Using cortaflex as a preventative on a young horse

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Kezza

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Do any of you give cortaflex as a preventative to younger horses? My old horse has it and I started giving it to him at the age of 19 as he was getting a bit stiff. Just wondering if anyone feeds it to younger horses without any problems as a preventative?

Thanks
 
now i'm no expert... but my sister is a physio (human) and said that its best using these things once symptoms start rather than as a preventative as they wont *prevent* the onset of stiffness - they will just help it once it's there....
 
Joint supplements can be used as a preventative measure as they provide the nutrients needed for healthy cartilage and synovial fluid. Once damaged, a supplement may prevent further deterioration but they cannot heal the damage already done. Therefore if your horse is predisposed to joint problems (e.g by conformation) or is working hard or jumping, a joint supplementcan be used as a preventative measure. IMO though there are far better supplements than cortaflex, which has a very low percentage of active ingredients.
 
I use cortaflex on most of my event horses, if you read all the blurb it can help maintain healthy joints so as to prevent damage occurring.
 
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IMO though there are far better supplements than cortaflex, which has a very low percentage of active ingredients.

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Is that the same with Cortaflex HA?
 
I used Cortaflex for a long time and found it really helped my 16yo heavy ID x with her arthritic changes. She suffers worst when the ground hardens up from winter. She is much better with the stiffness now but I have moved from Cortaflex to a different product I was recommended - flexilimbs from Equus health - to no detrimental effect.

It contains glucosamine and MSM - but the benefit of this product is that it doesn't contain any animal derivations unlike cortaflex. This seems a more "natural" thing to feed especially if you are just wanting to use it on a younger horse to maintain healthy joints. (It's also cheaper which helps too!)
 
The active ingredients in cortaflex is around 3%. In cortaflex HA it is a bit higher, about 10%.

There is overall limited research into joint supplements and horses. You therefore have to extrapolate from human research and use evidence from the limited equine studies to draw conclusions to effectiveness. Personally i do not feel that paying for 90-97% inactive ingredients in a product is value for money. Yes, the active ingredients may be very expensive, even in small %s. However, there are other supplements that use levels of ingredients that are recomended by scientific research that are cheaper than cortaflex. They also dont contain high levels of fillers (alfalfa, soya, sugar), they are more like 90% active ingredients, not the other way round.

If a supplement has 3% active ingredients and you are feeding 15g a day, the horse is only actually getting 0.45g of active ingredient per day. So to do anything it must be a very potent ingredient! Less than half a gram of something to help all the joints in a 500kg horse is quite an ask.
 
So what would YOU suggest Teddyt
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Any supplement that provides 10g glucosamine hydrochloride (not sulphate) per dose(day) in conjunction with chondroitin sulphate. Glucosamine has been shown to work better with chondroitin compared to gulcosamine on its own. The addition of MSM is a bonus for horses that already have a problem as it acts as an anti-inflammatory.
 
teddyt - I am interested in your thoughts, and just playing devils adovcate.
Do you know what % of glucosamine / chondroitin sulphate is actually absorbed by the body and reaches it's target?
Do you understand cortaflex's marketing angle?

To OP - if you want to go the equine america route I would suggest you buy CortaVet - you can get it over the internet. The initial outlay is higher but it is far more concentrated than cortaflex
 
I would agree, Aviform has one of the best specs and price available.

I swapped my horse from Cortavet to Aviform and 1 week later he went lame, I am currently doing my own mini experiment with him!
 
The absorption of CS is better than glucosamine. Glucosamine hydrochloride is absorbed better than glucosamine sulphate. The exact amounts absorbed of either CS or GH are debatable! Some research has said a low %, other more recent work has said more. Either way, the general consensus in humans and animals is that GH and CS do help the joints.

