Tell me about Cartrophen

[spotty_pony2]

My boy is three weeks into his course of four cartrophen injections. My Vet described it as being a bit like a strong joint supplement in how it works as it generally helps to decrease stiffness over the whole body but not to the same strength as steroids. We’ve had hock steroid injections in the past and also arthramid for a coffin joint and all worked really well but be is 26 now and there is arthritis in multiple joints so cartrophen (or osteopen which is the name of the one my vet uses) was a good choice. My Vet advised to try the first two weeks and if no difference then don’t bother wasting money completing the rest of the course as it works for some and not others. I will say I have noticed a difference. It’s quite subtle but it depends ends what you are hoping to achieve. My boy is happy being ridden in walk and that’s about it and Vet has said he’s happy for him to carry on being walked out, but I’ve noticed the biggest difference in his personality and how he is standing in the field - he just seems all round a lot more comfortable and that was my aim.

 

[Peglo]

My boy is three weeks into his course of four cartrophen injections. My Vet described it as being a bit like a strong joint supplement in how it works as it generally helps to decrease stiffness over the whole body but not to the same strength as steroids. We’ve had hock steroid injections in the past and also arthramid for a coffin joint and all worked really well but be is 26 now and there is arthritis in multiple joints so cartrophen (or osteopen which is the name of the one my vet uses) was a good choice. My Vet advised to try the first two weeks and if no difference then don’t bother wasting money completing the rest of the course as it works for some and not others. I will say I have noticed a difference. It’s quite subtle but it depends ends what you are hoping to achieve. My boy is happy being ridden in walk and that’s about it and Vet has said he’s happy for him to carry on being walked out, but I’ve noticed the biggest difference in his personality and how he is standing in the field - he just seems all round a lot more comfortable and that was my aim.

That’s interesting. My vet said you might only notice a difference after all the injections were done.
Hope it helps your boy.

 

[Traks]

That’s interesting. My vet said you might only notice a difference after all the injections were done.
Hope it helps your boy.

Yes the physio said it’s usually after the 3rd or 4th that you see a difference. She said the same about it being a super duper joint supplement. I’ll talk to my vet but at the moment she’s absolutely great I think it’s probably more beneficial once the Arthramid starts to wear off maybe…will see x

 

[LittleLegs&Co]

Yes, I've done both. Arthramid in hocks given early 2024, which I think did help to an extent. Arthramid in hocks re-done in Jan 2025, and agreed with vet to also try Cartrophen (or Arthropen is the one they use) - he's a fairly 'high mileage' 17 year old and my logic is that if there is arthritis in his hocks then there's a fair chance it could be elsewhere too (He's not specifically lame anywhere and I'm not up for going down the route of X-raying everything to try to find problems!) Vet wouldn't give both quite together, but only because we wouldn't then be able to see which had or hadn't worked, not because of any specific conflict between the two. I think the Arthramid helped a bit, then we gave the Arthropen in March. I think it was roughly 3 weeks after the 3rd injection that I was working him and realised how much better/stronger/more free he was feeling, so it definitely worked for us. He had a top-up dose at approx 6 months, and has maintained feeling 'better'. I suspect the combination of specific support for the hocks along with general whole body support has been a good approach for us. Will discuss with the vet later this year / early next year whether we Xray the hocks again (it looked like one was showing signs of starting to fuse, so mostly to monitor that) and whether another dose of Arthramid would be beneficial, or whether we continue with just Cartrophen/Arthropen for the moment.

 

[Traks]

Brill thank you!