Can you please tell me all you know about these treatments the good and bad. My horse had it for some arthritis but I’ve read of some possible ill effects and I would like to know anything you can tell me.
thank you very much!
I’ve used it on four different horses (one multiple times) and never had any side effects. Not much help, I guess!
My mare had a mild colic after Tildren was administered a few years ago. But this was probably due to the vet not following protocol for food (which is to say, DON’T feed them just before or for several hours afterward.) Mare was fine in a few hours with just Maalox, banamine, and handwalking. And pissed that she didn’t get any hay until the morning!
That said, I’m not sure Tildren did all that much for her.
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In my limited experience with Tildren on 2 horses there were no side effects. But it is well documented that some horses can and do experience gastric, intestinal issues. My 2 didn’t.
Osphos is relativity new so we are kind of paying to be the guinea pig. Like with most unproven horse meds. It is similiar to Tildren but was formulated by and large for horses/animals to address the side effects found with Tildren.
When given Tilden it is best to let it “slow drip” in. Had one inpatient vet speed things up I guess by squeezing the back. It leaves a big lump at the injection site. It can take months for it to resolve and still leaves a “tell tail”.
"That said, I’m not sure Tildren did all that much for her."
My feeling also. But it is hard not to give it a try. Wish it wasn’t so expensive.
OsPhos had been in Europe prior to america, so we are certainly not the guinea pigs.
Some of my clients horses get very mildly crampy with OsPhos but that last about 15-20 minutes then they are fine.
I saw some reasonably good results on all four horses the first time Tildren (slow drip) was administered. The second time it was administered, their were some good results, but not as good as the first time. On the horse that was done a third time, there were no positive results. These were all old horses with old injuries and lots of arthritis. At the time, Tildren was sort of a last resort to give them some relief.
Your are referring to Tildren. I am pretty sure OsPhos came on the market world wide in 2014? Tildren has been around for years for use in humans. It has been used for horses in Europe for quite a while but wasn’t approved for general use in horse in this country until recently.
[I]"In May 2014, the U.S. Federal Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine approved two new equine drugs: Tildren (tiludronate disodium), manufactured by Ceva Sante Animale, and Osphos (clodronate disodium), manufactured by Dechra. These drugs became licensed in the United States and are “intended to control the clinical signs of navicular syndrome.”
Before last summer, Tildren had been enjoying heavy use in Europe and was being used in the United States under a limited license that required veterinarians to request importation of individual doses on a horse-by-horse basis. Tildren has been used as a treatment for lameness originating from multiple locations in horses, but its recent current licensure restricts its use to cases of navicular syndrome.
Osphos is a new product and has no past performance history. Both drugs are bisphosphonates and, though the exact mechanism of action in horses with navicular syndrome is unknown, there is enough science and recent testing to make owners and veterinarians cautiously optimistic about their potential use"[/I]
The above was taken from an article written in 2015
“there is enough science and recent testing to make owners and veterinarians cautiously optimistic about their potential use”
“Cautiously optimistic” means more testing, in other words more paying owners willing to pay to be the “guinea pig” to prove its usefulness.
I am not using "guinea pig’ in a derogatory fashion. Time will tell if it has limited value and is dismissed. Or the “success rate” is high enough to be worth a try. I have been around long enough to have seen plenty of “promising meds” come and go and helped pay for the “study”.
How long did it takes to see a difference?
My horse went through 4 rounds of the slow-drip Tildren, and I think it helped him immensely. He didn’t experience any side effects. I would have given him a few more rounds if it wasn’t so awfully expensive. The results were fairly quick for him as well.
My horse went into kidney failure upon being administered Osphos, which made it a much-higher-than-anticipated cost. Sure wish they would be more forthcoming about that “little” side effect (which doesn’t happen often, but does happen often enough that no one is surprised when I tell my horse’s story).
We gave it to my guy after discovering that he had been jumping around on a broken coffin bone, and figured it would be a good after-the-fact supportive therapy prior to the start of the show season. Ultimately I think it was good for his feet, but definitely not good for his kidneys!
Renal toxicity was what I was worried about as it happened to my cousins horse after osphos was administered. My horse had some mild colic symptoms last night it had been 72 hours since the drug had been administered so not sure if that is related. He was already on gastrogard. What were the symptoms of your horses kidney failure? We did a blood test last night. I would never try this drug again.
A horse in our barn had a few rounds of tildren. He was older and eventually died after he was found to have a fairly severely broken jaw. I recalled reading that a broken jaw is one of the known and warned of possible side effect of biophosphonates in humans. I’ve often wondered if there was a correlation between the tildren and the broken jaw and if that side effect is under-reported because it is less discussed.
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Same thing happened to a horse at my barn. Vets at UC Davis said that they’re seeing more cases of renal failure as Osphos is becoming more popular. I had used it in the past but never again.
What were the symptoms. My horse seems not quite right. He is on gastrogard so likely it’s something other than ulcers. We did a blood test would that show renal toxcisity.
He back to himself now. I have done bloodwork as a precautionary measure. I am not suggesting osphos is not worth trying but even the small risks are scary.
I don’t know about the symptoms. I was home recovering from surgery at the time. Horse must have gotten pretty sick because he ended up in the ICU. Yes, blood work for creatinine will show problems with the kidneys.
because of the sudden shift in Ca levels, i was told Osphos can cause a gas colic so they must be observed for 90 minutes post admin. Mine did not have any issues. The vets told me the ones who seem to get GI upset usually are fine if they nibble on grass and walk around.
I’ve been considering OsPhos for my mare, but all these threads and research I do about it freak me out to the point that I think I will pass. I have heard stories from people I know (and know horses who were treated) some of whom had good results and some of whom had no change (though no one I know had a horse that had any severe reaction to the drug). It’s just expensive enough with the risks (albeit small) that I think I will skip it, at least for now, when it is still so new.
I’ve done Osphos. We had to administer an anti-cramping drug 15 minutes after and he had a lot of pain at the injection site for about 20 minutes.
We discussed the potential for kidney failure prior to scheduling the appointment. My vet said no NSAIDs for several days before administration (bute, surpass, etc.). We’ve also run a kidney panel this year since he was on so many antibiotics for cellulitis and we were coming up on potentially re-doing the Osphos.
Symptoms of kidney failure are a change in drinking and/or urination and inappetance. It’s scary and can be expensive to treat kidney failure, but my vet said if caught early, most often it can be treated. The kidneys can take a lot of damage.
My vet wouldn’t give my mare osphos until she’d run a blood panel. It came back normal and she gave her a dose, no colic or cramping, but the osphos itself didn’t seem to make much of a difference (though, tbf, imaging was inconclusive and it was more of a “let’s give this and see if it helps” scenario).
