Page 568 - The Veterinary Care of the Horse

• groaning or sinking as, or after, the girth is tightened

• dipping or humping the back when mounted
VetBooks.ir • leaping forwards suddenly after mounting

•
loss of performance
• poor hind limb impulsion

• difficully with lateral movement

• discomfort going downhill

• bucking when the aids are applied
• reluctance to jump

• wasting of the longissimus dorsi muscle

• tail swishing and obvious discomfort when ridden.

Diagnosis

Horses with impinging DSPs dislike dipping their backs when a blunt instrument is run along
each side of the spine. They often hold themselves rigidly with the muscles in spasm.

Radiography and scintigraphy can be valuable aids to diagnosis.

Radiographic changes include:
• less space than normal between adjacent spinous processes

• Impingement or overriding of adjacent spinous processes

• bone remodelling of the affected processes.

Scintigraphy is useful for identifying areas of active bone remodelling. However, the
results of both of these imaging techniques have to be interpreted with care as many

apparently normal horses have visible bony changes on radiographs and active remodelling
occurs in horses without back pain. It is not uncommon for horses with recent back pain to
have marked radiographic changes which have obviously been present for a long time

without causing problems.

A positive diagnosis is made if local analgesia of an area which looks suspicious on the
X-rays or scans abolishes the pain.

Treatment

The first line of treatment is likely to include some of the following.

• A period of rest. Many horses initially respond to rest, but the symptoms recur when they