Have you used it? Or if you are real educated about it, what is your opinion? What does your vet say? Gathering info for horse it has been prescribed for. Thanks.
Have used it on several horses. It works well on neck problems
Before I retired him I used Osphos on my old man, who was getting sore ankles/pastern/feet from XC. It worked great and allowed him to finish his last season in excellent shape. My younger horse gave himself a really nasty bone bruise and the Osphos helped calm down the remodeling that was going on. So, in my n=2, it was been 100% successful for bone issues!
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Thanks. Appreciate the feedback.
For an older horse, absolutely. I used it 4x on my (at the time) 19-20 year old. The first 2 times (6 months apart) were like MAGIC. Third time helped some but not as much. Fourth time-- nothing. He had navicular/laminitis/arthritis and the first 3 treatment absolutely bought him more good months.
Like @vxf111 --we used it on a show horse (WP not HJ) and most likely extended his career 4-5 years. First time --like magic! Second was equally great. Third definite improvement. Fourth, not so much but some --and the last time, nothing. But remember horse was elderly to start with. Amazingly, Max is still at my barn (Granddaughter’s 4-H horse). He’s been on pasture with a buddy, no riding for the last 4 years. About a month ago the vet was out and saw him come in. He said, “He’s sound.” Sure enough, we started with light work and he’s in the rotation now (works 4, off 3). He’s doing very, very well. We have no plans for him other than to be a pleasant riding horse around the property. A nice young woman with a background in WP (as a kid she did WP at World and Congress with her parents) --really enjoys him --she knows exactly how to push his buttons to get some nice, slow, work out of him. Max rarely breaks a sweat, but he sure enjoys the attention!
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I have something of an ethical hang-up about Osphos/Tildren being used in competition/riding horses, to keep them competitive/rideable. My honest opinion is that if a horse needs Osphos/Tildren to stay comfortable in work, it is time to reassess whether or not what you are asking is suitable for that horse. I am seeing in my personal bubble that Osphos is being used to keep a horse in work that should be retired on on some sort of layup. Unethical.
I would have no issues using it to keep a retired horse with many complaints comfortable, or as a one-time therapeutic use while a (competition) horse is on lay-up from a freshly diagnosed (bone) injury/issue. It is a very powerful pain reliever, and I’ve seen it make a big difference in PO and navicular horses’ comfort[s].
This poster shared her personal experiences on a separate thread about Osphos – https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…or-back-issues
Osphos is also not without its side effects. It would not be a drug I’d casually consider.
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I should add that my horse was retired at the time I used the Osphos and, as noted, he was older. I would not use it in a young/competing horse for fear of pretty significant complications. But for an older retired horse? To buy more time? Absolutely.
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Thank you so much for all of these posts!
:encouragement:
Sorry, I didn’t mean for my post to insinuate I was making judgments on other people; just what my opinion is of it, for my own horses.
I used it with my horse, and it made dramatic improvements to her soundness and ability to be ridden and jumped. For her, I found that the benefits lasted about six months at a time. Ultimately, I made the decision to retire her because I felt that it wasn’t fair to her to continue putting a band-aid on a chronic problem that clearly wasn’t fixable.
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I absolutely agree with the above caveats. My older horse was halfway through what I had already decided would be his last season and he was able to finish out his eventing career happy and feeling good doing something he enjoyed. I knew that I could have kept him competing with periodic injections and did not want that for him, whatsoever.
He retired sound and is still sound, nearly three years later, being a husband horse a couple of days a week at the farm where he lives with my best friend. He can hack around all day long, and he zips up and down the hills with his friends like a two year old every day in their huge field, but keeping him happy galloping and jumping XC would have required more than basic maintenance and that would have been unfair to him.
We did Osphos for my young horse for a specific, one-time therapy for a bone bruise. It did what it needed to do, he came back into work after a chunk of time off and good pictures, and that was that.
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We used it for navicular changes on my daughter’s pony. I new nothing about it previously. I read the mixed reviews online. At the end of the day, my trainer and vet both strongly recommended it, so we moved forward. It definitely helped, I would say.
My vet has found Tildren to be more effective than Osphos. It’s more expensive and has more side effects, but he splits the dosing over a 2 day period to help prevent potential colic. We had great results! On my horse, we always just did Tildren and never tried Osphos since that was his recommendation. But I have heard success stories from both! Best of luck!
Yes we use it on our hunter who has confirmed bony issues such as bone spurs in his neck and pastern. We do not use it as a pain killer; we are using it to long term slow any further changes in these bony issues. He gets Osphos every six months and our vet encourages us to continue due to the good results. He was recently xrayed because he was being vetted and his issues had stayed very consistent and minimal in the three years since the last time he was xrayed which our vet attributes to the Osphos. He is a competition horse, still competing at a high level and is not lame so for those who say its being used to cover up lameness, that is not always the case. He also gets joint injections in those areas, but again the Osphos is to slow or prevent further issues.
:no: But it will and does cover up lameness – including in the very specific areas you’ve mentioned. This seems so wrong to me – but maybe I am in the minority.
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My worry with prolonged use on a younger horse is what is the Osphos/Tildren doing to all the “non problematic” bony areas of the horse? Sure it’s preventing more navicular degeneration-- but it’s also preventing bone density from being normal everywhere else from the pelvis to the spine to the neck, etc. A horse getting a lot of wear and tear with a lot of years in front of him, i worry I’m doing something deleterious to the overall bony strength/endurance of the bones if I am regularly using these drugs. It’s one thing to do it a time or two for a specific injury as the horse is rehabbed back to work. And entirely different when you’re trying to buy a little extra time at the end of a horse’s life. I would be really, really nervous using it regularly for a horse in the prime of his career who is working hard. What if you’re making other bones weak? And then asking a horse to work on those weakened bones? That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
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I tend to listen to my vet (who is widely regarded as one of the best lameness specialists in the country) over folks sitting at a keyboard LOL but maybe that’s just me. The fact is that the is more sound than he has ever been in the 3+ years in after we found these issues. We have never given it to him to “make him sound” and in fact he always looks the same after he has had osphos. The only time any lameness starts to show up is when he’s due for his injections, which are usually 12-14 months apart. Are there people that I know who have given their horse osphos just because they want to make the horse more sound, yes, but those effects never last long. Osphos is approved for very specific bony issues, and it works. Are you telling me that because my 8 year old horse was diagnosed with a bone spur, he should have been retired? That doesn’t compute to me. I’m glad I listened to my vet because he’s happy as a clam, looks and goes amazing, and is thriving.
The OP asked for experiences, i shared mine. Why other people are bashing people who use it with their vet’s recommendation on this forum, I have no idea. OP if you’d like more information, feel free to PM me.
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According to my vet there’s now a drug test for this if you’re doing PPEs too - one more thing to test for.
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