Glucosamine and laminitis

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coloredred

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This summers I've had a lot of trouble with my gelding being footy over stones. He's fine everywhere else but usually isn't footy at all, not even in spring even though hes barefoot. At first I put it down to a bad trim plus very good grass but trim was about 5 weeks ago and I've had him stabled in the day to reduce grass intake. He's not overweight, no fat patches and he's worked almost everyday. He's fed a high fibre/low sugar diet with magnesium, brewers yeast and glucosamine. The only thing I hadn't tried cutting out (not wanting to cut out mag or yeast) was the glucosamine. Rode him last night and as usual he wa footy going out of the yard. Cut the glucosamine out of his feed last night and when I rode him out of the yard tonight the difference was very noticeable. He seemed much happier to walk over the stones to get to the road and marched around the whole route. Might be a coincidence but I'm going to keep it out of his feed for a while to make sure.

Last summer he wasn't footy but he was only being fed after being ridden so probably only 3 days a week and there was no grass by this time last year so less sugar intake anyway. Has anyone else had a horse react to glucosamine like this?
 
My mates gelding had severe laminitis and we are damn sure that it was the glucosamine that caused it. It was the only thing that he was on that could have caused it.
 
I was told by someone that most of the powdered supplements, like MSM and Glucosamine are full of sugar to make it palatable - so I expect it is the "fillers" in the supplement that are to blame rather than the glucosamine itself.

I don't know how true it is - but never risked any of it with my mare
 
I wish I'd never given my ID glucosamine. She had windgalls after a sponsored ride, so I started her on glucosamine, a few weeks later she started spooking at nothing much, then she reacted VERY strongly to noises, particuolarly car engines. When she bucked me off onto the road, I got the vet who diagnosed muscle damage. We treated that and had the saddle reflocked but she still wasn't quite right. About 8 months after first giving her glucosamine, we took her off it and she did seem better. Unfortunately about 3 weeks after that we lost her to septicaemia following cellulitis from a tiny graze. I will always believe that her immune system was compromised by the glucosamine. We no longer give the oldie glucosamine for her joints, she has cider vinegar instead. We won't give horses anything they couldn't find in the wild - they don't usually go fishing!
 
ApacheWarlord said:
This is a link that Touchstone posted on the subject:-


http://myhorse.com/blogs/horse-care/laminitis-horse-care/if-your-horse-battles-laminitis-is-glucosamine-safe/

You might find it interesting
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this - I had a mare who last year really started to go downhill and became increasingly footy; the introduction of a high strength Glucosamine product along with the wrong forage was I think one of the triggers for that and ultimately she was found to be insulin resistant. No more Glucosamine for her - she is doing fine without it.
 
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