4Cyte Equine Gel

[LadyB]

Hello COTH Hive, wondering if anyone has experience (preferably a lengthy one) of the product 4Cyte Equine Gel.

I have a coming 18 year old OTTB, who receives yearly hock injections, has a small case of Kissing Spine, and currently we attempt Prelim Level in Eventing.

My goal is to always make him comfortable. He currently receives an oral supplement of Triacta HA, which has done wonders for the last 10 years, no complaints.

Looking for experience, thoughts or anything to be a pro or con about this product. I have put in a message to my Vet as well, waiting on his response.

4CYTE™ Granules for horses | Interpath Global

ETA: he is a sound, happy horse, feels great, until his hocks are due, but that’s fair. Otherwise this is something I just want to add as we know his hocks require some extra maintenance.

[leheath]

I’ve used the dog version of 4Cyte and it has made a significant difference for my elderly dog. She was struggling with hind leg strength and there is a marked difference when she is on 4cyte and when she has been off it for a few weeks (it has been hard to get due to Covid). I notice it in how often her legs give out when she is jumping around and excited (feeding time), how easy she finds it to jump on the bed, and how often her back legs slip and splay on my hardwood floors.

I have only tried the horse version on one horse with an SI problem. I think it made her slightly more comfortable, but the majority of her issue seemed to be soft tissue rather than joint related (and SI joints are not like hocks in structure).

So all that to say, I would definitely use it on a horse such as yours based just on the research behind it and the effect it clearly has on my dog.

[leesa1]

I have used 4cyte gel on an elderly horse with pretty significant arthritis and low-grade kissing spine. My preferred go-to for arthritis is a green-lipped mussel product as it’s had a fair amount of scientific testing and has been proven to help all sorts of animals with arthritic changes.

The 4cyte granules have green-lipped mussel powder but the gel doesn’t, it’s a different active ingredient. The company has shown studies but only for the granule product, last I checked. I personally take the study with a grain of salt as GLMP has been proven to work by itself anyway, so did the granules show positive results because of their own active ingredient or because of the GLMP in the composition of the product? Who knows. I also personally find it a bit disingenuous that wherever they advertise the gel, in the marketing they push the study of the granules despite it being a totally different product.

I did once come across a “study” for their gel but it only had a few horses as a sample size, was done by a vet that had an affiliation with the company (could definitely be wrong on that, my memory isnt so great on it), and his results were based on him eyeing the horses in a trot-up so not exactly what I’d call thorough. I even contacted the company to enquire about more studies and was told that one was currently being carried out, so I asked if it could please be sent me to when it was complete but I never heard from them.

All that aside, I actually coughed up the $400-ish dollars for a pouch of the gel so that I could give it a try and consider changing my opinion, but for my horse I don’t think it did anything for him. He went backwards so I put him back on a GLMP product and he improved again.

Your mileage may vary but for me I wouldn’t buy the gel again. The stuff also sets hard like glue to any surface it drips on. It’s stuck to my car’s paint, my float’s cupboards, feed tubs, basically anywhere it drips and it’s a nightmare to remove.

[java]

I used the gel product for about 6 months when the 4cyte granules became unavailable in Canada. I found the gel hard to draw up in a syringe after a while and it wasn’t easy to administer in the food. I’m not convinced that it did much so stopped using it. I preferred the granules because they had green lipped mussel power. I haven’t seen any convincing studies that the Epiitalis ingredient is effective, it may be useful but my experience was meh… I would try the granules again but as far as I know they are still unavailable in Canada.

[LadyB]

@java

green lipped mussel

Thank you!

With the lack of reviews online, the cost of $179 from my vet, there just isn’t enough to encourage me to try it. I need to do more research. I see there is also https://technyflex.com/equine/ that could be an option, and not as expensive.