I thought I read on here that someone feeds 30,000 mg MSM a day for respiratory issues successfully, but now can’t find the thread. That is a lot of MSM, anyone care to comment?
Allergy/respiratory and arthritis conditions come and go, flare up and then relent for a bit.
It is hard to determine what of all out there that is not tried under proper studies and we know how it may work, all going for it is anecdotes, not real data, if it was working at all, much less how much is enough or too much.
One anecdote of my own, about 30+ years ago, our vet came back from a vet convention convinced that MSM was going to be the best, next thing for selling supplements.
He would freely give samples away and tell everyone it worked great for allergies/respiratory and arthritis conditions.
He gave me one, I was having trouble with my hands getting knots on my finger joints and hurting and stiff in the mornings.
I didn’t use it, asked my dr about it, allergies are tricky and can kill you, so does asthma. My grandmother died of an asthma attack at 44.
I was not going to just take something and see what happens.
My dr said, let me check on that and get back to you.
What do you know, after a few weeks, my Dr called and said, best they know, it is fairly harmless, so go ahead and try it if you want to.
Well, by then my hands were back to normal, no more flare-ups, so I never did.
The point of my story, if I had just taken that MSM, you bet, as my hands went back to normal, I would also be singing the praises of MSM, because, well, “it worked for me, try it!”
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It was one of the things I tried with my headshaker, who also occasionally had respiratory allergy issues, but I didn’t see a difference.
I saw no benefits when I tried giving it to my horse. Best thing for her was fresh air, dust-free food (remove whatever bothers the horse if possible) and albuterol (pill form). For bad flare-ups, the vet had to come out and administer injectable steroids.
I tried a lot of OTC stuff. Only OTC things that helped was Benedryl, dosed per vet instructions by weight, but it was never as effective as the meds I got from my vet.
I’m lucky in that my mare has had few flare-ups recently. I just have to be very careful to limit her exposure to her allergens. As an allergy sufferer and asthmatic myself, I have a lot of empathy for my poor girl.
I use it for my pony’s allergies but he is on a combo of things that help with his breathing and reduce inflammation. I use flax, MSM, cough free, and Zyrtec to help control. For about two weeks in the spring I use prescription low dose steroids if needed, but avoid them at all cost.
Exercise has helped the most and fresh air. My guy does eat from a netted round bale…but so far so good.
My horse gets bad skin allergies and one of the first things I tried was a high dose of MSM. It might have made a marginal difference, but not a clear one. She still gets some MSM, but no longer the higher dose.
I’ve tried tons of supplements for her allergies, so far the most effective steroid option has been Spirulina.
We had a horse with very bad allergies, so bad every spring if not treated he would make himself bloody on face, neck and shoulders.
Our vet would give him, when he started scratching in the spring, a long lasting steroid, Depo-Medrol.
It would last for over a month to some summers up to almost three months.
If his allergies started to be serious later, he would give him a second shot.
That is all it took for him and under that protocol. he was allergy free for many years.
Those shots never did bother him in any way, just helped keep him from going frantic itching and scratching.
In his later teens, he quit having problems, just a bit itchy, so our vet discountinued those shots.
He never again needed anything.
We think that our no-seeums were his worst culprit, but they really just were what put him over the top, he was allergic to several other in his environment.
I don’t notice a difference with my horse. I just manage with haylage or soaked hay, dust free bedding, an open stall/paddock, and his Flexineb as needed. Inhaling is much better than injecting when it comes to respiratory management, IMO.
I’ve increased and decreased dosage on the MSM, and still no change FWIW.
