What’s everyone’s thoughts on hyaluronic acid and rosehip as an arthritis/joint supplement? Does anybody have any good suggestions for a joint supplement especially for a horse with moderate arthritis? I’m trying to wean my horse off of prevacox and onto something more natural. I’ve heard some people mention hyaluronex liquid and I’ve heard others mention ordering just plain HA and rosehip from bulk supplements. I get overwhelmed because than I also hear people adding just pure HA, chondroiton, glucosamine and MSM together and swear by it.
IMHO, if you’re going after rosehips, make sure to compare the cost of rosehips with regular vitamin C, as that’s basically what rosehips bring. And if you want to supplement vitamin C, you need at least 3000mg to start making an impact.
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Some folks swear by feed through supplements anecdotally but I’m not sure there’s a lot of clinical evidence for any of them across the board, in horses or humans. So you might have to experiment.
My understanding is that horses manufactured their own Vitamin C, but that may decline in old age. That’s why Vitamin C is not a part of most equine Vitamin Mineral Supplements (unlike humans who need their oranges!). So I think the rose hips are likely unnecessary and in any case an unreliable source like all natural products.
I understand the injectables like Adequan have more clinically proven results.
Smartpak has links and brief synopses of some research related to various joint supplement ingredients, including HA:
A lot of joint supplements include Vitamin C as well. But it’s always a good idea to check the levels of supplementation whenever you select a particular brand.
You also may need to experiment a bit with different supplements to see if one works better for your horse than another. If your needs some pain management, several supplements contain Devil’s Claw and/or white willow, both of which work to some extent to manage pain (not nearly to the extent that Previcox does though).
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There’s some evidence that adding Vit C to other joint-supporting ingredients may boost the effectiveness, such as this study with MSM vs MSM + C
I thought I’d seen something similar about combining it with glucosamine and/or chondroitin, but I can’t find it now
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Thanks for your responses! I was looking at several other joint supplements too (all liquid):
•osteomax
•hyaluronex
•lubrisyn HA
Any thoughts or am I better offer just feeding the active ingredients found in them like just 100% HA? Also, is ground flaxseed a good option for joint health?
