragging.
We do 10m circles in-hand asking for a lower head position with one hand on the line, then use the other hand to encourage yielding at the base of the neck (hardest spot for her), shoulder, and ribs on the circle. This really helps her warm up before the ride, and the goal is to really encourage that lateral bend at the base of the neck.
Hopefully those explanations were helpful!
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very helpful, thx.
there’s a book called horse yoga that has lots of suppling exercises too.
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Hi all! This thread has been alot of support for me over the past few months - I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences.
My gelding had C6/C7 fused at NBC on Feb. 6th of this year (7 y/o Hanoverian with CVSM/compression, grade 2 neuro behind, grade 1.5 up front). We caught it very early, and he was given a good chance at a full recovery, and indeed has had a “textbook” recovery since day 1. He looks phenomenal, moves perfectly fine, can graze normally and honestly his topline and attitude is miles better than before the surgery when he was in full work! We have just been cleared by his surgeon to begin lunge work - field neuro exam showed NO DEFICITS and the fusion site is looking good.
Per the surgeon, my goal is to help him move in a coordinated way and to start strengthening his core musculature and work on proprioceptive strength. He recommended a Pessoa or Vienna reins, but I’m not entirely familiar with them and a bit nervous about trying them on him without “adult supervision”. I’m wondering if anyone in this group has any experience with the Equiband Pro system for this type of rehab. (https://equicoreconcepts.com/). It looks a little less stressful for me to use.
I am a slow and steady kind of person and want to make sure I’m getting this part right. He’s come so far and I don’t want to mess that up! I would love to hear how you all tackled the first week back to work - what worked well, what they were comfortable with, how you handled the pressure of it all 
I attached a recent picture of his beautiful self (I think).
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both Amy Johnson and kyla ortved (my surgeon at nbc) have been great answering emailed questions like this. Ask whomever took care of your horse at NBC, they are the experts. My guy had double fusion there last June. I have used equicore bands in the past, and feel they are kind of gimmicky. They stretch out quickly and the horse is responding to having something annoying flapping on his butt. I know some people love them. What I did w my horse was to back him in hand, head down, several times around the arena, then nose to the wall leg yields, also in hand. At the 6 mos point in his rehab, when I used light spurs or even touched his side he resented it. Maybe some kind of post op sensitivity. No longer an issue.
I use the Equicore system for a lot of reasons. I really like it for this kind of thing. Unlike Vienna reins or Pessoa, there is nothing attached to the mouth. You can use whatever works best for the horse on the front end and then the Equicore for the core and hind end proprioception. And you can ride in it when that time comes for some continuity of the therapy. I haven’t had any horse care about bits flapping. Even if I unhook a band mid ride or longe, I just flip it over the back and reattach and continue on so I don’t remove the whole thing and risk forgetting about it/losing a band. Or the bands slipping (when using the real product not a DIY thing).
There’s also a product that one rehab facility here uses….i forget the name of it but it’s basically a thick band that goes all the way around the horse, shoulders to bum, also with straps around the middle. Some horses that need some additional front end input seem to benefit from that, but it would not be easy to use while riding. The practice uses it somewhat interchangeably with the Equicore for in hand work.
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Update 4 months Post Surgery and looking Terrific!!
Rehab is going very very well with my 6 year old. We had Xrays at the 100 day mark and all looks good. Others here have posted after the 4 month mark the Rehab really does start to show, and it really did. It’s like he turned the corner on the pain and stiffness. Finn has been getting Accuscope/ Myopulse treatments since the day I got him home [ 50 day mark] which is similar to what the Surgeon- San Luis Reyes Equine had recommended a FES unit. He’s been eating from the ground, hand grazing on grass and now up to walking/trotting for 30 minutes 2x a day while being lead. It is a lot time spent with him on a daily basis but thankfully I have my horses at home and can dedicate the time needed. All indications are he will be making a great recovery and I see very little head shaking like before surgery. I even have him back to working with the bridle [no reins] while I am leading him on our daily exercises. Gives him something to do I feel. My Vets are thrilled with his progress and so am I.
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10 month update for Rosebud!
She was seen last week at MidAtlantic, and they were so pleased. She still has an abnormal stride (shorter/choppier in the hind), and pretty stiff laterally, but she has put muscle on her neck and she is comfy and pain free. Also, no ulcers, which is fabulous! They think her ulcers were likely secondary to her neck pain, which makes sense. She has lost topline, so they want us to continue increasing her work, and add in the Equicore band to her lunging sessions.
The trailer ride to the clinic and back actually made her quite stiff and sore for a week or so afterward, so we had to lighten her work, but she is back to normal now after light work and a massage.
This week they have seen her lie down in her pasture and try to roll, which is HUGE! She is a tentative lady and has taken her own recovery quite slow, so her feeling like she can lie down and move around, roll, etc is fabulous.
We had the saddle fitter out to reassess everything, and we made some adjustments to her saddle setup to account for her topline loss. We’ll recheck again in 3 months.
Overall things are continuing to head in a great direction, and I am so happy. Rose is very comfortable, and she seems content. We’re continuing our groundwork and dressage training, and I’m so excited for our future 
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Hi all, figured I was due to give another update. We’re 13 months out from surgery now. We had a setback in late Sept/early Oct where Rose became very cranky at the trot. Recommendations by her team were to change up her rehab (less lunging, add some poles and hills, some new stretches), but she remained unwilling to go forward and was just not happy. Unfortunately the last time I took Rose to MAEC, she became VERY sore on the trailer, so I took advantage of it when another equine surgeon did a farm call to our barn. We injected her neck again (joints and cervical nerve roots). We also added Equioxx daily. I continued with the new exercises, and we got rid of lunging completely. Instead of her lunging sessions (which were 2x week), we added in handwalking with the Equicore on, and adding stretches to the days when I can’t make it out to the barn. We are also putting the Bemer on 4-5 times weekly.
She has improved significantly, and we are back to walking and trotting under saddle, and she seems quite happy. She is practicing cantering on the lunge line with my trainer, but isn’t having long sessions. She is doing poles under saddle as well. We are going to try cantering under saddle in the upcoming week, so we’ll see how that goes. I think she can physically do it, but she does have a lot of hesitation due to concern about it being painful when under saddle. On the lunge she canters fine without any sign of discomfort, but carrying a rider is obviously a different beast.
So, we’ve had some setbacks, but we’re back on track now, and she seems to be feeling well. Let’s keep our fingers crossed it lasts!
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HI all, my boy Finn is now 7 months post surgery and going well, a little set back as Rosebud LaVie had also, as I took him for a Dental appt in preparation for his 8 month possibility of start tack walking and he got very very sore in the trailer to and from [1 hour each way]. Was not himself for about 5 days being sore and stiff in the neck so I went back to minimal carrot stretches again for a bit, continued hand walking 30 minutes and minimal trotting also. Is working out of it with Equioxx each day also. Will have 8 months check up with my local Vet and xrays done. Here’s hoping to be riding him soon!
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