Topicals for help relieving deep back muscle pain

[Dickerwoman]

Does anyone have advice on topicals to help heal deep back muscle soreness?

In a nutshell, sent my jumper mare out on a lease last fall. Seven months later she came back to me with back issues due to an extremely poorly fitting saddle (narrow twist). We’ve spent the last four weeks doing multiple chiro adjustments, massage, hot liniment toweling, stretching/lunging, absolutely no riding…it will take time but I was looking for something topical to apply during turnout and overnight in her stall.

Any ideas out there? I heard that Effol is good? Volteren?

[beowulf]

As someone who has had a horse come back from lease injured from improper saddle fit… ultrasound the back and SI. You may be dealing with an SI tear, or some other injury that needs to be addressed and/or injected - especially if she is that sore, that suggests an injury… Would also give you an idea if it really was the saddle, or if the horse has something like KS making it worse or more apparent.

Turning out 24/7 is the best for helping loosen tight/sore back muscles. Stalling any length of time will always make back-soreness worse. You could try Sore No More topicals, not sure about Effol but I think you’d be using a lot of Volteren or Surpass over that area… Shockwave would help but is of course, $$… Heated blankets and/or hot rags can help soften/loosen the tissue, as can theraplates or therapeutic/massage blankets. Ask your vet about some short term medicine like Robaxin. I would avoid lunging, personally, for horses that are backsore… YMMV but I have seen it make their soreness worse.

[IPEsq]

Topicals aren’t going to do much. You could try mesotherapy which is relatively superficial. But you might just need to go the route of steroid injections, shockwave, or Robaxin at this point. The latter would be a non-invasive and relatively inexpensive thing to try first but it doesn’t work for all back pain. You mention chiro…what about acupuncture or FES (functional electrostimulation)?

[JB]

Topicals only penetrate a tiny amount compare to how deep and dense some of the horse’s muscles are.

I agree that a course of Robaxin, while continuing with some of those therapies, may be needed to help break the spasming cycle.

I know the weather is heating up, which makes this hard, but the Back on Track mesh sheet might be helpful too. If it can stay on for a few hours during the coolest hours of the morning, that might be very useful.

Can she be turned out at night as well? The stalling may be slowing things down.

[fanfayre]

What about trying kinesio tape? It’s pretty new to be used on horses, but the premise behind it appears to be just what your horse may need. Along with other suggestions here like 24/7 turnout so she can move, etc

[jonem004]

Won’t speed healing, but Biofreez is my go to for bad soreness.

[joiedevie99]

I haven’t had great luck with Robaxin. It’s pretty easy to try though. Some combination of mesotherapy, shockwave, and deep lumbar injections should do the trick.

[PalmPony]

I will say, k tape has worked wonders in a few situations (my own body included) for me. If you can find a body worker that uses it, it may be a helpful therapy to add to your program

[lorilu]

In addition to the above,: Back on Track mesh sheet. PEMF treatments. DOing various carrot stretches. And possibly this: Microlief Equine Microcurrent Therapy. I used it on my own back and it really works… NOT like TENS. WOrks on a cellular level. https://microlief.com/