Joint suppliments - HELP!!!

[Kelly1982]

Basic history is that my friends horse Toby has a Spavin in off side hock. 9 weeks road work and raised heel hind shoes have reduced him from 5 to 6 tenths lame to 1 to 2 tenths lame. Advised that a joint supplement won’t do him any harm and to put him on one. Vet gave my friend Cortaflex HA which Toby hates and won’t eat his feed with it in (it’s the liquid variet).

Back lady uses Mobifor on a couple of her horses and highly recommends it but its only available from vets as far as she is am aware and is quite expensive. Mobifor is made by the same people as NAF and is the vet strength Superflex.

My friends question is. What do people recommend as a good joint supplement. Does anyone have any experience of Superflex, Extraflex HA, Mobifor etc etc.

Also is liquid better than power?

I have no idea about joint suppliments so was hoping someone on here might be able to help

 

[old_girl]

I looked at joint supplements but no longer have my old lady so didn't get around to using one.

However, I did find that the various ones vary quite considerably in the amounts of 'active ingredients' that they contain, some are mostly made up of bulking powder.

Many also make their labelling very confusing, so that is is impossible to work out how much 'active ingredient' is contained per dose of product without using a calculator. This makes it very difficult to compare like with like.

Glucosamine, the main component of joint supplements is reasonably priced wholesale, as is MSM, which is also contained in many. However, the wholesale price of chondroitin is 10x that of glucosamine, which is why supplemnts that contain it are much pricier.

Different things seem to suit different horses, and for many people it seems to be trial and error.

 

[miamibear]

Hiya Kelly,

I have used the soluble superflex by NAF (liquid) and it was great, marked improvement and could definately tell when he was taken off it. It works out at about £30 per month on maintenence dose for a 16.2 horse. My suggestion.

I have also used vetvits equiflex. Its really cheap. £18 approx for about 2 months supply, it has good amounts of active ingredient in it. Glucosamine and Chondroitin. it doesnt have MSM in it though but a feed balancer like Topspec would provide this anyway. Its powdered.

If i was to put a horse on a joint supplement just as a precaution i would use the equiflex, if it was for a specific problem i would definately buy the soluble superflex.

The supplements in liquid form are more fast acting than the powdered ones.

I have used from the vets synequin, its supposed to be brill but its mega expensive.

Also people rave about cortaflex in powder form, can order it from USA i think for cheaper.

Hope that helps

 

[Caritas]

I use Synoquine which is from the vets but unfortunately retails at £130 a pot. I do think however that you can buy it on line for about £100. It has been scientifically proven, cortaflexx didnt work for my horse!!

 

[Iestyn]

I've just put my boy on a supplement called Joint FX - I can only get it from the vet but it includes some stuff called HA (don't ask what that means). He's on a maintenance dose as I've started feeding it to help improve his suppleness. It's the first time I've ever fed a joint supplement and I hope to see some results in the next few weeks.

 

[judymoon]

HA is hyaluronic Acid, its what makes up the joint fluid and keeps the joint healthy. Once the HA reduces , which it does naturally through normal movement and more rapidly through more intensive activitys it does not replae irself in any significant quantity. No HA in the joint fluid means no protection for the joint which means joint degeneration begins which leads to arthritis. I cant stress enough how importatnt HA is and has only been proven in its oral form in recent years. It also, when used with glucosamine and chondroitin, makes those two components more effective as they are all from the same family of glycosominoglycins (prob spelt wrong!) www.kinesishealth.com prvide a range of supplements that are the original HA products developed in the states by a vet who has the patent on the oral application of HA. This stuff is amazing, being used by numerous race horse trainers, studs, eventers etc its just fairly new to U.K. but really big in U.S. they have a combination product caleed chondrogen EQ and a unique HA product called Conquer they are vet developed and do work, and cost effective compared to others.

 

[seabiscuit]

Are you saying that absolutely ALL horses should be fed a good joint supplement like this, even youngsters with NO joint probs?

Looked on that website, 'conquer' talks about having HA in it,then glucosamine, whereas other joint supps say they have 'glucosamine HA' in one word all together, is there a difference here? Does conquer, therefore, have much more HA in it then others?

Also, that site claims that HA is the most important ingredients in maintaining joints, when research seems to point to glucosamine being the sole most important feed for joints, with chrondrotin being of little importance and playing a very minor role. Now this site is saying that actually HA is the most important ingredient...yes I know all the ingredients are important and they all work together....but how do we know what to believe and what supplement is really the best?

Every joint supp has such varying levels/amounts of the 3 active ingredients, as the formulation has been based on their own research that each particular company selling a joint supp has done.Its a minefield and I wish some vets would take it upon themselves to do a very thorough research project into all the joint supplements on the market and give them all a rating.

 

[Iestyn]

I'm feeding it to my 7 yr old TB that raced as I want to give as much help to his joints as possible - I suppose every little helps. It was recommended to me by someone who feeds it to a 10 yr old and 5 yr old dressage horses - to help with suppleness and flexion. Do you think that you can feed this type of seupplement to young then Seabiscuit? It's the first time I've ever tried a product of this nature so a bit "in the dark" about it really and relying on other people's opinions.

 

[TURBOBERT]

We feed all our horse - young and old on Cortaflex as a preventative - certainly - it has worked so far - but then who knows whether they would have had problem if we HADNT fed it!

 

[Honeyb060674]

Honey is currently on the Soluble Superflex at maintentance level, and seems a less stiff. The liquid gets into the system quicker but the powder is more cost effective. NAF have brought a 5star range out which I'm swopping her onto, it has double the active ingredients.

 

[lise]

Try Frequensea. Total supliment. Designed for humans, but also fantastic for animals.