I was just wondering does anyone still use DMSO on arthritic joints?
Do you think it is effective?
Where do you get it? Vet or tackstore/online?
I know you have to apply to a clean area to avoid pulling unwanted chemicals,etc into the body.
I use it on my horse after a harder workout or if he has some inflammation doing. My vet suggests that it should only be applied to short or clipped hair. It does seem to help with retained fluid. I buy the gelatin version on Amazon.
I use DMSO, and am very aware of what it can and can not do, and it does not help with arthritis. It is great with sprains and strains and bruises, but when cartilage is eroded to the point of established arthritis, it does not help. It can relieve pain of arthritis to a certain extent, but it is mainly anti-inflamatory. The best use of dmso is to get rid of the inflamation on a fresh injury, and difuse the damaged cells back into the blood stream. I recommend not using rubber gloves as it is a solvent, and will disolve the rubber glove, and carry that into your body and your horses.
[QUOTE=sunhawk;8894698]
I use DMSO, and am very aware of what it can and can not do, and it does not help with arthritis. It is great with sprains and strains and bruises, but when cartilage is eroded to the point of established arthritis, it does not help. It can relieve pain of arthritis to a certain extent, but it is mainly anti-inflamatory. The best use of dmso is to get rid of the inflamation on a fresh injury, and difuse the damaged cells back into the blood stream. I recommend not using rubber gloves as it is a solvent, and will disolve the rubber glove, and carry that into your body and your horses.[/QUOTE]
Thank you, I understand it won’t repair cartilage. By treatment I was thinking of getting rid of some pain and some of the chronic inflammation.
The arthritis is in his carpus, he is on previcox but some days I would like to add a bit extra support for it if tweaks/torques it.
It isn’t something that I would use in that situation. My go to would be pentosan or adequan.
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There’s a lot of old arthritic farmers out there who smell like garlic, so they certainly think it works for the swelling and pain! You need to be careful because it will draw into the bloodstream whatever is in the skin surface, so make sure you don’t have any treatments or coat conditioners etc on him already. Also it can sting, especially chestnuts and pink skinned horses, and if it’s going to sting it will be on contact so watch out you don’t get kicked while you are skin testing. Use gloves, although you will still probably get the garlic breath. All those caveats aside, it is known to work and is cheap enough. But honestly, if your horse just has minor stiffness, start with a nice liniment rub. Only good smells and no risks.
