What has your experience been with neck issues? What were the symptoms, treatment, and outcomes? My horse has been losing her hind legs in a hole and is now stumbling up front quite a bit. Resistant to bending right. Have spent 12k With no improvement but not one out of 5 vets have checked out neck. Worse with time off.
I have been seeing horses come in to check for wobblers via myelogram or EPM. Wobblers tend to display almost complete loss of coordination, although some aren’t as severe as others. They are crossing the front feet as well as the hind, and almost seem as if they need assistance to walk straight.
The EPM cases are losing their hind ends but can maintain some form of straightness unless being pulled over by the tail. These horses are getting a spinal tap to test for EPM, although some people opt to just treat with hopes that EPM is the root cause.
Wobblers does not have the best outcome, especially once in the later stages. Injections can potentially help, but usually not to a degree that performance is achievable. Most do decide to euthanize as there really is no true cure for wobblers at this time.
EPM does have a better prognosis based on the titers and progression of the disease. There are many available treatments, but outcome is highly dependent on the individual horse.
There has been a few times kissing spine can cause these issues and is found during back x-rays. Usually KS can be managed with injections unless the disease has progressed and degraded the cartilage.
Edit: missed the part where the horse was losing the front end as well. KS would not present this way.
If there is a chance your vet is concerned about neck issues, an X-ray can help, but a myelogram is a very good procedure to see the progression of anything that may be brewing. General anesthesia is required and a large X-ray machine will be used while under. If your horse is insured, a myelogram can help with payments due to loss of life or use if need be. A myelogram does not mean that your horse needs to be euthanized. It only helps determine the level of which the spinal cord is being compressed.
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I had a diagnosis of neurological November 2022. I had previously found my horse did better in work (probably because I rode dressage and was attentive, insisting he use all his legs and body correctly. I worked corrective exercises (from Jec Ballou’s book) after the diagnosis and he was doing really well. He came in very body sore late January 2023 and never really recovered. I had neck xrays done in April 2023 as part of my “is it time to give up on riding him?” decision, and got an “I think it’s a Wobbler” diagnosis from the internal medicine specialist at Guelph.
After discussing the myelogram option, I decided (with full agreement from my vet) to not bother. Not only was it irrelevant exactly which joint at what angle was causing the issues, but the general anesthesia carried an increased risk due to the neurological issues. Recovery is risky enough for a horse who knows where their body parts are, but for one who didn’t the risk was much higher. No matter what a myelogram found, nothing was going to change for my horse or what I was going to do going forward (not ride, give him the summer with his buddy, euthanize in the fall before the winter increased his discomfort and risk of catastrophic injury). The Wobblers diagnosis fit my horse’s symptoms and told me his riding days were done. I didn’t need to know any more.
My horse was long term, always had been neurological - I just hadn’t known what I was seeing. Every single thing the vet pointed to I could honestly say “he’s always done that” as I’d had him since he was two weeks old. This allowed us to skip the rabbit hole of infectious disease testing, but also pointed to it not being something that could be treated and resolved.
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I’m not sure this is an accurate statement. Basket surgery can help some horses. I rehabbed one who had surgery at Rood and Riddle. He went back to jumping small courses. Before basket surgery, he was falling down.
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I have only heard a few times that the basket can work and from my understanding it is when the issue is not severe. I had a friend give it a go and it gave her a few extra months of pasture time with her horse. But I must say, I have not seen this surgery done recently.
I also meant most of our clients euthanize. The only reason we are really doing a myelogram is because they are wanting Insurance to help pay out. There has only been one time since I have begun working at the clinic I am at that I have recovered a wobbler.
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There’s so many different kinds of neck issues, and the symptoms they cause vary from horse to horse. Wobblers is a catch-all term and not very definitive.
My horse has CA and a bone spur at the top of his skull. The finding was incidental when he was 7. He’s 17 now. Neck injections keep him comfortable. His symptoms that it’s bothering him are slipping stifle in abrupt change of direction and tightness in the neck. I can tell when he needs injections based on how he performs our carrot stretch exercises.
Sometimes it is treatable. Sometimes it isn’t.
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My horse started with occasional tripping mostly on uneven ground. Progressed to not wanting to bend, particularly (but not exclusively) to the left. Had days when he just didn’t feel like he wanted to do anything. Lost ability to do tempi changes, which had been confirmed, down to 1’s. He had a “hitch” when going right to left lead, almost stopping in the process. All this over maybe 5-6 months. He was often, but not always a bit better with rest days between rides.
Diagnosed w/ significant changes c-5 to T-1; mild changes upper neck, nerve root exposure and spinal compression. Briefly considered the basket surgery, but ruled it out. This horse was 10-11 at the time, GP debut on the calendar and considering selling him as he was not a great ride for me. The basket surgery is VERY expensive, rehab is long, prognosis iffy - There would be no way I could sell him to anyone after surgery, even as lower level horse. He also would have needed a separate procedure to deal with the nerve root issue. Opted to retire him. Given the extent of the issues, vet suggested putting him on prednisone - it generally keeps him pretty comfortable though it does come with some risk. When it stops helping him I will call it quits.
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There are a lot more possible issues with the neck than being a wobbler though.
I think to answer OPs question if they have spent $12k and no one has looked at the neck either there is something they forgot to mention or they need to stop working with their current practice and go to a big vet clinic and have some diagnostic work done. No one online knows if this is a neck issue or epm or ??? OPs horse needs X-rays and possibly a CT to tell.
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There are but these are just the main issues I am personally seeing coming into the clinic. Which is why I only feel comfortable mentioning those few things.
EPM, wobblers or vitamin e deficiency. I would absolutely add vitamin E, just in case.
My muscle disease horse is a head scratcher for sure. She shares some of the symptoms you describe here. As she gets tight, she loses the ability to canter starts cross cantering. Her trot gets stiff and she has always struggled with bending in one direction (sidepasses beautifully in one direction) not the other. The longer you ride the more likely she is to trip. Its like she struggles to pick her feet up.
She’s 22 yrs old (and a wonderful horse). Today we went out and rode 4 miles for over an hour. We trotted and cantered and she had no issues whatsoever. Other days she is stiff and struggles to move. I cannot understand it, other then think her issues are made worse by the heat. Today was probably the nicest day since June. Some days she is limited to 20 minutes and for a while I was thinking I should just retire her. Today she felt fine and I think the fitter she is, the better she does. But the tripping you describe reminds me of her, as it’s like her feet get heavy and she struggles to lift them.
It’s difficult for me to understand why sometimes she is absolutely fine- like what factors make her fine today, but not fine next week? She went undiagnosed for many years and I even did a 15 mile introductory endurance ride on her with no issues whatsoever (other then our last place finish because we are not that fast).
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Unfortunately this is not the story of my horse. She pretty consistently stumbled behind giving the leg in a hole feeling and after quite a bit of time off is now stumbling more intensely up front. This had been happening but mildly and sporadicly so I assumed it was just the footing at the time. Have had coffin bone joint injections as she was not sound going right in a circle on concrete and was nerve blocked to right hind prior to deciding to inject where an MRI was suggested but it was not something I could financially pursue. No cross firing at canter and has felt best at that gait but have not cantered in months due to time off for dental reasons and vacations.
How old is she? Almost sounds like arthritis. Could also be weak stifles. Is she being worked at all? Is she unfit? How’s her feet? Long toes at all?
