Trying to decide on a treatment of my OTTB mare. My choices are Tildren and Osphos. I read quite a bit but I would like to know about your experiences. I’ve had limited experience with both.
I have no personal experience with Osphos but know people who are using it in mature horses with success. My vet does not recommend Osphos in young horses that are still developing bone.
Another friend has used Tildren for a horse advanced navicular, very bad case. It has not made a difference with the horse but again, it was bad navicular from the start so nothing might have worked for her gelding.
I’m also interested in this issue. Maresy has been diagnosed with kissing spines and these two drugs plus the usual medical management of pain are the options on the table. I have not made a decision beyond the daily medical management at this point because I haven’t seen any info that jumps out as indicating one is significantly better than the other.
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I payed the $375 for Osphos and saw no results in my 19 y/o ottb with Navicular. I am very dissapointed
What are you trying to accomplish? Not sure the reason why you are pursuing this treatment.
FWIW, I recently learned that a connection has been using Osphos, but I am not sure why or the results. I will say the potential negative side effects would make me question using it. Within minutes of an injection (not the first time being used) the horse had a major colic episode and was writhing on the ground. Almost lost him, as I hear the story.
I used Tildren, this was several years ago before Osphos was available. Anyway, I was told it would take “up to 6 weeks” to notice any difference, and indeed it did, the effects lasted about that long, and horse was lame again.
Not worth it, IMO.
Add another N=2 for the colic issue. Not any of my horses, but ones I recently learned of. There is lots of info out there on the colic link with Osphos, and that alone would have me very, very leary of using it.
My older horse was head bobbing lame and responded well to tildren. He became sound to ride and the positive effects lasted roughly 5 months. When he became lame again, we tried osphos as a follow up treatment. There was some improvement but nothing like the response to tildren. I will need to wait a few months before treating him with tildren again. Administration is limited to every 4-6 months. Price and administration of the two drugs is very different. Osphos is IM and a few hundred dollars. Tildren is IV and $1,000 and up. Colic-like symptoms are associated with both drugs. A few minutes of hand-walking resolved the issue with my horse. .
I’ve used both. They’re very similar drugs, and most people now use Osphos just because it’s cheaper. On label, they are both for the treatment of navicular. Any other use is off label. My vet won’t give either more than every 6 months, and won’t give either to very young horses.
Yes, they carry a risk of spasmodic colic. My understanding is that the drugs can cause cramping. It can be painful, but that’s about it. Because the drugs also carry kidney risks, you can’t give NSAIDS with either drug (and your vet will need to run blood to confirm normal function before administering either drug).
We either give Buscopan automatically with the drug, or have some on hand just in case, depending on the horse. We also don’t do it after-hours - we make sure it’s done while someone is around to keep an eye on the horse in case he needs to be walked or get the back-up Buscopan to kill the cramps.
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My anecdote: my mare has had both. After the Tildren she had colic. Not a terrible one, but definitely had to do “colic watch” with her for a good part of the night until the poop fairy showed up. (It was my birthday, too!) After the Osphos she was fine. In neither case was there a huge improvement. Tildren was for a general bone problem (long story), Osphos for navicular changes.
I knew someone who used Osphos a lot (and AFAIK still does) on pretty much all of the 8- 10 horses she had in the barn, and never saw any of the potential colic or renal issues. But this is troubling: “Increased bone fragility has been observed in animals treated with bisphosphonates at high doses or for long periods of time. Bisphosphonates inhibit bone resorption and decrease bone turnover which may lead to an inability to repair microdamage within the bone. In humans, atypical femur fractures have been reported in patients on long term bisphosphonate therapy; however, a causal relationship has not been established” (from the Osphos packaging) and I’ve heard enough rumors about catastrophic injuries in horses that have been treated with Osphos/ Tildren that it’s something I’d use only for a last resort.
Just note that current research doesn’t support any effect of either Tildren or Osphos on bone remodeling. Given everyone who has posted that they don’t seem to do anything, it kind of supports the peer-reviewed, controlled data below.
https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-018-1423-2
Highflyer, yes - I had forgotten that I heard the same thing from my vet. Since then she refuses to use it after hearing other vet’s talk about otherwise healthy young horses in the field ending up with life-ending fractures.
