arthritis help

[myrna]

So now i know why my mare doesn't track up well going to the right,thought it might be a hock or back issue.nope the back end is awesome,what she does have is arthritis starting in her right front ankle.The vet gave me(cost a bl*** fortune) Quadrisol paste ($88 for 12 doses) and Bio-Iso_G Plus(same as cortaflex rx $145.)If we need to keep her on these to make her more comfortable,does any one have ideas on what might do as well.I was thinking regular Corta flex,and has any one tried Perfegesic for pain maintenance?

[Fharoah]

I noticed IRAP with adequan worked well, then bute or equinox when the horse horse is worked hard.

Things to try:
Cosequin ASU loading dose
Adequan loading dose twice a week for a month
Legend once a week for a month
steroid HA injection
IRAP injections three injection about two weeks apart
tildren
Equinox
bute

always good balanced shoeing possibly shock absorbing pads. You may try something in loading dose if you notice a significent improvement well keep going slowly back down the dose. If it stops helping move on.

Best wishes!

[myrna]

I think i have convinced our farrier she needs to be done at 5 weeks ,not 6 weeks.She toes in on the front,so by 6 weeks it is quite pronounced,even better the vet said it could have been fixed when she was young.However the farrier at that time (11 years ago) said that was just the way she was meant to be.In hindsight we should have checked further(beating head against the wall!!)

[tpup]

I have been using Previcox for arthritis pain management for over 6 months and could not be happier. My horse is over 19 yrs, pretty bad hock arthritis, and neck too we believe. He rides beautifully (4-5 times a week - weekly lesson, flatwork and few trail/field rides) and he runs and plays happily in the field. We also use Platinum Performance CJ and LOVE it. Keeps his joints working well and keeps him happy and looking great. Good luck with your mare!

[mvp]

I have tried only conventional, primitive and cheap kinds of things and gotten good results so far. But the Old Man has a new "issue" that may require more, so I'm interested not only in Fharoah's long list and ranking. I'll provide the same. I think this holds for any joint from the fetlock down, but perhaps might apply to higher joints, too.

1) Get radiographs and a fine understanding of your horse's conformational defects to/with your farrier. Yeah, the OP learned this too late, as did I. You need to make sure everything from coffin bone to fetlock are on the same axis (duh). But you also need to appreciate any angular and rotational deviations that occur between fetlock joint and the tip of the coffin bone. These will affect the way your horse uses his joints while they are in motion, and how your farrier will have to shoe him while he is moving and not just standing still. Your farrier can probably do the best job of showing you what to look for. But you can also learn to do this yourself by watching your horse walk, looking at shoe wear and holding up his leg, lining up your eye with his knee and looking down to his toe.

2) Ask your farrier to make corrections that he can to help. This is the one of the best, cheapest, least invasive and long-term "treatments" you can use.

3) Ample T/O and lots of slow, gentle work 5-6 days per week if possible.

4) Cold hose after harder rides if you can't bring yourself to do it for every damned ride.

5) To be cheap, see if all this plus a gram of bute on the days he works will make him "sound enough."

6) After that, or before bute (and assuming you already feed an overall joint supplement or inject glucosamine), try a course of adequan and legend.

I don't know about the other therapies in terms of cost, efficacies, pros and cons. But joint injections with steroids come absolutely last on my list. They are expensive, somewhat risky in terms of infection, their effects sometimes short-lived and potentially damaging to cartilage. As I understand it, you can inject moving joints only so many times (which varies with each horse) and you ultimately shorten the horse's useful life.

If y'all have a better/clearer more miraculous protocol for arthritis, send it on over.