My vet has suggested Osphos for my 12 y/o gelding to help manage his kissing spine. I am aware of the studies in young horses, but what should I expect going in? He thinks it will make him much more comfortable. We were treating with mesotherapy in the past.
We have another appointment 6/4 to discuss this further, but I would like to hear other people’s experiences with it.
Standard “I am not a vet” disclaimer.
It can be hard on their kidneys. A very small percent of horses can go into acute renal failure. If you want to be very cautious you can have your horse’s kidney function tested beforehand.
A much more common risk is colic. I believe my vet said it was due to a slow down of peristalsis which could lead to ileal compaction. I don’t remember exactly, so don’t quote me on that. Essentially, colic or colic-like symptoms in the immediate time after the injection administration (within 2 hrs) is something to definitely keep an eye on.
I have heard of vets giving banamine after osphos to prevent colic. A different vet I know advised against this practice because both are filtrated by the kidneys- so the banamine puts extra stress on them on top of the osphos.
My vet recommends keeping the horse off food overnight and in the morning, giving the injection, and once the 2 hour window has passed they can have food like normal. He thinks an emptier gut is safer due to the risk of colic.
Osphos is known to have an analgesic effect. It may make your horse feel better, but it is not a cure and it does wear off.
It is a great option in many situations and can be wonderfully useful. Best of luck!
Definitely have seen mild colic with it. Seems to be an overall analgesic for several weeks, not sure it has any long-term benefit otherwise.
I did a shot of osphos on my horse. My vet gave a shot of banamine at the same time. He didn’t have any colic or colic like symptoms. I also switched my horse into pour in pads so I can’t say which worked best but something worked for him and made I’m more comfortable.
I have a delicate flower that we’ve learned a lot about in the last 2 years… He’s now had 2 injections of Osphos 6 months apart to help manage his caudal heel pain and navicular changes (17 y/o Paint). July will be 6 months again, we will see how he is going to determine if he gets it again. Osphos has been but one tool in our arsenal.
that said - my horse gets full blood panels drawn at least once a year (usually more often since we are frequent vet school fliers) to check for kidney and liver function most importantly. He does NOT get banamine with Osphos, as the banamine messes with his kidneys and liver… We pre-treat with Buscopan. No negative side-effects have been seen yet.
I’ve done it a few times in a 13+ year old horse.
We check his kidney numbers beforehand and he gets a dose of buscopan right before the Osphos. It can cause spasmodic colic, so the buscopan works better than banamine. We’ve administered Osphos when he was still sedated from hock injections, and my vet said the light sedation can help with the gas/spasmodic colic effects as well. My vet will stick around for 30 minutes to make sure any colic symptoms are treated or resolve.
It also can be irritating to the tissues at the injection site right after administration. We’ve not had any swelling or effects longer than an hour or so, but right away he was shaking his neck and rubbing.
It definitely lengthened the life of the hock injections (upper and lower with HA). We also suspect he’s got some arthritis in his withers and back, so that’s why we added the Osphos to the maintenance regimen.
Osphos sent my horse into kidney failure. I would definitely recommend pulling blood to check levels beforehand, and not giving banamine or any other nsaids filtered through the kidneys within any close time frame before or after the Osphos. My horse received it to help with navicular and hock arthritis and unfortunately it didn’t make much of a difference with either.
I’m another who got to experience the fun of acute kidney failure. We did it on my (then) 16yo GP horse to help with a broken (6-months-prior) coffin bone…reading what I’ve read now, I wouldn’t pick Osphos for that purpose anyway. But it didn’t do anything positive for my horse and did do a whole lot of bad. So I agree with getting kidney values checked ahead of time and not doing banamine with it.
Colic is a real risk. We cut out all NSAIDs and schedule the Osphos for a time when the horse can be hand walked and monitored. It’s been a miracle cure for my 20 year old navicular horse. Before it he was notably lame at the walk. On it he’s 0.5 jogging on pavement. It’s truly been MIRACULOUS for him
Thank you everyone. I have a lot to think about, it seems.
Just an update if anyone is curious, I decided to pass on Osphos for now. It will be on the table further down the road as his kissing spine and cervical arthritis catch up to him. For now we are managing with Previcox and continued injection and mesotherapy.
Just read an article from 2015 that included results from studies with Osphos and and Tildren. The author’s take-away was that these drugs work better on new issues vs. longer term and they should be done after other things have been tried and fail.
Maybe there are more recent studies?
http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/bisphosphonates-and-navicular-syndrome-horses
Why would a vet prescribe a bisphospnate for facet arthritis and impingement of spinal processes?! It is like an ortho spine doctor prescribing fosamax for facet joint degradation and hyper lordosis. Makes absolutely no medical sense whatsoever.
Not a vet, so I don’t know. I decided to pass on it.
I’m seeing that it is commonly prescribed for back problems in horses. I joined a FB group for horses with Kissing spine after reading a suggestion to do so on COTH. It seems one of the things regularly prescribed in addition to other treatments for horses with KS.
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