A friend of mine’s mom has a standardbred gelding who had kissing spine. He is also her show horse and it was obvious that fixing tack and trying all sorts of things weren’t working for him anymore. He ended up getting some sort of minor surgery for his kissing spine and within months he was much better. Now he does something with a sort of special compression blanket wrap which seems to be helping him tons. Even with using the blanket she’s finally been able to start competing with him again. At first after the surgery he was a bit of a butt however after a slow couple weeks of getting him back together and gauging how he feels he’s showing with great results now!
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@Blkarab it’s funny you bumped up this thread, as I was actually considering updating it this morning.
I’m sorry to hear about the troubles with your mare. Some of the symptoms you listed sounded very similar to my gelding. I hope the x-rays reveal something fixable and treatable.
Due to some scheduling conflicts the vet actually wasn’t able to make it out until yesterday. We had past x-rays/ultrasounds of his back and neck, but we were able to see more about what’s going on than we were before in his neck when the vet ultrasound-guided the needles for neck injection. Really cool process by the way, but ouch! He has bone spurs in c6 and c7, and as my vet said, a lot of “noise” in the area.
I missed the first part of the appointment due to work but the vet watched him go under saddle and palpitated his back and thought that he was actually extremely sore over his back and that we should still go forward with mesotherapy on top of the neck injections. He wasn’t wrong… my horse was incredibly reactive once we got to the end of his back, even heavily sedated and lip and neck twitched was trying to kick out and get away… My vet said he thinks that he was one of the most reactive horses he’s ever done and that he was probably in a lot more pain than he was letting on.
So, seems like now we wait for the bumps to go away before I ride, and he is in a stall for today. He stalls very well so we’re keeping him in this afternoon since it is going to be very sunny and hot.
Tagging @IPEsq
My vet was very optimistic that the neck was the root of some of his undersaddle problems, especially the tenseness cantering and the funny business behind where he kind of slips but it doesn’t feel or look like a stifle catching. He thinks that the mesotherapy will help with the back-soreness and that we should be going forward with training as usual once the bumps from the mesotherapy go away, he wants to see lots of long and low and working over his back correctly. My vet has always been somewhat guarded with his prognosis but he said he thinks I should have a new horse next time I ride.
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I hope that helps! For what it’s worth, I’ve found you need to wait a good 4+ weeks before deciding whether or not the neck injections have helped, but the meso effects should be immediate. Keep us posted on the outcome!
Just popping in for a little update, we have a completely different horse… I’m really optimistic going forward. The last few dressage lessons we’ve had it feels like we’ve gotten through a major breakthrough, he is actually reaching for the contact and working over his back. The last six months or so he has felt “stuck” and resistant especially in his neck and jaw at the canter. His neck seems much softer and in all gaits it feels more like he is coming up through the saddle. Yesterday was one of the first days in months that I cantered him without him feeling hollow and worried.
My TB had Meso this past summer for the first time for his KS on top of a second round of injections. My chiro just saw him Sun and he was completely nonreactive over his KS area. His first round of treatment was about 2 years ago so it lasted awhile. So good to hear, OP!
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Wow! So it’s lasted a long time for you. That’s good to hear.
Are you doing any special exercises for your guy?
I’ve been incorporating in some stretches (not the Art2Ride stuff) and I’ve noticed he comes out much more supple. I’d love to get more stretch ideas. I’m doing carrot stretches to shoulder, and then to hip, 2x on both sides. I’m also doing the triangular leg yield exercise and square-box leg yield exercises.
We event so he does 3 days a week dressage to keep him using his back correctly and keeping a topline. He sees the chiro every 2-3 months . Part of our initial rehab 2 years ago was lunging in a Pessoa rig to build up his back which worked great. We haven’t used it since rehab because now he uses his back like he should.
