PSA: Neck Problems

[musical comedy]

For anyone interested, this is a story about my friend's horse.

My friend imported a huge 18.2 just turned 6 year old. He came with xrays and she got more done when he arrived. None on the neck though.

She had a host of problems with him initially. Some were similar to Blob's horse with the stopping, raising the tail, trying to poop, etc. She took him to the clinic and he had bad ulcers in upper and lower GI. Treated with various drugs, etc.

My friend tends to notice every little quirk in a horse. She notices he walks funny on the left hind, but it isn't seen on trot and canter.

She decides to take him to the clinic (2 miles from me). He is looked at there by a good vet/surgeon. They diagnose the problem with the leg. This I can't explain but apparently there is some tendon/ligament that is only affected by the walk and it is not serious. Vet says he looks great at trot and canter so no problem.

Friend wants his neck and back xrayed. Vet thinks this is a waste of money, but goes ahead and does the xrays.

Friend is in the waiting room, and sees the vet come out and bring in a couple other vets to the xray room. Friend knows something is up.

Later vet comes out and says "I don't know how to tell you this, but your horse has a broken neck". Group, this is a true broken neck, not some hairline thing or arthritis. The bones are separated. I haven't seen the xrays but will when they send them to her. The vets were astonished that this horse was alive. They had not seen anything like this before.

This is not something that can be treated. There is no way of knowing if this will progress to death or pain. Right now her worry is that he is in pain but continues to work.

The point of this post is that I would recommend to everyone that if your horse is having issues, get the neck xrayed. I believe a lot of disobediences are due to the neck having problems. Until fairly recently, nobody xrayed the neck and back on a PPE. I never did. Yes, it's expensive, but well worth it. My trainer told me that he has passed on a few european resale prospects due to them flunking the neck exam.

The other thing is this. When you see a quality horse being sold at a lower price, this is a red flag.

[blob]

Thanks for sharing this. How terrible for your friend and her horse.

[StraightForward]

That is awful! I didn't get them done on Tesla, but probably will next time I buy a horse, especially for the C6/C7 issues. With a PPE, I see the problem more about getting the horse to a clinic that has powerful enough radiograph, rather than the added expense (if already getting other radiographs).

[Hayburner]

God Bless your friend for following her gut!
So sad that her new horse has this diagnosis, you have to wonder how this happened and where it happened.

I had many, many xrays done on my mare during the PPE, but I never thought to ask them to do the neck or back, I was more concerned with legs, ankles, hocks, etc.
If the vet would have recommended them, I would have done it.

Hopefully, this isn't the end of this horses career. Prayers that something can be done for him.

[LeoApp]

Holy crap. Good for your friend! I hope the horse can go through life without pain. I am kind of speechless actually.

[Flight]

Oh wow, I'd be fascinated to see the xrays. I take it is an old-ish injury now? Poor horse and your poor friend.

[piedmontfields]

That is so sobering. Thank you for sharing.

[khall]

Wow, speechless and bless that poor guy for still going to work each day what a heart he has.

I've had neck rads done on 2 of my horses, (not for the C6/C7 malformation that was before it was known) one was clean yet she was still NQR towards the end of her life and we never really understood what it was. Lost her to colic in 2016 was not a surgical candidate for that and for other reasons. Also had rads done on my older OTTB g after he came back as a senior horse to me being gone for 8 yrs. While he was never stiff he was ataxic, not falling down but not right. I had him for another 18 months until he told me he was not comfortable living ( funny about eating, pacing in the field, would not lay down to sleep) the rads showed pretty extensive arthritis and where he had flipped at some point.

[Moutaineer]

Well that completely sucks for horse and owner. I'm so sorry, she must be devastated. Probably nobody knew.

C6/C7 changes is why Laddie ended up in the situation that he did and I have him now. It was a long story, but he's actually done remarkably well, though I do sometimes wonder whether that weak right hind and his chronic lack of straightness have some correlation. However, they've all got something and he's fat and happy so we carry on, with careful observation.

I've known several other horses with issues--mostly big horses and most of them I'd wager were caused by the way they were started and ridden, though a couple of them have been documented flip on the cross tie injuries. When I first got Laddie (who is very big with a long neck) his idea of a stretch ended up with his ears between his knees. It's taken a long time to get him to feel comfortable stretching FDO and using his topline.

With what I know now, I wouldn't drop a bunch of (or even a moderate amount of) money on a big warmblood without x-raying the neck (and most of the field x ray units are powerful enough nowadays to get a good look, by the way--when we injected his neck the one time the vet actually used the field x-ray machine to guide the needle--however it was such a brutal procedure that I haven't felt the need to do it again.)

[Kelo]

I am sorry for what your friend is going through.

I have heard rumors that Wobbler's is somewhat common in dressage warmbloods, I wonder if that's true? Like, new SOP you should x-ray any young prospect's neck to check for that type of thing?

[Ryeissa]

oh no! sending good wishes to your friend

yes, I found neck arthritis from an x-ray in Rye and it explained a lot (not why she died)

I'm a huge believer in taking neck x=rays....and Riot has been on adequan for 7 yrs as maintenance.