22/10/2023
Kissing spine (overriding dorsal spinous processes).
I really wanted to share this case with you from this week.
The horse presented with a reluctance to canter under saddle and was continuously going disunited behind on the lunge and when ridden.
Back x-rays had been carried out two years previous to this and the previous vets weren’t too concerned - they were close, but many horses processes are.
However, fast forward to today, and the radiographs show a much more advanced picture. There is sclerosis (whitening) and lucency (black areas), where the bones have been rubbing away on each other. Although I often say that there are many horses working just fine with some evidence of kissing spine, this horse was clearly unhappy and most likely
has sacroiliac pain as a consequence of this degeneration. We injected local anaesthetic around these processes to see how relevant the back was to his comfort levels. Although he still had a tendency to go disunited, he seemed much happier to move forward in the canter, with more movement in his back and no more pain grunting.
I have imaged hundreds of backs, with many close processes, but how often do we re-x-ray further down the line to see if and how quickly the disease process has progressed?
From this case, I strongly recommend that if any horses have been diagnosed with ‘close’, but not necessarily ‘active’ kissing spine, then we should always keep a very close eye on it in the future.
Thank you so much to this owner for allowing us to share and I will keep you updated on how this sweet boy gets on ❤️💕❤️
