My mid teens guy is needing some joint support. I’m weighing the options and while IA injections will be in the near future, I’m curious about oral supplements.
The feed stores are full of so many options but is there any proof that any of the concoctions help with arthritis and stiffness? Some people swear by Recovery and others by turmeric and black pepper.
What have you all found to work and what is a waste of money?
Many people find intra muscular injections such as Adequan to be very effective without all the risks of intra articular injection.
The actual controlled research studies suggest little to no effectiveness from oral joint supplements in horses or people. But many horse owners have anecdotal evidence that it has helped. It seems from what I’ve read on COTH that if an individual horse responds well to something it’s very specific to that horse.
The other thing I’d recommend is a good overhaul of the horses basic nutrition. Make sure he is getting the right amount of minerals and vitamins and add a cup of flax for oil and omega 3.
Many horses are deficient in basic nutrition because while their owners feed a fortified grain, they only feed a fraction of the recommended amount.
The oral supplement that is working the best, to-date, on my IR horse is the Cosequin ASU the farm vet recommended; believe me I have tried many joint sups for this horse; he is 23.
This horse is in IR remission so my trepidation at giving him somethin containing glucosamine wasn’t as worrisome. It took a few months for me to see what I think is improvement, but I gotta say I think it’s been the best product so far. It’s not cheap but then nothing for this horse is going to be cheap, in order for it to work:(
injections are not popular with my farm vet or my lameness vet, who are two separate facilities. They both do them but I suspect it’s more at the insistence of the horse owners as they are vigorous head shakers (“no”) whenever I have inquired about it for my horses.
I give MSM and if anything more is needed I step up to Pentosan or Adequan. Then joint injections as last ditch effort.
I would try an injectable, proven pharmaceutical before doing an unregulated, oral supplement. Yes, there’s been some research with oral Cosequin supplements, but since that costs about the same as Adequan or Pentosan IM or Legend, why not go with a proven therapy?
Recovery EQ definitely worked for my horse with shoulder arthritis. It kept her comfortable for several years before we had to shift to previcox to keep her comfortable. We accidentally did a blind trial when the barn staff accidentally forgot to feed it to her for a couple of weeks. She started being much more uncomfortable while being ridden and that was what triggered us to investigate and discover that she hadn’t been getting the Recovery.
I’ve had 2 horses get sick where they had to come off of all supplements for a few months (internal pigeon fever) while they were on the various meds to get over the PF. Both horses were stiff/off for the first few minutes when they started back at light work. I started them back on the supplements and within 2 weeks they came out of the stall without a problem. I’m convinced.
I found GLC5500 to work really well on multiple horses. HorseTech also allows you to create your own supplement, so I have one that has the exact amounts of ingredients that I want for joint care (I’ve done a ton of reading and learning these past few years). If the horse only has 1 major area with arthritis, I would go to the IA route. If there are multiple areas, I would do IM injections. If there is still money left over each month, then I would invest in a daily joint supplement.
MSM works well for many horses with some minor stiffness/creakiness. I also found that oral HA worked well for a horse for whom MSM was not enough.
For this horse, a TB mare in her teens and early twenties (I owned her for 16 years), I never found Adequan did much of anything. Nor Cosequin, nor Cortaflx. Joint injections were certainly helpful, but I was leery of doing them too often, particularly since, although I was riding her frequently, I was not riding her (by that time) hard.
What I found to be useful for her: Conquer gel (which is just HA) or any of the joint formulas that contained HA.
Huge fan of Triacta HA.
My guy had fluid on his knee, the size of a soft ball. Put him on that supplement and it went away. Took him off to try Pentosan instead, and the fluid built right back up. Went back to Triacta HA and never looked back. Best thing I ever did.
It’s all trial and error to see what your horse responds to. Even injectables like Pentosan, Legend and Adequan are not always going to work for every horse. I have a few favorite supplements I have used over the years on my teen gelding. All are good and similarly priced:
Adequan has been the miracle drug for my older horse. I’ve seen fairly dramatic improvements with it. With supplements, it’s harder to tell because the outcome is more subtle, but I feel like I have seen results with both Flexadin UC-II and Smartpak’s SmartStride Ultra.
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