Coming out of lurkdom to ask a question. Our vet has decided that our mare needs to put on a course of Adequan, 7 shots spaced 4 days apart. He doesn’t believe in Pentosan at all, so I don’t like to mention it to him. She’s currently on a monthly shot of Pentosan, because I can’t afford the Adequan. How does Pentosan compare to Adequan, and can we just do the 7 shot regimen in Pentosan, instead of doing it with Adequan? Thanks so much!
Also, he recommended that we also follow up with a monthly shot of Legend, but we can’t afford it because, well, two horses. Does anybody know of a generic Legend substitute?
Thanks for any and all help! This is cross posted in the Eventing forum as well.
Pentosan and Adequan help similar issues, but are not necessarily interchangeable. I would have to say if your vet says your horse needs Adequan, it begs the question if the monthly Pentosan is helping at all. I would also encourage you to be honest with your vet, regardless of what he/she believes in personally.
NexHA is an FDA generic equivalent for Legend, however, I cannot find it in stock anywhere and ended up doing Legend all last summer.
What specifically is the horse’s issue? Direct IA injection to the problem joint(s) will probably be more helpful and any systemic injection will.
Most vets tend to recommend Adequan over pentosan, because Adequan has been FDA approved for IM injection for horses. Whereas pentosan (the same medication) is “off label” generic and has not.
As far as which one is better … depends which one your horse responds to. Even horse is different and what works for one may not work for another.
There’s also some controversy right now on how to use Adequan. Some vets say to do the loading dose twice a year and that’s it. Some say to do the loading dose initially then maintain with monthly shots thereafter. (that is what both of my lameness vets recommend).
Legend is a medication that is much more short term than adequan or pentosan. IMO, I would only use Legend right before a big multi-day show, because that’s about how much effect you are going to get out of it (a few days).
Do you feel like Pentosan is helping your horse? If not, then try the Adequan and see if you notice a difference. Again it’s really trial and error (expensive!) to figure out what your horse responds to.
Can I ask WHY you have your horse on pentosan in the first place? Are you doing prevention or treating specific problems?
If the pentosan isn’t helping a few things could be going on. You aren’t dosing often enough. Some people find dosing once a month to every two weeks after the loading dose helps. You don’t have pentosan. Your horse needs localized injections in addition to the pentosan.
There is a chance adequan, which works differently would help
Just throwing OsPhos out there as another option. My horse did not respond to pentosan at all, but OsPhos every 5-6 months has been very helpful such that I don’t have to inject his hocks.
Just want to point out, this is no longer true. Pentosan EQ is FDA approved for equine support of arthritis and inflammation. Of course, many of us are still buying the compounded non-FDA approved variation because it is half the price…
We’ve used Adequan on multiple occasions on one horse and it has been a successful treatment. Our one use of Pentosan on the same horse worked, but it was much less successful. We used Adequan “by the book.” I recollect we followed a program recommended by our vet but I don’t remember if this was a “label” protocol or not.
We’ve never used Legend so I can’t comment on that.
