IRAPP HORSE FULL

Your horse’s muscles should have some elasticity to them when you feel them.” For horses like Anakin who do have symptoms, why the pain occurs is actually “a super tricky question,” says Dr. “The muscles looked and felt tight, almost contracted.

In those cases, he adds, “It becomes a challenge to know if it will ever become a problem later for that horse.”Įarly on, Anakin showed signs of back tightness. Davis, kissing spines are found incidentally-for instance, when a buyer requests back X-rays during a pre-purchase exam-not because a horse exhibits symptoms. Not every horse who exhibits kissing spines on radiographs shows signs of discomfort. Kissing spines is uncommon over the lumbar region, or lower back. This is the part of the back where your saddle typically rests. But, he adds, almost all cases will occur in the region from the down-slope of the withers through the thoracic region-from around vertebra T6 through T18. Kissing spines can theoretically happen anywhere in the thoracic or lumbar region of the back-the regions of the spine with a prominent dorsal spinous process, says Dr. And over the long-term, they can contribute to additional issues, such as bone cysts or sclerosis, the thickening of bone or new bony deposits at the margins of the dorsal spinous process. In fact, kissing spines are one of the leading causes of equine back pain. This can lead to restrictions in mobility as well as discomfort, which ultimately can lead to back soreness and performance problems. Ideally, the processes are evenly spaced, but with kissing spines, two or more of these bony extensions get too close, touching or even overlapping in places. The dorsal spinous process is the bony part sticking up from each vertebra. This X-ray shows the dorsal spinous processes of an 18-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare who was diagnosed with kissing spines. But with kissing spines, two or more of these bony extensions get too close, touching or even overlapping in places. Ideally, the spinous processes are evenly spaced, allowing the horse to comfortably flex and extend his back through a range of anatomic positions. In technical terms, kissing spines are known as interfering or impinging dorsal spinous processes. And Weston Davis, DVM, DACVS, of Palm Beach Equine Clinic in Wellington, Florida, provides an expert perspective on the disorder, its causes, treatment and outcomes. Here, Kepferle-a former groom for top eventer Sinead Halpin who now bases her own training operation at Mountain View Farm in Long Valley, New Jersey-shares Anakin’s story.

But it’s a complex disorder, and proper treatment and management are key to keeping these horses comfortable and going strong.

IRAPP HORSE FULL

Like Anakin, many horses with kissing spines can have full performance careers. Clinicians currently using autologous stem cell or IRAP II™ System therapy should consider use of RenoVō ® to achieve similar or improved clinical outcomes.When you think skeletal disorders and spinal issues, you certainly don’t think “four-star event horse.” Yet Meg Kepferle’s off-the-track Thoroughbred gelding Anakin is just that: a four-star eventer with kissing spines, a scary-sounding condition where bony parts of the horse’s spine touch or even overlap. RenoVō ® is cryopreserved and maintained frozen before use, so as to preserve beneficial proteins that may not survive lyophilization. The reproducibility of each donor tissue also offers a more homogeneous protein concentration and product consistency in comparison to other regenerative modalities. Further, cytokine and growth factor profiles can vary dramatically between patients for a selected autologous product.

Ready availability of a convenient allograft potentiates clinical use without the time lapse for culturing cells or harvest techniques required for autologous therapies. The use of equine amniotic tissue allografts to supplement and protect tissues in horses may be minimally invasive, safe, and offer a morbidity profile comparable to or better than those of existing modalities, including autologous stem cell or interleukin-1 receptor antagonist platforms (e.g., IRAP II™ System), while offering potentially superior clinical results.

Irapp horse