Tell me about Cartrophen

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poiuytrewq

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I don’t know much about it and my internet is being so slow!
I had been planning with my vet to inject one of my horses hocks.
I’ve seen a bit on here about Cartrophen injections, I’d assumed these wee the same idea as medicating the joint but now I think not?
Are they better/not as good? How does it work? How often etc
Any personal experience would be fab. Thank you!
 
Also, as above the problem
Is off hind and the vet had said we would medicate that hock, since a few people have said I need to do both not just one. Is that correct?
My old horse had a fetlock injected but we only did the bad one, same at work.
 
My old boy had hock arthritis and he had cartrophen injections. I did them myself as they just go into the muscle on the neck. They were expensive (around £200) and he had to have several in the course, but it made a massive difference. They don’t work on all horses and some will need a top up 3,6 or maybe 12 months later. I didn’t do a 2nd course as hock fused of its own accord and pony became sound.
 
They made a good difference to my boy with ring bone in his front feet. They only thing they did however was make him horrifically needle shy. He was never great to begin with, but you could inject him fairly easily.. but this really topped him off and made vaccinating him for even his flu jabs downright dangerous.
 
Cartrophen is different to joint injections. It works very well for some horses, but not for others. The initial course is a series of 4 injections at weekly intervals.

The big bonus atm is that they are administered by IM jab, so if you can get your vets to dispense them (they are a POM), you could self inject your horse. Whereas, as you know, vets are not currently able to do joint injections.
 
It’s given IM

Think of it more like an injectable joint supplement that is more likely to work than an oral.

The evidence is still a little sketchy, I know there are small animal vets moving away from it.

It’s used widely for sports horses and we are talking small margins, you don’t see the same sort of response as you do joint injections.

Generally you give a course of 4-6 weekly. People often top up monthly as well.

If you can get hold of pentosan (generic) it’s cheaper and more concentrated.
 
IMO, If the horse is lame and it has been isolated to one hock, the most cost effective thing, if not going through insurance, is likely to be long acting steroid injection to both hocks. (Assuming horse isn't a laminitic risk, as steroids increase the risk). Cartrophen is more likely to be used as a preventative / or when horse has multiple arthritic joints and cannot inject all.
 
flying_high said:
IMO, If the horse is lame and it has been isolated to one hock, the most cost effective thing, if not going through insurance, is likely to be long acting steroid injection to both hocks. (Assuming horse isn't a laminitic risk, as steroids increase the risk). Cartrophen is more likely to be used as a preventative / or when horse has multiple arthritic joints and cannot inject all.
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He’s not lame as such. He’s sound in trot on any surface. He’s just a bit stiff, things like coming out of the stable in the morning, being shod etc and when he was schooling took a bit longer to warm up.
So it’s not desperate, it was a plan we had made to see how things went and inject if I felt he’d benefit.
I just hadn’t really realised the other options!
 
flying_high said:
IMO, If the horse is lame and it has been isolated to one hock, the most cost effective thing, if not going through insurance, is likely to be long acting steroid injection to both hocks. (Assuming horse isn't a laminitic risk, as steroids increase the risk). Cartrophen is more likely to be used as a preventative / or when horse has multiple arthritic joints and cannot inject all.
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Ok, probably regular steroid injections would be the right way forward in this case then.
Happy to wait, he’s not desperate and summer always helps such things.
 
My old boy had cartrophen first when he had a foot problem due to bad farrier. As I remember the vet said it helped the joints and fluid around the joints. He had been on an oral joint supplement for dodgy stifle but she said to forget the supplement and just go with the injection. That was about 6 years ago. He has had them ever since. He is now 22 and is only in medium work (not at moment due to lockdown) and has one every 6 months or so. I can feel when he needs one as he gets a bit stiff behind. When he was in hard work with hunting and endurance he had them a bit more often.

I stupidly just got some from the vets last month and they were more expensive. But online they were about half the price if you can get a prescription from the vet. Very easy to give. I inject in his chest with no bother.
 
Hi, my horse was a bit stiff behind and had x-rays of both hocks which were clear. He had a course of 4 injections which we did ourselves and I would say it definitely helped him.
 
tiga71 said:
My old boy had cartrophen first when he had a foot problem due to bad farrier. As I remember the vet said it helped the joints and fluid around the joints. He had been on an oral joint supplement for dodgy stifle but she said to forget the supplement and just go with the injection. That was about 6 years ago. He has had them ever since. He is now 22 and is only in medium work (not at moment due to lockdown) and has one every 6 months or so. I can feel when he needs one as he gets a bit stiff behind. When he was in hard work with hunting and endurance he had them a bit more often.

