Lower back issues on a 7 year old mare

[blueangel113088]

I have a 7 year old tb mare (never raced, I’ve owned her since.a yearling) broke her at 2.5, light flat work brought along slowly, was.competing 2’9 last winter. Doing well, she never refused even when I have her bad spots. Well we turned to eventing this spring. And she would stop at fences, so we started to ask why… found back pain. ( starting about a for fingers behind where my saddle sits, and over hips)

I’ve had my saddle fitted, chiropractor out, message, time off, vet took xrays, couldn’t get a clear picture, but we went ahead and injected her anyway. She is slightly better, pain.now is mainly over hips. She had been off for almost 90 days now. Just wondering if I’m missing something.

[Texarkana]

With lower back pain, it can quite literally be caused by anything from head to tail. It can be caused by all you mentioned (saddle, soreness, maladjustment, injury), but can also be caused by a myriad of other issues including dental problems, shoeing, hock/stifle weakness, conditioning, style of riding, living conditions, etc. etc.

Some professionals (chiros, vets, masseuses) are better at assessing the whole horse than others. If her back pain persists, and it sounds like it may, you might want to find someone in your area for another opinion.

[JB]

Start looking at the feet

[blueangel113088]

We have kept her feet up,.even put her first set of shoes on. She is the top mare in her field, she is field boarded, (run my own farm) she stays in during winter, and in bad weather. Is current on dental checked twice a year, had always been sound!! No lameness at all.

[Simkie]

Having her palpated might be worthwhile. At the very least, it’s a good box to check off. She may have an ovarian cyst or a uterine infection of some sort.

[TWH_Girl]

Recommendations would include a second opinion at either a vet school/hospital or a sports medicine/lameness vet. A bone scan may be necessary to pinpoint where the problem is. Some people have had neck issues present as hind end lameness. It could be her stifles too. What was xrayed before? What lameness and pain symptoms is she exhibiting?

[Paks]

It could be PSSM type 2. Thoroughbreds don’t get type 1. Hind quarter soreness and a nappy attitude are common early signs of PSSM. You could have a muscle biopsy done. It’s cheaper than a bone scan.

[blueangel113088]

At first the vet thought kissing spine. So we xrayed where the pain was but his portable xray just couldn’t penetrate all the muscle enough to get a clear picture, so we injected her lower back. (Which would have been the treatment if it was kissing spine) we have had her flexed and is always 100 percent sound, tracks up nicely, she only shows pain when you touch her, she buckles to get away from your hand.

[JB]

Get a Lyme titre done

Find someone who does myofascial therapy, or cranial-sacral therapy.

Just throwing out some other options.

[caryledee]

I could have written the same post several years ago with my horse. He looked fine on the flat but started stopping at jumps…first once in a while then every day. Took off the saddle during a school and found back pain. Three vets at different clinics couldn’t tell me why. I ended up moving to a different state and the new farrier figured out his heels were too low. He was shod all around but just at the wrong angle for him. After the new farrier corrected the angle, he never had another issue. I hope you find the answer with your mare!

[Dune]

[QUOTE=caryledee;7719995]
I could have written the same post several years ago with my horse. He looked fine on the flat but started stopping at jumps…first once in a while then every day. Took off the saddle during a school and found back pain. Three vets at different clinics couldn’t tell me why. I ended up moving to a different state and the new farrier figured out his heels were too low. He was shod all around but just at the wrong angle for him. After the new farrier corrected the angle, he never had another issue. I hope you find the answer with your mare![/QUOTE]

THIS^^. Would love to see pix of her hind feet and conformation. If those look good, then I’d give the PSSM diet a try. Do you have a video of her being ridden? Sometimes just some minor tweaks, treating your rides as “therapeutic” versus just “flatting” or “jumping” can help as well. (really riding them over their back, in other words)

[blueangel113088]

update

Treated for limes, no difference in her back.

I have great pics of her, not sure how to post them. Here

Did switch farrier, he had checked her angels and they were all correct.
Was brought to my attention that all 4 of her feet do show a significant change in growth about half way down, that dates back to just about the time she started refusing fences and got benched and placed on the injured list.
All for feet show it exactly the same.
Meaning? Ideas? She has not moved farms, no change in feed, or general routine.

[Jumper_girl221]

What did you use to treat? Some treatments are more effective then others.

Is she shod behind?

I have a gelding that has thin soles and he gets extremely back sore barefoot (my ground is rocky). With rear shoes he’s fine.

My mare in intense work will get hock and back sore if she’s not shod behind.

Have you ultrasounded her overies?

Also I would look at SI pain/issues (does she have a “hunters bump”).

[Goforward]

Back pain can be a symptom of stifle pain. My mare reacted just like the mare in the video. Vet injected her stifles with iodine and we worked her in trot only on straight lines for 2 weeks. Back pain alleviated! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wMboDtj4RQ

[Patty_Stiller]

We have kept her feet up,.even put her first set of shoes on.
‘Keeping them up’ does not mean something is being missed. An extremely common source of croup/back pain in horses is a negative plantar angle of the coffin bones in the hind feet. it is especially prevalent in thoroughbreds. The biggest reg flag is a slight convex shape of the dorsal hoofwall of the hind hooves and the next red flag is a hind hoof hairline angle that points above the foreleg knee. Large abnormally flattened frogs are another potential sign. I have seen so many sore backed horses get noticeably better in a day or so once this is fixed I always look there first.

[ponysize]

I have a 7 year old mare also showing lower back pain–same area. We started her in her 4 year old year (slow maturing GRP), she was worked her 5 year old year, but has basically been off work for the last two due to “life” issues (saving for home, buying said home, etc). We are going to put her on regumate before spring to see if that helps at all as we do think she is one of those mares that needs it based on her behavior when she hit the magic 5 years old, and we just want to be able to rule it out, but we are thinking there may be a stifle or hock issue going on as well. Feet are not the problem for this mare. My trainer said it was not uncommon for horses around that age to have a hock or stifle issue pop up. She said over the years, she’s seen quite a few need an injection at that age, it fix the problem and not be an issue again. My mare hasn’t been flexed yet, doing that when we are both back in town.

[blueangel113088]

No hunters bump at all, her to line is fairly nice considering she has been of work ( at this point she has gained a good bit of fat) no change in stride, still tracks great

Tested with doxy for limes.
She also is currently on vit e and selenium, (sp)
Dmg, ( just recently added this 3 weeks ago)
Buteless stuff, and soybean
Her grain is 1/2 scoop 10/10/10
1/2 triple crown senior.
I use a 3 qt scoop

[Simkie]

Lyme. With a y. No s.

Some horses do very poorly on soy. You might try removing that from her diet.

Did you ever have her palpated/evaluated from a reproductive perspective?

[chism]

Could be SI. We had a horse that presented like yours, but he had raced. He was always a bit reluctant on one canter lead, but jumped like a rock star. Then he started stopping at fences. Saddle fit and lameness was ruled out. We had a different lameness vet look at him, he watched him jump and immediately said SI. Horse had an SI injection, shockwave and a course of estrone and it never bothered him again, but we lost him to an accident about 4 years later.

[cnigh]

What type of saddle pad do you use? You say the saddle fits, but does the pad stick out behind the cantle?

We had a border with a gelding who was very sore to the touch. Couldn’t figure it out until I checked his tack. The under pad was old and dirty and the top pad stuck out a couple of inches over it. The pressure from the saddle made the pads dig into his back enough to cause the mystery lameness. So simple yet he spent mega $$$ trying to figure it out.