Joint supplement confusion

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Gorgeous George

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I am so confused about joint supplements and wonder if anyone could help? I feed George a joint supplement as a preventative measure, it was recommended by my vet as George is a big heavy lad and already had windgalls all round when I bought him suggesting he may have been worked hard in earlier life.

I am on a tight budget (who isn’t?) so am trying to find the most effective supplement at the best price. At the moment I give him 1 scoop a day of Aviform’s general joint supplement which gives him 5,000mg of both Glucosamine and MSM. I could afford to feed this at a slightly higher dose which would give him 7,500mg of Gluc and MSM, or failing that there is their Glucosamine only supplement which would give 10,000mg within my budget but no MSM.

I guess the question is are both really important or is Glucosamine the key thing? If someone has any other suggestions that would be good as it doesn’t have to be Aviform’s supplement, but with so many when you look into them the maintenance dose is for a very small amount of the active ingredient and when you work out how much to feed to get 7,500-10,000mg (I believe the recommended amount for an average horse) of Glucosamine it becomes far too expensive.

Any advice, recommendations, ideas gratefully received.

Thanks :)
 
Hi

I'm no expert but my vet has just recommended that I change from giving Newmarket Joint Supplement to Naff Superflex, because the most benefit is from a combination of Glucosamine and Chondroitin (and MSM), and the Newmarket is just Glucosamine.

Have changed supplements and will just wait and see!!
 
I was informed by a vet that feeding only Glucosamine is best as the chondroitin "particles" are to big for the horses guts to absorb!!

I would feed newmarket joint to mine :)

Whats the saying " ask 3 people and get 4 opinions"!!!!

:D
 
I believe that all the products in conjunction give the best results, I've had fantastic results with Aviforms suppleaze gold and it usually has offers on so its not too badly priced. :)
 
Hi I feed my old boy Equiflex by vets vits

http://www.vetvits.co.uk

I looked at all of the other joint supplements and the market and thought it was worth a try as it wasn't that expensive but yet has everything in, have noticed a huge difference when he not on it (suffers from arthritis) so stiffens up but when on it he is like a different horse.
 
Thank you all for your ideas, still a bit confused :confused:

willow1 - sounds like the combo of gluc and msm is a good thing then.

allover - ok maybe not! see comment above

applecart - do you feed the maintenance dose of EAs Glucosamine? I notice that only gives 5,000mg to get the 10,000mg you have to give a double dose! Or do you find the maintenance dose works fine?

maggiesmum - do you feed suppleaze gold at the maintenance dose? I swapped from using it when I realised what low levels of gluc, msm etc. the maintenance dose had in it, but if you're having good success maybe it's the combination that works?

savvyblue - I did look at vetvits, but again only 5,000mg gluc per dose and no msm.

Its such a problem when you are feeding it as a preventative as you've no idea if it is doing any good, but you want what is best :rolleyes:
 
Im as confused as you!!! So watching post with interest. I do know that the supplement with the highest levels isnt always best. The horse can only adsorb so much before negative effects. Problem with joint supplements (and probably others) is there is no way of showing if they prevent anything - we could all be wasting our money:D Only those using them of a horse with a problem will be able to see any improvement.
 
Each supplement seems to work differently on each horse-I know a couple of people that use Equine America Glucosamine 1000 + MSM and they seem to like it, it's not very expensive either.

I've heard too that 10,000mg glucosamine a day is ideal, and i used to give mine a glucosamine HCI joint supplement which they went well on and provided them that amount, until one day i ran out and decided to put them on normal Cortaflex and was amazed in the difference in them!

Another one i've used and i would be using if they weren't on the Cortaflex is Arthriaid powder- it seems to have good ingredients for the money

.
 
Gorgeous George said:
applecart - do you feed the maintenance dose of EAs Glucosamine? I notice that only gives 5,000mg to get the 10,000mg you have to give a double dose! Or do you find the maintenance dose works fine?
Click to expand...

No I feed it at maintenance rate. My friends horse was diagnosed with arthritis as a four year old quite badly and she was feeding it to him daily from when he was a yearling. But that's not to say that he didn't have arthritis when he was born and without the supplement he would be much, much worse. Who knows? This is the problem with supplements, once you start them you don't want to stop using them just in case. That's why I feed joint supplement and pink powder.
 
I have found premierflex HA to be a fantastic product with high levels of all of the major ingredients. I have found it to be economical and even though i could get discount from my local tack shop on a range of other joint supplements i choose to buy this online from equine answers.
If anyone is interested i can also recommend the 365 general purpose supplement that they do as it compares very favourably with some of the best balancers on the market and it works out a lot cheaper.
 
Yes, I gave he loading dose and then went onto the maintenance dose. Between myself and some friends we've used it about 10 horses and all have responded to it within a week. :-)
 
i use flexi joint notice the difference in a matter of weeks now most of the yard is on it inc dog and donkey..


muff747 said:
I wouldn't buy Cortaflex because it is so extorsionately expensive:eek:
Instead, when it came to the time when my gelding needed a little help in that respect, I chose Equimins Flexijoint.
Before, my gelding was dragging his hind toes coming out of the stable. After only a week he wasn't dragging his toes, so I vote for Equimins, it's much cheaper.
And I began using their human version (Revitalife Flexijoint) when my hip joint started aching after a lot of walking and I noticed a definite difference after only 5 days and it had gone completely within a couple of weeks.
Click to expand...
 
Im very interested in this thread as i always gave mine NAF Superflex, however my now 7yo was diagnosed last year with bone spavin quite badly and my vet told me to use Aviform Suplese Gold as its better than Superflex. Well i havent seen a difference with her on it at all and to be honest she has had two lots of treatment this year as she isnt good. I know this isnt down to the joint supplement as obviously the condition cant be controlled with a supplement but i want to know if im wasting my money giving it to her as it might not be doing anything at all! I feed her the maximum dose for challenged joints. My other mare who has no problems apart from clicks here and there i kept on superflex and to be honest when she hasnt been on it for a few weeks (owner runs out and forgets to get it) her clicking comes back, yet when she is on it she is fine! So im totally confused also as i want the best for my young mare but i dont want to waste my money on something that isnt working :/
 
Thanks for all of your feedback, very helpful but still confusing :confused:

I've ended up doing a table of the brands I was considering, amounts of gluc, msm etc. and cost per month if feeding at the maintenance dose for a 500kg horse. If I can work out how to post it on here I will as someone may find it useful.
 
Im having the exact same dilemma. I have a 17yr old Friesian x TB that has just started to present with slight arthritis in one of his front legs so have been looking into different supplements to help him along.

From what I read, well...understood..a glucosamine supplement needs to contain a certain amount of sulphur to create a glucosamine sulphate compound.
This is because the glucosamine particle on its own is big and isnt easily absorbed or digested by the horse, and an awful lot of it gets wasted. When combined with the sulphur it breaks the glucosamine down into a much smaller sized particle which is far more absorbable (not entirely sure thats a word?!). So a supplement that contains 'high levels' of glucosamine isn't necessarily the best to use.

Long winded I know but hope it helps!
 
Janet George who comes on hear uses Riaflex which she finds very good. I have started using it as a maintenance on my mare. Obviously I cant see anything but she didnt have a problem in the first place but I am hoping to help keep problems away.
 
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