I stupidly just got some from the vets last month and they were more expensive. But online they were about half the price if you can get a prescription from the vet. Very easy to give. I inject in his chest with no bother.
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Sorry to resurrect an old thread. When you say your boy has one every 6 months, is that just 1 injection? Or another course of 4 weekly injections every 6 months?
 
I ask for Arthropen instead which is the equine version of Cartrophen. It has been licensed now and is stronger and cheaper. It keeps my old boy very cheerful in his work and he’s marching out of his stable in the morning.
 
ozpoz said:
I ask for Arthropen instead which is the equine version of Cartrophen. It has been licensed now and is stronger and cheaper. It keeps my old boy very cheerful in his work and he’s marching out of his stable in the morning.
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I’d heard of Arthropen and my vet has looked into it, but the minimum order quantity from his wholesaler is greater so he’d need to buy more than he needs to treat my boy. And as he’s a small set up it’s unlikely he’d have another horse to use the surplus on. So it could well cost me more.
 
My horse had cartrophen - 4 x weekly injections - didn't make any difference to her lameness at all but quite a difference to my bank balance.
 
I did the 4 weekly injections and noticed a massive difference in mine. They lasted 3 months but didn’t inject again as wanted to try steroids to pin point if it was just hocks. We’re still working on ongoing treatment but I will request cartrophen again if she’s still lame after current treatment.
 
He’s had Cartrofen in the past and it seemed to help. He has general creakyness in at least 3 legs so it seems sensible to try a systemic option first before we go rummaging around in joints.
 
I’ll be first in the queue for the human version! It’s currently on trial in Australia and I emailed to ask if I could join the trial but you have to be resident.
 
Hi my boy has been very slightly lame (you have to really look for it and just looks unlevel behind) for the last 8 weeks. He had both hocks injected yesterday with steroid and had the first artropen injection at the same time. I will let you know of the progress- fingers crossed. My horse is now 16 and we do dressage- when he does medium trot you can really see the unevenness. I used sports medicine vets who do this kind of thing day in - friends who have used our local vets have had massive vet bills and variable results.

Injections into the joint work directly, the pentosan tops up all round so can capture to a small degree areas affected that haven’t been injected. There is a further drug that can be tried - arthrimid but again you have to be sure that you know the area that is causing the issue. Which is probably why steroid injections may not work when done, because it could be a different spot actually causing the problem.

I have my wrist in injected by an orthopaedic doctor in his surgery and straight away it feels like I have a new wrist so it works for me.

I hope yours has the good effect
 
Has anyone used it who has also had their horse injected with Arthramid?

Mine has hock oa and had hocks I injected with Arthramid in Feb. She’s absolutely flying now and it’s made a huge difference for her. The physio came today and said it might be worth trying some Cartrophen in winter if she starts to look a bit stiff again… as in try some of that before injecting more Arthramid
…it’s cheaper than the Arthramid and less invasive than hock injections (she had to have them done under xray as her joint space was so narrow)

I’m going to talk to the vet about it but just wondering if anyone has used it with Arthramid?
 
mine have both have a course of it, lily for her medial meniscal tears & diva for her SDFT, and then this year for her collateral ligament - mine had 7 injections, i think it was tuesday & friday, both made good progress!
 
Mine did really well with the cartrophen but it only lasted 3 months and she hated the injections so I didn’t think it was fair to put her through it again. Mine had 1 injection every week for 4 weeks.
 
Bobthecob15 said:
Has anyone used it who has also had their horse injected with Arthramid?

Mine has hock oa and had hocks I injected with Arthramid in Feb. She’s absolutely flying now and it’s made a huge difference for her. The physio came today and said it might be worth trying some Cartrophen in winter if she starts to look a bit stiff again… as in try some of that before injecting more Arthramid
…it’s cheaper than the Arthramid and less invasive than hock injections (she had to have them done under xray as her joint space was so narrow)

I’m going to talk to the vet about it but just wondering if anyone has used it with Arthramid?
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I had my boy injected with Arthramid in both hocks last December. I don’t think it really made that much difference to him if I’m being honest. I’m really keen to hear if Cartrophen would work for him. The vet at the time said if the arthramid didn’t work we could try cartrophen… maybe we should’ve done that first, so presumably it would be fine to use with arthramid.
 
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