Yes, i am aware of the marketing angle of cortaflex but IMO it is just that, marketing. They have no research behind their isolate theory. Sounds good but not backed up as far as i can find. They also tend to quote very old research when talking about absorption. The actual research on the product was carried out by a respected researcher but IMO the methodology was poor (e.g. they threw out one horse from the data because it skewed the results against their favour). The research has not been published in a peer reviewed journal, which is the accepted way to get any form of credibility.
 
weezy- i have used arthriaid from nutriscience for years and it has helped different horses. However the amount of CS is low so i am currently researching other products again. (not that im a complete nerd!) The aviform one others have mentioned looks good, but you would need to feed 20g a day to get the right amount of GH and CS.
 
I use Mobifor Plus for my six year old as she has slight changes in her coffin joints, I therefore also feed it to my four year old as a preventative measure.

I was told by my vet that Mobifor Plus is one of the better ones out there .
 
As i mentioned earlier, yes a joint supplement can be used as a preventative if conformation/workload predisposes to joint issues. But IMO i wouldnt use cortaflex due to my lengthy ramblings above!
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Well teddyt, when you come up with what you think the best preventative is, could you please let me know as I keep getting blinded by science and have gone back to my old stalwart which is Gold Label Glucosamine + 5000, but it is prob useless!
 
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so is it worth using a product like cortaflex as a preventitive on a young healthy horse??

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IMO it depends on how much spare cash you have!
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There is no harm in feeding a joint supplement to a youngster, (except to your wallet) but there is also NO guarantee (or infact any evidence actually) that it will help prevent anything occurring in the future.

In my honest opinion and a straight answer to your question; No. Not worth it.
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I went to a lameness seminar at the vets last year, and this question was asked, and the vet said that in her experience, she had noticed that feeding a joint suppliment early does seem to (in some cases) delay the the signs of wear and tear on joints.

I feed cortaflex to my 8year old. I am really interested in this thread, as I was looking at changing to Premier Flex HA as they advertise it as being a higher spec than cortaflex and is cheaper. what do you think?
 
This is a pretty interesting study-
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15641...Pubmed_RVDocSum

It basically indicates that the quantities fed are highly unlikely to have any significant effect on joints as by the time the glucosamine gets there its at a far too low concentration to do any real good.
In vitro studies show that glucosamine and chondroitin can be effective in reducing inflammation but how effective they really are in vivo is still unkown
 
Don't know whether to post or not, but here goes....

I have tried every joint supplement on the market with my old boy (22 this year) and the only one i found to work is Equistro Flexadin.

Problem is, he then got Cushings and Insulin Resistance and I was told by an "expert" that the Glucosamine was the problem. Vet didn't agree but I took him off it and lo and behold, IR levels back to normal!

So now using Global Herbs Movefree as one of the only ones I can find on the market that doesn't contain Glucosamine, but does it work? No not really but he's very stiff bless him so anything is better than nothing me thinks!

I went to a lecture at my vets and they said that yes feeding a joint supplement can work as a preventative measure BUT you have to start when they are very young i.e. 3 or 4 years old!

Just acquired a 12yr old and been giving him some of the movefree - too scared to give him Glucosamine and know it probably won't do much but not sure what else to do really?

Nightmare!!
 
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I went to a lecture at my vets and they said that yes feeding a joint supplement can work as a preventative measure BUT you have to start when they are very young i.e. 3 or 4 years old!


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Yes, that's what they said in the lecture i went to! did you go to the one at chiltern equine?
 
No I really don't think it is worth putting horses on a joint supplement as a preventative.

I bought Bailey as a 3 year old, had xrays taken of feet, hocks & fetlocks with the vetting. All 100% clear. Right from the word go he was on a Newmarket Joint supplement recommended by the Vet (it was the done thing on the yard)

He had his fetlock x-rayed at the end of last year (after slipping in the field) and he has arthritic changes in both hind fetlocks and after flexions in his fore legs in January the vet things the same thing might be happening in there...
 
no i woundnt personally just pop him on cod liver oil something just to keep him supple if anything i think if you spend all your money on stuff when they dont need it what are you going to give when they do need it!
 
I feed it (not cortaflex, but the gluco/msn £14.99 stuff) to my 5 yr old, on advise from physio for all of the reasons listed above. She had had a serious injury in the past, and if I forget to buy a tub she get ever so slightly stiff behind. (prepares to be told I'm imagining things
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