Osteon vs Platinum CJ

Does anyone have any thoughts? Background - horse is recovering from an injury (bone bruise initially and then a very minor soft tissue injury), he’s been at rehab and on Osteon + pp GI & tri-aminos, but has come home to a new barn & they only feed supplements 1x daily. All of these together seem like A LOT of powder at one feeding. Thinking of subbing the PP CJ for the Osteom but not sure if it’s equally good for bone.

TIA!!

HorseTech has a liquid supplement (OrthoPur Si) that is a lot easier to feed than Osteon.

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Fwiw my vet recommended that my mare be on both for her specific condition (bone related, not soft tissue). Can’t say how it’s working yet as she’s only been with me since March, but we plan to re check x-rays in September.

ETA all of mine love the taste of PP CJ and the one on osteon licks her bucket clean, so feeding that much powder may not be a huge issue.

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I have no Osteon experience but I fed Platinum CJ to a horse of mine who had what should have been a career ending soft tissue injury. At recheck the vet was stunned by how well he was healing - I kept him on it for about a year, it made me a convert. I hope it works as well for you as it did for my gelding. Of course, N=1 and all that but my vet really believed it made a difference.

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Thanks for your insights! It could be I’m over-thinking this :laughing: He’s not one to leave anything in his feed bucket and so far *touch wood looks amazing, so maybe I should leave it alone unless he decides it’s too much powder.

@IPEsq this barn only feeds individually packaged supplements but that sounds like a good alternative in a different boarding situation.

@beowulf so glad to hear your horse recovered well! I hope we have the same good luck

As an aside, is Osteon something you would stay on your whole working life or more of a supplement for when recovering from an injury? Say, stay on for a year while rehabbing and reentering a regular work load, then switch to PP CJ?

This horse is the definition of hot house flower, so want to give him every opportunity to recover with no further incident.

When I’ve used Osteon or the liquid, I have mostly discontinued use once the injury is healed and rehab is well underway or done. Although perhaps you could reduce the amount and keep using it a bit longer. To me, it doesn’t seem like something that would hurt anything but your wallet.

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That’s great insight - thank you!

If you’re not already feeding the CJ, it might be worth contacting Platinum to see if they still do sample packs. That could be an easier, more cost-effective way to test out the powder amounts before committing to bulk buckets or monthly supplies.

I say this because my equine garbage disposal of a WB who never turned his nose up at anything (literally ate SMZ pills just dropped in his grain, not a care in the world) thought CJ was poison. There was no enticing him, no masking it, not a yummy additive in the world that was going to convince him to eat that.

Lessons learned the hard way.

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Man that’s crazy. My mare who won’t even touch 1/4 teaspoon of salt in 2 quarts of grain/pellets eats the CJ like it’s candy. Out of curiosity - did you try one of the other flavors aside from the original apple?

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It baffled me too. It was the one and only supplement or medication I ever found that he point blank refused to touch. We tried all the flavors in the sample pack they sent - apple, grass, and there was a third one… I think it was molasses or cinnamon?

Tried everything from a sprinkle to a half dose to the full dose, adding peppermints, hiding it in alfalfa cubes, you name it. Just a hard no to any and all.

Oh man what a bummer! They do have funny tastes sometimes…

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My vet uses osteon only as a treatment, not a long term supplement, and then advises CJ as a long term supplement.

I personally prefer Probono and Arthroscope from Equine Elixirs, but have clients that are die hard Platinum supporters.

That’s so interesting! How long does he recommend using it for? Just during active recovery or through rehab and switch when fully back to work?

Horses!

I used Osteon for one soft tissue injury and didn’t when the horse did the same soft tissue injury in another leg. Horse was sound after both rehabs so I can’t say Osteon was some miracle supplement. I didn’t do it the second time because I wasn’t sure it worked, it’s expensive, and PP was never able to ship product to me timely. Osteon is zeolite, a form of silicon. Ultra Cruz makes the same product, but it’s a little cheaper FWIW.

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The nice thing about bones is when they are healed, theyre healed stronger. So just until the bone is healed. Depending on the injury rehab plans change quite a bit so i wouldnt say its always through rehab.

CJ they live on when starting osteon and stay on.

I still prefer pro bono and arthroscope and that is what I use on my personal FEI horse

Appreciate your experience. We just got a new bucket of Osteon the day before he came home, so I’m thinking we’ll finish it and start adding the CJ as we get close to the bottom. I’m anxious about the legging up process as he basically hurt himself 5 minutes after he got home from rehab the first time… Trying to avoid that happening again :woozy_face:

Depending on how that happened - maybe talk to your vet about some chemical assistance? There are so many options now - from something super mild like CBD all the way up to real sedatives for hand walking/riding (make sure to only use those under supervision if you’ve never handled/ridden a drugged horse before - it can be quite dangerous).

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He was medicated after his first rehab but as soon as he got full turnout he was back to his quiet self. His injury wasn’t related to being wild, just bad luck.

He was able to be turned out during this most recent rehab stint, so came back very level. He’s been lovely with no nonsense. I think we’re super sensitive because of the 2 injuries within 6 months of each other and worry that he’s just fragile, so trying to help strengthen him. If that makes sense…

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Totally makes sense. Good luck and lots of jingles!

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