joint pain/arthritis supplements? boots? wraps?

[eirualaerdna]

what have you found to be the best tissue repair/ maintenance/ pain relief for joint pain and arthritis? Tahoe is very, very athletic and energetic and only 15, but she has a leg with inflamation. Bute makes it not hot or irritated and kills the pain. However, I want her on supplements so she can be ridden and worked like she was before. Ideas?

Also, should I use leg wraps or boots of some kind? It's the back right leg joint.

[clayandjill]

My sister in law swears by this stuff:

www.cetylm.com/index.html

I have some coming for our old Forest Service horse who suffers from swollen joints and arthritis. I will let you know if it works!

Jill

[hayforhorses - The Food Angel]

Bio-magnetics in wraps should work really well to remove the pain. North pole magnets calm and heal. I used to sell them a few years back. There is also a company who sells these for horses. If you are interested, I can post their info here for you.

I use mini bio-magnets on my back and the pain is totally gone within 10-20 minutes.

BTW, I do NOT recommend Nikken at all after researching them.

[pikzeedust]

Next Level, Missing Link Plus, Recovery EQ. I've used all of them and they seem to work well.

[crum]

I recommend next level for arthritic horses and aspirease (buffered aspirin) or BL solution (devil's claw extract) if neccesary. If you are experiencing actual heat and swelling that can be reduced in the area though I am wondering if it is something other than arthritis.

[NanciK]

Are you talking about the hock joint?

Joint suppplements, as mentioned above, are good. Also, can be administered via monthly shot e.g. Adequan, Legend, etc.

I would also talk to your Vet if your horse is a good candidate for hock injections of corticosteroids to replace the fluids in the joint capsules. This treatment offers immediate pain relief and much-improved range of motion for the competitive sport horse.

The length of time the relief lasts can vary from 3-12 months, then you would need to consider another course of shots. Kinda like Botox!

This treatment isn't cheap. Here in northern California, a round of hock shots in both hinds costs close to $700.

It really works! But you have to consider the long-term costs against the value of a fully-sound and competitive horse.

To me, it was worth it.

[atticus]

Atticus has an arthritic knee and some hip issues and he does great on Adequan and Next Level Joint Juice. When he is really bad then we have the chiro out (make sure the chiro you use is a vet) and he gets acupuncture with Vitamin B-12 right into the acupuncture point, it works great!!!

[rocky]

My Vet said to give Sarge straight MSM and then add to that if needed. So I have now added Glucosimine and when I ride him I put splint boots on for support and his brushing issues. It has helped to some degree...

[rescuestoribbons]

I do what NanciK does with my 14 year old thoroughbred and they work like magic, they lasted about 2 and 1/2 months. The only hold back is the are like $100 each, we gave him both adequin and legend. Hope she feels better!

[earlybp]

Bert did great on BL solution. But recovery EQ is awesome too.

[cutiepiepmu]

There are a variety of wonderful products out there - the one to recommend depends on the joint and what is actually causing the issue. If it is just plain ol arthritis, then I recommend the following

Next Level is about the BEST joint product I have seen - the liquid works better than the pellets.
Recovery EQ is also extremely good - but found that I got better results with it when I teamed it up with next level.

However - my concern is that he has something like a small OCD in the low motion portion of the hock. This will fuse over time and not cause pain after it does. It won't limit him after it has fused for the most part. My concern here is that feeding certain things - like Cetyl-M, Recovery EQ or high doses of Glucosimine will SLOW the process of this fusing - which in a normal situation is what we want - but here, it prolongs the pain for the animal. Bute and other NSAID's will also prolong the fusing if this is the case. If you haven't done x-rays you might want to consider just to rule something like this out.

The other thing I will strongly recommend is to look overall at the diet. Remove all alfalfa or alfalfa based products - alfalfa can cause increased inflamatory reactions in teh body because of the plant estrogens. Also - remove any corn or corn product from the diet - it can do similar things with inflamtion in the body, but more because of how it is digested and utilized by the obdy. Adding a small amount of fat product daily to the diet has shown to help some arthritic horses perform better and I do know it made a world of difference for my old QH stallion who has an arthritic knee that is nearly fused.

As far as a few products I can give my own personal findings for you since I have tried most all on the market.

Cetyl-M - EXPENSIVE as I found it really only had good effect when I was feeding nearly 4 scoops 2x per day - making the $84 bucket last only 9 days total! When used by itself - it didn't have as good as response as using it with the Next Level Liquid. I did see reduction in pain however using the higher doseage. I also tried it on my dog- however he did not see much response at all - for the price, IMO there are better things!

BL-Solution - WONDERFUL stuff - this is not so much a joint product rather than a natural pain relief product made up of B-12, Yucca and Devils claw. Cheap to buy through Valleyvet.com and works great!

MSM - most complete products have it - but feeding it alone may get some relief from sore joints. I use it very frequently, especially in my growin and training youngsters. Cheap!

Cosequin - EXPENSIVE - but didn't see the amount of improvement I had hoped for. The new formula that is more concentrated with HA is better, but still so expensive that there are better ways to go IMO.

Next Level - I SWEAR by this stuff! Of all the single products I recomend this one the most - and GREAT news is that another company is now making the exact same formula only cheaper. I am helping test this and will give reviews in around 30 days!! Will be around half the price!!!

Recovery EQ - Expensive, but for something that is accute onset or soft tissue related - this product ROCKS. It is more spendy, but worth the money.

Also - ask your vet about a brand new NASID on the market called Equinox - it is similar to bute, but has alot less side effects for long term. It is a little more expensive, but I have been using it in my barn now for around 3 weeks and have been very pleased with the results! It is a gel - but I add it to the feed.

Sara in WA

[afinenettle]

WOW what a wonderful summary. thank you so much for putting that in print. I have saved it . my joints feel better all ready (jk)

[toeps]

Sara - you are my hero

:)Next Level - the stuff is amazing.

[eirualaerdna]

wow, thanks for all the comments! I didn't want to guess anymore, so I had the vet out. She took x-rays (still waiting on the results) but now that I know what's out there and what's the best, I can make a good decision on supplements if indeed she has arthritis. THANKS!

[cutiepiepmu]

No problem on that! There are about 200 thousand products for supplementing anymore! LOL It is hard to know what is good and what is not since animal supplements are not required to be regulated as to statements made by the company that produces them. So - alot ends up in trial and error.

Most horses have more than one thing going on that needs supplemented for - so don't be fooled into the shot gun approach of one thing fixes everything One horse may do extremely well on a particular program where another horse may need some tweeks with that program to get great results. Once you get the results fo the x-rays you can be better equiped to make a decision right for your kid!

Take care,
Sara