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 Member
Posts: 49
| Tell me a little about y'all s joint support regime. My 8 yr mare is on a pretty basic joint supplement. How do you know when to step it up? Either better supplement or injections? Do you wait until something goes wrong??
For barrel horses, I'm mostly concerned with hocks& knees. | |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
  
Location: Midwest | Better supplements in terms of IM shots or better oral supplementation is up to you.
I would not do IA injections unless the horse was sore due to the small risk of a joint infection. I started injected my gelding when he got a bit gate sour (not horrible but enough for me to know something was up), and he had also been a bit sore after a hilly trail ride. He just needed his lower hocks done, but before I got them done I had a full lameness exam with xrays and flex tests done. I think the cost of everything was 200 or 300, and it was well worth it.
I am injecting his lower hocks as needed, MSM orally, and Pentosan. I just started the Pentosan this winter and I am crossing my fingers that I may not need to inject his hocks this year, or at least do them less. It has helped a LOT. He was sore about picking up his back legs when I cleaned his hooves, and after the loading dose and dosing every three weeks, he feels really loose back there. I am giving him another dose when he seems sore about picking up his back feet again. I'm not really riding right now though, so I shall see how things go when I start legging him up. He's 17 this year. | |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| My thought process is to prevent joint discomfort so I give the best I can afford from the get go. I prefer IM/IV injections, I alternate between pentosan gold and polygylcan. How often they get it depends on how often they are running. If I am running every weekend I will give it twice that month, if just once or twice, they get it once a month. I only inject hocks as needed, which is usually once every couple of years. All my horses will run no matter if sore or not so I will have them flexed every year to be sure they are not hurting. | |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| I do the adequen regime on horses that are going to start competing. I try the prevention route. I also have my horses on an oral suppliment, right now I am trying tight joint plus, and am hoping lubrisyn will be available in Canada soon.
I also use sore no more after runs, poulticing clay on overnights along with back on track wraps. | |
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Joint regime question