Back injuries
When a horse´s performance deteriorates, one of the first things to check is his back. The spinal column, and hence the back of a horse, is an immensely strong and rigid structure, therefore injuries and desease affecting it and causing a bad „back" are consequently rare in the horse. However, injury and disease to the structures that make up the back can occur, causing considerable pain and loss of athletic ability.
Cause
Most commonly injury:
-a badly fitting saddle causes bruising and acute spasm of the thoracic and lumber muscles,
-a crashing fall whilst jumping causes pelvic injuries, while even rolling in the field onto a badly placed rock can damage the back sufficiently to interfere with normal function,
-in the older horse, arthritis of the sacroiliac joint can cause considerable pain, quite enough to prevent normal activity
-a few horses develop a condition where the dorsal processes of the lumbar vertebrae grow too close together and start rubbing against each other, causing considerable pain. („kissing spines")
Symptoms
-stiffness and restricted movement
-tender when touched over specific area-could be neck, back, loins or quarters
-muscular spasm; dips the back when mounted („cold back")
-steps short on affected side; will find stepping backwards difficult
-has problems when turning short, finding foot placement difficult, prefers to change directly from the walk to canter and vice versa without trotting
Acute injury: pain at the site of injury and a varying degree of immobility. Often only the forequarters can move, the hindquarters remaining rooted to the ground.
Chronic injury: initially an increasing unwillingness or inability to carry out movements that previously caused no problems. Thus back injuries or disease should be suspected in those horses which suddenly refuse to jump or start knocking the top rail and which start complaining when their rider tries to mount.
Treatment
-Surgery: some pelvic fractures might respond to pinning or plating the fractured portions together, but generally the internal forces that act within the pelvis render surgery inappropriate. The kissing spine syndrome, however, can be relieved by surgically increasing the space between spines.
-Anti-inflammatory drugs and rest are generally effective for other back injuries
Special case: kidney failure
Cause
A variety of different problems can cause the kidney damage: infection, causing abscesses; degeneration caused by bacterial toxins; damage caused by severe setfast; haemorrhage as a result of back injury
Symptoms
Compared with some other species, kidney failure is relatively rare in horses. When it does occur, the horse loses weight. It may drink more than normal, and pass more urine.
Treatment
The kidney does not repair itself very well, and kidney disease is often progressive and fatal. No treatment is really possible.
