Cartrophen, what is your maintenance program?

[Tiddlypom]

I've a horse who has responded favourably to an initial course of 4 Cartrophen injections. Vet and I agree that it will be a good idea to continue to give Cartrophen as a top up at about 3 monthly intervals.

Do folk tend to repeat the whole 4 dose initial course for the maintenance program, or are single top up injections usually enough? I'd be interested to hear what other people do.

(I think that my vet has suggested that a single injection will be enough, but I may have misheard her.)

TIA

 

[tiga71]

My old boy first had cartrophen when he had some foot balance problems and bony nodules in his neck. He also has a dodgy stifle. He is 19 and first had it when he was about 16.

He was on a joint supplement at the time but the vet said to stop the supplement and stick with the cartrophen. So he had the initial course and now has it every 2/3 months. I get the vet to do one injection and then they leave me with another 3 vials for me to inject as and when.

He is in reasonable work, 4-5 days work a week, long hack on downs, jumping, XC, endurance and fun rides etc. I find that I can tell when he needs an injection as is a little stiff and not quite as forward as normal.

 

[Goldenstar]

Once every three months and a full course once a year .
It certainly helps my horse .

 

[Tiddlypom]

Thanke, both.

Once every three months and a full course once a year .
It certainly helps my horse .

I think that this is what my vet must have in mind. She's written me out a script for 6 months supply which has just two vials listed. I'll check with her soon.

I know that she's fairly new to recommending Cartrophen, but several of her clients have reported very favourable results with it.

 

[JLav]

Mine's only ever had the full course once then has a single jab every 6 months. He's 13 now so i'm going to increase it to every 4 months from now on.

 

[Frumpoon]

I'm planning on a jab a month

 

[Goldenstar]

I think it's underused it's much safer that medicating joints and it helps the whole body which is useful for old horses who are getting creaky .

 

[Tiddlypom]

I think that it's only relatively recently that it's been licensed for equine use. It's been used on dogs for much longer.

It can be used in conjuction with joint medication, but my vet wanted to see how the Cartrophen course worked before jabbing her hocks (she has bilateral lower hock joint arthritis). The cartrophen alone definitely helped, and interestingly it sorted her consisently sore left saddle area, which had needed constant physio whether she was being ridden or not. As vet says, she must be moving differently on the cartrophen, but she was still a bit stiff in her hocks so has just gone on to be jabbed too.

GS, that's what my vet says, that it helps with general older age creakiness and niggles that would be difficult to pin down and treat individually. It seems to be well tolerated and with few side effects.

 

[KHippo]

Just bumping this thread hoping the previous posters wouldn't mind updating it with how their cartrophen maintenance is working out?

Have been recommended this today for my 19yo mare (arthritic hocks) so doing some research on its success & maintenance requirements for budget purposes!

 

[ihatework]

I use it prophylactically on any of my competing horses. I do the initial course and then inject monthly. I will strategically repeat the weekly course depending on the horse once or twice a year

 

[hopscotch bandit]

Sorry to hijack post but just curious. Is cartrophen then same as Osphos? And how does it differ from Tidlren?

 

[ihatework]

Sorry to hijack post but just curious. Is cartrophen then same as Osphos? And how does it differ from Tidlren?

No, completely different mode of action. Tildren and Osphos are similar.

 

[SEL]

I didn't have much luck with it on either horse. For the Appy she was great during the course of 4 but the effects wore off so quickly I couldn't even be sure the better gait was from the drug and not just random feeling better.

I didn't expect much from Militaire because his joints are stuffed, but he was struggling this winter so I gave it a go. Definitely pepped him up and there was more bounce in his step, but again the effect was short lived. I might have considered another course but he's awful to inject, so we'll stick to danilon.

It's not that expensive though esp if you're ok to inject them yourself, so I'd give it a go. There's a U.S. company doing injectable chondroitin sulphate who say they are having good results so I'm going to try and find out if we can get it in the UK.

 

[hopscotch bandit]

No, completely different mode of action. Tildren and Osphos are similar.

Thanks