Osphos injections - success stories?

[SEL]

I know there are risks, but given where I am with my mare this is starting to feel like the only remaining option to see if she can come sound enough for light hacking.

If it doesn't work then so be it, but I was just wondering what real life stories are out there? Some good articles on line for its use in human osteoarthritis, but mainly PR or vet stuff rather than real life experiences for its use in horses.

 

[HelenBack]

Not sure what your situation is but I used it on my horse for navicular and arthritis issues. I can't honestly say I particularly noticed much difference and it was joint injections that helped him more. However, it had no adverse effects on him and I know loads of other horses who have had it also with no ill effects so if you feel that you're running out of options then in your situation I'd be prepared to give it a go.

Of those I know who have tried both osphos and tildren all of them have said they had better results with tildren, although that's perceived to be more risky. They've all said they'd definitely use tildren again if needs be. My vet said he'd never personally seen an adverse reaction to tildren and the only ones he'd heard of were when it was used too frequently.

So a possible other option to consider but I can well understand why you'd be wary.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

My horse had osphos for navicular but he also had steroid injected into the bursa so I don't know which one worked if you know what I mean, he did come sound after about 3 months of field rest I also took his shoes off, that was about 3 years ago and his been fine since.

I think the main risk is colic but most vets insist they stay at the vets overnight just in case.

 

[HelenBack]

I think the main risk is colic but most vets insist they stay at the vets overnight just in case.

Mine didn't do this. She came to my yard and did it, hung around for half an hour or so and then left and said I could go home when I was ready too!

 

[Winters100]

2 of mine have had this, and when I do it again in 2 weeks I will also do it for the 'new' one. They are ages 9, 12 and 15 and my vet likes it as a preventative. My old girl has always been sound, but has sometimes had puffy legs, and it helped considerably for this. They were done on the yard and had no problems.

 

[SEL]

My horse had osphos for navicular but he also had steroid injected into the bursa so I don't know which one worked if you know what I mean, he did come sound after about 3 months of field rest I also took his shoes off, that was about 3 years ago and his been fine since.

I think the main risk is colic but most vets insist they stay at the vets overnight just in case.

Thanks - navicular bone damage is on the list of her issues but she has arthritis damage popping up all over the place and the advantage of osphos is the "whole body" effect. I'll check with them about the hospital stay but she was a PITA last time they had her in so she's probably not welcome anyway!

2 of mine have had this, and when I do it again in 2 weeks I will also do it for the 'new' one. They are ages 9, 12 and 15 and my vet likes it as a preventative. My old girl has always been sound, but has sometimes had puffy legs, and it helped considerably for this. They were done on the yard and had no problems.

Interesting they used it as a preventative - how often do you do it?

 

[SEL]

Not sure what your situation is but I used it on my horse for navicular and arthritis issues. I can't honestly say I particularly noticed much difference and it was joint injections that helped him more. However, it had no adverse effects on him and I know loads of other horses who have had it also with no ill effects so if you feel that you're running out of options then in your situation I'd be prepared to give it a go.

Of those I know who have tried both osphos and tildren all of them have said they had better results with tildren, although that's perceived to be more risky. They've all said they'd definitely use tildren again if needs be. My vet said he'd never personally seen an adverse reaction to tildren and the only ones he'd heard of were when it was used too frequently.

So a possible other option to consider but I can well understand why you'd be wary.

Thank you. They didn't mention Tildren so I shall ask why and get their views on that too. It might be that they definitely would want an overnight stay with that ...... and she's not a good house guest ?

 

[mavandkaz]

I used tildren on my boy - he has/had bone issues and bone pain in multiple places. Vet and i discussed both osphos and tildren - he prefers tildren as has seen some horses react to the osphos at the sight of injection. So I opted for tildren.
Tildren does carry the risk of colic, so buscopan is given first. And it can cause kidney issues, due to the way the kidneys filter the chemicals, so bloods were taken first to check kidney function.
It's administered intravenously, so took 30mins or so, and I stayed around for a bit after to check for colic, but all good. He had two doses 6 weeks apart
He was then turned away for 9months. He has made an extraordinary recovery - vet has been surprised at how well he is doing.
I think it's a combination of both these things that made the difference.

I wouldn't want to use tildren more then once or twice, due to the impact on the kidneys but in my case it really does seem to have made a difference.

I remember when researching them both, there didn't seem to be much difference, other then how they are administered

 

[Winters100]

Thanks - navicular bone damage is on the list of her issues but she has arthritis damage popping up all over the place and the advantage of osphos is the "whole body" effect. I'll check with them about the hospital stay but she was a PITA last time they had her in so she's probably not welcome anyway!



Interesting they used it as a preventative - how often do you do it?

We do it approximately every 6 months. As I understand it the purpose is to slow the progression of arthritis, which I suppose, like people, all horses have to some extent as they age. My vet has previously said that when using it in horses with visible problems he sees very varying results, some seeing a good improvement and others nothing at all. His view is that horses can be in work much longer if we act early to slow or prevent problems, but of course like anything it is difficult to really quantify any effects.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Thanks - navicular bone damage is on the list of her issues but she has arthritis damage popping up all over the place and the advantage of osphos is the "whole body" effect. I'll check with them about the hospital stay but she was a PITA last time they had her in so she's probably not welcome anyway!



