Which supplement for cartilage?

[LauraHy]

My horse has recently been diagnosed with cartilage damage in both back fetlocks & slightly thickened tendon sheaths & has had one medicated. The vet told me to start using a supplement with MSM & HA but there are so many! I've looked at cavalor artitec, it's seriously expensive although I'd pay for it if it works. Pharmaquin was another name mentioned but after looking into all the different supplements I dont know which one to try?

 

[piglet2001]

Cartrophen and then you know the horse has got it. A lot of people have great results with it and it works out a similar price to cortaflex - cheaper than vetrofen.

The problem with supplements is that the horse has to eat them, then they have to travel down the digestive tract, be absorbed and find there way to the affected joint.

Cartrofen is at least part of the way there! You can inject it yourself and it is easy to do!

 

[Shay]

You can't administer an injection yourself without vet approval. I know this is IM, but it is also only an NSAID. You may as well give the horse bute, or any other pain killer. It is only pain relief.

You can get pure MSM - its relatively easy to synthesize and cheaper in "pure" form. HA is more difficult but you can find several who combine it with glucosamine. I suspect you might not be in the UK but Calvalor free bute (if that is the one you are looking at) has no nutritional analysis which can be displayed under UK regulation. (Under UK law if you make a claim you must be able to demonstrate both the full analysis and scientific evidence for the claim. The fact the website will not display that in the UK suggests there is no evidence for their claims.)

Pharmaquin makes no claims and does display a proper analysis - but there is also quite a lot else in there you might not want to feed?

Pharmaquin displays as £70 for 90 days supply. In contrast Aviform (which I do not recommend it is just the first one which came up on google) is £20 for 150 days for a higher rate of MSM. (I haven't gone on to do the rest.)

You really just need to sit down with a calculator and work out how much bioavailable MSM and HA is in each supplement per day. Someone on here might have the time for you - but to be honest you really should just put in the time and work it out for yourself. It isn't more than GCSE maths. But it is time consuming!

 

[piglet2001]

You can't administer an injection yourself without vet approval. I know this is IM, but it is also only an NSAID. You may as well give the horse bute, or any other pain killer. It is only pain relief.

You can get pure MSM - its relatively easy to synthesize and cheaper in "pure" form. HA is more difficult but you can find several who combine it with glucosamine. I suspect you might not be in the UK but Calvalor free bute (if that is the one you are looking at) has no nutritional analysis which can be displayed under UK regulation. (Under UK law if you make a claim you must be able to demonstrate both the full analysis and scientific evidence for the claim. The fact the website will not display that in the UK suggests there is no evidence for their claims.)

Pharmaquin makes no claims and does display a proper analysis - but there is also quite a lot else in there you might not want to feed?

Pharmaquin displays as £70 for 90 days supply. In contrast Aviform (which I do not recommend it is just the first one which came up on google) is £20 for 150 days for a higher rate of MSM. (I haven't gone on to do the rest.)

You really just need to sit down with a calculator and work out how much bioavailable MSM and HA is in each supplement per day. Someone on here might have the time for you - but to be honest you really should just put in the time and work it out for yourself. It isn't more than GCSE maths. But it is time consuming!

Cartrophen is competition legal and is not an NSAID. It is not like Bute. I think you are confusing it with Carprofen.

Carprofen is an NSAID.

Yes Cartrophen needs to be injected but it is very easy to do. It does need a prescription though.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

I got something from my vet a few years back when my old horses needed it; think it was called "Newmarket formula"........

Also a neighbouring practice were recommending Nutriquin (think that was the name of it, not sure though, sorry!)

 

[Pinkvboots]

Riaflex HA is pretty good and is about £43 and you have the right amount of dosage for quite a small amount, or I have bought msm on its own from natural horse supplies, I think she does a joint mix that has both in might be worth having a look on the website.

 

[supsup]

As far as I am aware, BestFlex HA from Feedmark and FlexAbility from Science Supplements have some of the highest concentrations of active ingredients (per recommended dose) on the market at the moment, and FlexAbility has some evidence from proper scientific trials that it works. But you definitely should do your own research and look for cost per dose, and ingredients per dose. More difficult to judge the quality of the ingredients used. The FlexAbility page has a comparison table on it that might be a starting point (https://www.sciencesupplements.co.uk/flexability.html) though it conveniently leaves off the BestFlex, which would probably be most comparable, and is far from being complete.

I used FlexAbility through last winter, and it made a difference to my horse. I've since switched to the BestFlex (works out cheaper per dose, especially with the recent 40% off offers from Feedmark) and haven't noticed a deterioration. Then again, I think a change would be more noticeable in the cold season vs. spring/summer.