I’m just double-checking, did I unintentionally ask or talk about curing it somewhere? Or is this just more a general comment?
That does make sense. My vet said she did not see any spots of remodeling and said that we probably caught it fairly early on which is good. I know that might not necessarily make a difference in the outcome. Seems like it’s all over the board and it’s very very horse dependent.
I swear he looks better on the roboxin but but I feel like his stifles slip so much more! I’ll have to ask my vet about that, maybe we can lower the dose. Has anybody seen that type of reaction? Although it’s already prone to weak stifles.
Just a general comment. Sorry, was not directed at you personally. I belong to that KS FB group and there are some who… as was said above… take with a grain of salt.
Sorry again, truly, not directed at you personally!
I have not noticed that with mine, who also has weak stifles. He’s on 15? When do you give it in relation to when you ride? Maybe play with that and see?
No worries, I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t accidentally make it seem like I thought that somewhere! I see what you mean regarding the Facebook group stuff though.
For the robaxin I have been giving it to him in the morning. I guess I’ll switch to the evening and see if that makes a difference!
Since healthy “tight” stifles require healthy strong muscles around then - quads, tensor fascia, and others - it’s possible the muscles are relaxing a bit too much and not providing the healthy tension to prevent the ligament from catching.
Yes that’s what I was thinking too… It certainly would make sense. I’m going to experiment dosing with different times. If that has no effect then maybe we can go down just a little in the dose.
I tend to give my main dose at night. It’s also a lot easier with the boarding barn setup to do it this way. If he has to be on it twice a day for a period of time, half dose in the morning is enough usually. But I haven’t noticed an increase in slipping stifles at all with him —he’d be more likely to do that if he’s braced because his low back/SI hurts, so it it usually better on Robaxin not worse, even when he is weak and not in good shape.
Interesting. My horse seems definitely worse when I work them close after giving him the roboxin But only in regards to the slipping. He’s kind of wild on it honestly so I wonder if he’s just kind of all over the place. To me it seems like his back feels a lot better so he’s actually moving, sometimes without caution. Lol
I’m playing with giving it at different times though.
We long lined him for the first time today. He was a bit reactive when changing sides/directions (trainer was doing it, as I didn’t think he had done it before.) I think it will be good for him. He settled and started using his brain/body. I do think I’m seeing some changes in his body already but we will see… I still think he moves quite stiff. He gets a massage tomorrow and then next week mesotherapy. I’m hoping I see a little more progress soon. Doing some equiband work this week too- starting with just one band at a time, vet said 8 minutes max this week or two.
Honest question to this group. Since some of you have suggested or hinted at horses with KS you had to retire at 6/7/8. If you can’t afford long term retirement. Meaning you can’t afford to board a retiree and have a going horse or paying for just a retirement horse takes all the joy out of having horses at what point to you elect to euthanize instead. Like that might sound so callous. But a LOT of people can’t afford a retirement horse for 20 plus years.
DSLD is uncomfortable and not resolvable beyond managing pain to a point. There should be zero shame in euthanizing soon after diagnosis, in my opinion.
Slightly different scenario, but (sort of) btdt with a Wobbler’s horse. I feel zero guilt that I didn’t “give him one last summer” (suggested by one of the vet’s ffs + friends) and all sorts of relief that he was PTS humanely before things went really south. To put it in context, that horse was sound sound sound to the naked, uneducated eye and even to some really good, well educated, been-around-the-block horsemen.
So yeah, I personally would not have a problem putting down a horse with dropped fetlocks far sooner than others might. I’ve also seen a very badly dropped gelding kept alive (and miserable) for far too long. That probably influences my level of ‘callousness.’
Did I miss a subject change to DSLD? The KS question is a valid one - most are quite sound in turnout, which makes the whole thing more complicated. DSLD is different, and pretty much a downhill battle by the time they’re diagnosed.
Did someone’s horse get that dx and I missed it?
Well I won’t be putting my horse down unless there was a huge progression in pain or other lameness complications.
If he has to be retired, well it will suck big time. I had to euthanize two horses in a row- very different situations though. One had trigeminal nerve pain and would drag his head on the ground. This resulted in lots of injuries to his knee and his eye. And his condition deteriorated. My vet said that his facial muscle tone was that of a horse in his 20’s even though he was 5. I tried everything to help him and in the end let him go be free if pain.
Then I had a horse that first we discovered had a club foot, pretty gnarly sidebone, pedal osteitis, arthritis in his spine before he went neurologic and we discovered wobblers. He actually looked quite great and he was sound at the time but I consulted with multiple vets and they determined that there was no way that the future was going to be very kind to him given all that he had going on. Plus he had started to fall. And honestly, because of his feet he needed really costly maintenance just to be pasture sound. I just couldn’t do it.
My horse, I still have hope. Kissing Spine can absolutely be devastating but some people do manage it… I would not blame anybody for euthanizing a horse with kissing spines either. All of our financial situations are different. But for me, after what I’ve been through, I am very very far from considering it. I would like the very least try and give my horse a couple years retirement if he’d stay comfortable. I would never judge anybody else for a different decision!
No, I think I got confused about which thread I was on. Not the first time 
But the essence still stands in my response to AmmyHour - for the question about euthanizing if you can’t afford retirement with ongoing treatments/no possibility of recovery to serviceably sound/etc. I would have zero issues putting such a horse down. I’d shed a lot of tears, but I’d sleep at night.
Sorry for the bizarre diversion!
To clarify the euthanize vs permanently retire a young horse was purely a hypothetical. Just something that has come up more and more as people’s definition and perception of subtle lameness has shifted. And for a lot of people that can only afford to provide for one horse at a time it puts them in a lurch of what to do.
It’s also a lot more expensive to maintain a horse if you are boarding, even on retirement board (location and land availability probably affects this.)
It’s so horse and situation dependent though.
OP, I just talked to someone who used to board at my barn this weekend. Her young TB mare was diagnosed with KS and she has spent a year -18 months on focused rehab work with lots of stretching under saddle. She just got new back rads, and sure enough, there is measurable increase in the space between the processes and very little remodeling. I think the mare is about 8 right now. She showed her for the first time and got a 69% at training level.
That’s wonderful, very inspiring! Thank you for sharing.
Well, I started to introduce the equiband the other day. I just started with the belly band first and only 8 minutes of walking. He was a little sweaty after (it was warm though) but I felt it did make him work.
But then last night I threw him on the lunge just for a few minutes to see how I looks, since he had a massage the other day and gets mesotherapy Thursday. I’m just trying to keep a baseline of soundness. He’s been more reactive lately and he started spooking and tearing around like a maniac. Unfortunately he slipped behind and partially fell since he was motorcycleing around. Dang him. He seemed okay after but I’m going to go out after work and check him right away. At least the vet comes Thursday anyway.
I think I’m going to put him on some nexium. I can’t really afford gastroguard at the moment. But he has been very reactive lately. And when the massage therapist was working on them he did seem to show a lot of tension around his abdomen. I’m just wondering if the steroid and robaxin upset his stomach. He was on equioxx for a few days too.
Send jingles that he didn’t hurt anything more or hurt anything new… Arg!
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