Interesting they used it as a preventative - how often do you do it?

Same horse of mine also has hock arthritis and vet wanted to osphos those but I ended up just putting steroid in those and his been fine ever since.

 

[Lottiedots]

Hi there
Im interested to know what you decide as my vet has just suggested Osphos for mine who has multiple arthritic issues. He seems to prefer it to Tildren which is more expensive and has more risks involved. Or go along the Cartophen route which takes longer to take effect since it requires several injections to work. Confused as there is plenty of conflicting opinions out there and I've not had experience of this before.

 

[LEC]

2 of mine have had this, and when I do it again in 2 weeks I will also do it for the 'new' one. They are ages 9, 12 and 15 and my vet likes it as a preventative. My old girl has always been sound, but has sometimes had puffy legs, and it helped considerably for this. They were done on the yard and had no problems.

Yikes this would really bother me as advice.
Tildren® and Osphos®- More Concerns - David Ramey, DVMDavid Ramey, DVM (doctorramey.com)

Ready or Not, Tildren® and Osphos® are Here - An Update, 3.22.2018 - David Ramey, DVMDavid Ramey, DVM (doctorramey.com)

 

[ihatework]

Me too LEC. I’m fairly relaxed about preventative medicating / medicating for minor issues as I see it all the time in performance horse management, but the bone modelling products really don’t get used routinely in any yard I’ve seen. Only for very specific circumstances.

 

[LEC]

Me too LEC. I’m fairly relaxed about preventative medicating / medicating for minor issues as I see it all the time in performance horse management, but the bone modelling products really don’t get used routinely in any yard I’ve seen. Only for very specific circumstances.

Nor at any of the yards I know and I have an eventing team FEI vet. We have hours of discussion, as you can imagine about the tribulations of horse arthritic care vs human.

 

[SEL]

Hi there
Im interested to know what you decide as my vet has just suggested Osphos for mine who has multiple arthritic issues. He seems to prefer it to Tildren which is more expensive and has more risks involved. Or go along the Cartophen route which takes longer to take effect since it requires several injections to work. Confused as there is plenty of conflicting opinions out there and I've not had experience of this before.

I've tried cartrophen on a couple of horses and it worked well on one and not at all on the other (which is the one I'm looking at osphos for).

I think whatever route you go down depends on the horse, what it is currently capable of doing and what you want to use it for in the future. I started with cartrophen, then steroid injections and didn't have much success. Arthramid in hocks helps, but she seems to have bits of arthritis popping up all over the place (the hocks were diagnosed as a lightly used 6 yo) so the osphos / tildren all body approach is helpful. I suspect she has a genetic predisposition to arthritis sadly.

 

[Birker2020]

I know there are risks, but given where I am with my mare this is starting to feel like the only remaining option to see if she can come sound enough for light hacking.

If it doesn't work then so be it, but I was just wondering what real life stories are out there? Some good articles on line for its use in human osteoarthritis, but mainly PR or vet stuff rather than real life experiences for its use in horses.

My horse is in the same position as yours exactly; her problem is coffin joint arthritis. The only remaining option is this gel injection into the coffin bone. She was medicated with steroid/HA in Sept and went lame just before Xmas. Vet said its the coffin joint that had been treated but said that HA just disappears after a few days. He has offered me the gel procedure, he called in Aquagel but I think they are all the same like a hydrogel (polyacrylamide) and goes by the name of Arthamid. It has shown long lasting benefits after being injected into arthritis-affected joints in horses. Studies into knee bones in rabbits (poor sods) showed appearance of a sub- synovial layer over affected joints which were still present 2 years later. The study team noted that pain-killing benefits arising from gel use had been reported in a horse study where one treatment of 2ml injected in fetlock or carpus joints significantly reduced both lameness and joint swelling during the first month following treatment. This effect increased progressively until six months, and then stabilized up until 24 months. https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2016/12/14/benefits-gel-arthritic-horse-joints/

This was my post on the forum asking about how effective hydrogel treatment is. https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/arthramid-injections-for-stifles.753724/#post-14547662

My horse had physio on Friday by my friend who is a registered ACAP veterinary physio and as normal we got chatting about interesting cases (no names disclosed) and new research and treatments, etc. I asked her about Osphos and she said that she had seen some good results with her clients horses using Osphos. From what I think she said, it's an injection that they inject into the neck and it targets any hot spots in the body. Same sort of theory as Tildren.

Tildren didn't work for mine (3 in 1 year of treatment @ £700 a time) and the third gave a very poorly and depressed reaction afterwards. I was told Tildren targets any sore spots in the body but didn't seem to have much affect. In the end as a last resort I opted for chemical arthrodesis for hocks which worked very well (£300 for both hocks) and still working well some 8 years or more later.

 

[Annagain]

We looked at Arthramid for coffin joint arthritis too - it would probably be the way we would have gone had we tried to keep A in work but we decided he'd earned his retirement and he's field sound so we opted against.

Cartrophen had good results with Eb (knee arthritis).