Joint supplements

[Birker2020]

I have a friend whose horse was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis (following comprehensive xrays) at the age of rising five. She had been feeding the same joint supplement since he was approx 6 months of age. When I found out her sad news I had one more serving to give my horse from a tub of the same joint supplement so I decided not to get another one and simply stop giving him a joint supplement altogether until I could find an equivalent replacement (he'd been on it nearly three years by this point, is aged 14 and has bone spavin which has been treated). I didn't see any point in continuing with something when it clearly hadn't made a difference to her horse.

Since then (which is about 3 1/2 weeks ago) by horse has taken longer to warm up and appears to be much stiffer when going from walk to trot. He is definitely not lame but sometimes a deep surface tends to make him labour (presumably he is feeling stiff). This wears off after five minutes, and if I put him on the walker for 20 mins before I ride he is fine when we get in the school more or less straight away.

Do you think the supplement was actually working? Its the one that is very economical and has the 10,000mg glucosamine with MSM in it? Would you put him back on it? I can't really afford to buy a more expensive one as I am really up to the limit on how much I am spending on his upkeep as it is.

 

[Escada2004]

Sounds to me like it was working. I have a horse (7) was diagnosed last year with spavin. she has been treated (joint injections and tildren) and my vet recommended Aviform Suppleze Gold. Its not that expensive compared to a lot of them and she is great at the moment. Maybe just put your horse back on it for a month or so and see if you see a difference in the stiffness

 

[lizzi2]

Yeah - does sound like it was working. Like people, different animals respond differently to the same supplements - some respond quicker than others and others may not respond as well as another.
It maybe that your friend's horse would be in worse ill-health if it hadn't had the supplement at all - difficult to know that of course!