HANDS ON: Explaining kissing spines in horses 01 January 2011 Premium

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01 January 2011

Irish Field Contributor on 01 Jan 2011

HANDS ON: Explaining kissing spines in horses

Equine surgical specialist Turlough McNally explains this common condition

Irish Field Contributor

1 January 2011

Kissing Spines X-ray: The withers are to the left, the tail to the right. The white arrow indicates a normal presentation, the smaller symbols indicate the kissing spines which need to be corrected. Credit: Turlough McNally

Equine surgical specialist Turlough McNally carries out an operation on kissing spines in a horse. The white arrows indicate the four kissing spines that have been worked on and the scissors is in the fifth kissing spine, about to be adjusted. The image looks more gruesome than it is with the scissors just 1cm below the skin. Credit: Turlough McNally

THE equine spinal column is composed of both bony and soft tissue structures. The bony elements are known as vertebrae and they are numbered sequentially in accordance with their anatomical location.

The normal spine consists of seven cervical vertebrae (the neck), 18 thoracic vertebrae (from which the ribs originate), six lumbar vertebrae (region just behind the saddle), five sacral vertebrae (the pelvic region) and 15-21 coccygeal vertebrae (the tail).