Equine Back Pain

Equine back pain is a fairly common occurrence in the athletic horse. Sadly, many horses are retired because the owners are not informed about potential treatment options. Back pain can be a primary issue (kissing spine, muscle strain) or it can be secondary to lameness or pain in other areas. Any time a body moves in an abnormal way in order to protect a painful part, it allows abnormal stress to cause further injury in the area that is carrying weight abnormally.

Horses with back pain are often stiff in their movements, resistant to saddling, resistant to work, short striding, etc. The exact signs are related to the specific cause of the pain. Once an exam is conducted and the primary source of pain identified, the back can be treated in a number of ways. We typically use a combination of laser therapy, back injections, and mesotherapy, along with therapeutic exercises to get the horse back to work.

Laser Therapy

Laser therapy is light energy applied into the tissue. Once the light energy reaches the target area it is absorbed and reacts with the light-sensitive elements of the cells initiating a cascade of events in the cell that results in normalizing injured tissue, reducing pain, inflammation, and edema. These changes lead to an increase in cellular metabolism which serves ultimately to increase the speed of healing.

Back injections

Back injections are used for the same reason joint injections are: to decrease inflammation and pain and allow healing. A combination of long-acting corticosteroids and pain blocking substances are used and injected into several locations into the muscles along the back. Often we use digital thermal imaging to identify the specific areas for treatment. Usually, 2 treatments are needed 4-6 weeks apart for maximum benefit.

Mesotherapy

Mesotherapy is an important adjunct to the treatment of neck and back pain and involves treatment of the mesoderm, the middle layer of skin where large nerve fibers run (called giant fibers) directly from the spinal cord. This therapy involves multiple injections with tiny needles penetrating less than half a centimeter and depositing medication that serves to stimulate the cells of the mesoderm to affect healing as well as decrease pain signals. Usually, 1-3 treatments are needed.

If your horse is suffering from a chronic lameness or obvious signs of back pain, don’t give up on him without investigating the aggressive treatments which are available to keep him going.