The Horse First: A Veterinary Sport Horse Podcast Audrey DeClue, DVM

In part 2 of this series, Dr. DeClue continues her deep dive into kissing spine, including some eye-opening data regarding its prevalence across the world.
Some highlights in this episode include:
The prevalence of back diseases in horses. 5:37 Impingement of the dorsal spine. 10:55 Kissing Spine Syndrome in thoroughbreds. 14:43  Kissing spine in horses in Malaysia. 21:45 Radiographic findings supporting a developmental vs. acquired etiology. 33:05 The 2023 paper from italy on kissing spine. 42:43 Are kissing spine lesions painful? 47:16 Stretching the dorsal spine. 52:43

Countless hours of research have culminated in today's episode on kissing spine in sport horses. Dr. Audrey DeClue pulls knowledge from decades, centuries, and millennia of data on kissing spine to learn more about this affliction that has impacted dogs, cats, humans, otters, horses, and even dinosaurs. 

If your horse seems stiff, uneven, and doesn't track straight, you're probably also having issues with lead changes. It's another long-thought mystery issue impacting performance and sometimes leading to anxiety in horses during drills. As always, Dr. Audrey DeClue brings a practical, common-sense aproach to examining your horse and getting to the bottom of lead change problems in sport horses.

Following a very popular episode previously (Episode 46), Dr. Audrey DeClue talks again with Dr. Kate Workman (Denali Equine in Southern Pines, NC) about cases cases they have treated. They discuss shivers, treatements, lameness, and more with the goal of helping you understand the expectations of performance horses and sport horses that have been significantly injured or have chronic lameness. After proper treatment and rehab, some horses went back into performance or competition. 

Dr. Audrey DeClue discusses a common complaint among riders and veterenarians - cantering issues. Though, historically, much attention has been paid to the limbs, Dr. DeClue brings it back to to the body of the horse, where many of the lameness issues actually originate. She discusses her experience addressing cantering issues and what to consider if this is a problem in your horse. 

In this episode, Dr. Audrey DeClue focuses specifically on the association of the cerebellum to shivers horses. She shines a light on the existing, published research on shivers and the trouble with conclusions based on a small sample size. She also includes an interview with longtime friend, Celeste, to provide a powerful story of what it is like to live with a degenerative cerebellar lesion.