Old horse help please!! Joint supplements

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B.bees

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Hi all,

I hoping someone can help me. My horse is 24 years old ex showjumping and was in a riding school. Had his coffin joint injected 4 years ago with steroids and has Been on glucosamine since and is still sound. Recently he has had a lot of change his next door neighbour and field companion got put down and he was put in a new field where the horse got a bit rough and he jumped out. The next day with someone new he got chased for ten mins until I intervened. He's now in a field he's happy in but very sore. He has been on bute for a couple of days and is coming off it. The vet recommended increasing his joint supplements as his joints were very clicky. He is on 16+ cubes with msm in and is also on turmeric. Now I'm looking for a new better supplement and don't know where to start ..... with the added bonus of should I be looking at more the devil's claw route.... it's a total mind boggle out there and I really want to make sure he is comfortable in his old age. (He is retired basically)

Any help or advise really welcome
 
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I would keep him on a low dose of bute if it works and helps him remain comfortable, it is no more likely to harm him than devils claw, the liver should be well able to cope unless it has had damage previously when you may need to be more careful and many "natural" treatments will potentially cause the liver to be overloaded.
I think you can go round in circles with all the supplements and at the end of the day if the horse is sore he needs the best help that is proven to work, I would at least keep him on the bute until he is moving normally, it is an anti inflammatory so should reduce the inflammation and enable him to move about more which in turn should help the arthritis.
 
I would tend to agree with be positive on this, don't be afraid to use danilon and bute, they are proven to be effective and safe for horses and in the end they will probably be more economical.

However, if you do go the supplement route, my arthritic horses have done best on Devil's Claw based supplements such as NAF Devil's Relief things like that.

Right now I've gone a bit supplement mad and have got my big guy on Hilton Herbs Devil's Claw plus seaweed, rosehips and apple cider vinegar, along with the occasional danilon as needed. He looks fabulous and he's moving well, but who knows which, if any, is making the difference to him.
I am about to change him from Devil's Claw to Boswellia which I have heard is gentler on the stomach. Like I said, madness.

I think my current supplement madness is because we are very shortly going to have our very arthritic tb gelding pts and I am over-compensating with my big lad who will be left behind :(

I've also heard good things about yucca, turmeric and boswellia. Tried turmeric but I never really saw much in the way of improvement on my horses (inc the tb we are about to lose) but maybe I didn't get the amounts right.
 
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Different supplements seem to work on different horses. Over the years I've tried lots with different ponies and what works for one, has zero effect on another. I've just started my cob in Yumove, just because it's worked wonders in my dog. I can already see a huge improvement after a week.
 
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