HA - Hyaluronic acid

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mtj

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I'm considering adding this to my horse's collection of joint supplements. I understand its best administered as a joint injection, but my vet was concerned there was insufficient space in addition to the steroid and antibiotic.

Understand liquid form is considered best option and considering Lubrisyn. I'm spending so much on supplements, that cost really has ceased to be relevant. Yes, I do realise it would probably cheaper to get a 2nd horse...

Any thoughts?
 
I completely understand your need to do the best for your horse but you would honestly be wasting money. HA is fantastic when injected directly into the joint but is far less effective when fed orally. Feeding it in liquid or powder form makes no difference to its effectiveness after all it is all about how much the horse consumes in that 24hour period.
Ideally if fed orally a horse needs about 10g per day which given its cost is probably totally unrealistic.
Your money would be much better spent insuring you are feeding at least 10g glucosamine, 10g msm, and 4g chondroitin daily. If you are already doing this then save your money rather than spending it on the HA. It is easy to get sucked into wanting to feed absolutely everything to help our horses but if you are already feeding high levels of the key joint ingredients then you are already doing the best for your horse.
Good luck with it all
 
Have you run it all by your Vet which joint supplements are best to use? Some on the market are full of ingredients just to bumph up their products. Synequin is available from your Vet and some on my yard use it, its supposedly got purer ingredients than most others, hence its not cheap but you may be able to not bother with others your using.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I have discussed this with my vet and he is aware that I'm using thehorse.com as my main resource.

Current suggestions are to layer supplements, but clearly caution is needed to avoid problems ie too much selenium.

The lameness issue is ringbone, hence the lack of joint space.

I am going to heed the advice not to give an oral HA supplement - sure the yard grooms will be relieved. My horse's supplement shelf does raise a few smiles.
 
My vet didn't mention iv HA when giving me the options - nsaid/joint injection/fusion surgery. For the record he didn't recommend the surgery due to success rate, 50%, and the small amount of arthritic changes currently present in the joint. Horse is only lame going left! Fully sound in straight line and going right, even when lame leg is nerve blocked.

He is going to have an under saddle assessment in late January, so I will discuss legend/adequan with the vet then. Horse not keen on injections, and I have read that these shots have created needle issues with horses. Also not seen much positive regarding ringbone for these therapies. The latest audio seminar on arthritis on The Horse, included some very worrying claims about potential long term side effects of Tildren, so i'm fogetting this option.

But all suggestions are very welcome. Thanks
 
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