Arthritis, stiffness in oldies....

Frances144

Frances144

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Dec 21, 2011
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Not to hi-jack Jessey's thread (which I thoroughly did), I thought I would start a new one for ideas on how you manage arthritis and stiffness in your old horses and ponies.

Haakon is the worst. He is 30yo and has real problems with his stifles leading to his back hooves not clearing the ground when he walks (on hard ground, he dumps his toes).

So, he has TurmerAid and Bozmerix from Hestevard, which is horribly expensive but actually worth it. I can see a huge difference in his general being and gait. No more a horse a that is struggling to walk up hills.

So what are you using?
 
Good thread.

I would like to hear too from anyone who has had oldies in the past and how they managed them.
 
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It’s been a long time since I had a real oldie. Phoenix had arthritis, I got some heat boots (they’re insulated and have silver inside to reflect their body heat back in) and they really helped him when he was worse in winter.

For all of Jess’ issues she is thankfully arthritis free so far. I tried all sorts of supplements for her but nothing seemed to make much difference, apart from bute but she’s off that now and the current shoe/pad set up seems to really be working for her.
 
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While not currently an issue for me in the past I found keeping them warm made a big difference, and in the winter in overnight seemed to work better than out 24/7. Stable bandages when it was cold helped too. Keeping hoof balance right became very important too.

Supplement/meds wise I struggled with Jim as he couldn't have bute/danilon and devils claw was problematic too. Boswellia he'd eat in large doses if he was really struggling but then wouldn't touch even a speck of as soon as he felt better. The one thing I found that he would consistently eat and made a noticeable improvement was Cortaflex HA + Superfenn, at the time it was very new and not out in the shops but my local tack shop had got some samples they gave me and then when it made such a big difference they badgered Equine America to send me more even if it wasn't in the tubs they would be selling it in.

I do think it's a case of trial and error because they're all different, but this is a great idea for a thread @Frances144 as it may give people new ideas to try if they're struggling.
 
For our old boy who had numerous issues cartrophen was a game changer. Loading dose was quite a lot of £££ and he needed the odd bute when the ground got really hard, or he had done something like a fun ride, but for the most part every 5-8 months his £80 jab (online max prescription amount at a time) was transformative for him. You could tell when it was wearing off and we just redid it at home.

Better than spending huge amounts on suppliments that may or may not work.

That being said for an older loan pony who just needed a bit of 'something', glucosamine and msm seemed to help her movement.
 
Mattie had issues with stiffness, arthritis and degeneration in his hips, followed by two severe field injuries. Devil's claw helped him a lot to begin with, and I could always tell when the pain was bad because he would eat it out of my hand. Eventually he was on 2 bute a day.
 
Its a toughie.

Little oldies (Shetland ponies - 28 and 30yo) don't want to be split up from the rest of the herd. They go into a decline and can't manage hay (teeth not good enough) and have to have buckets four/five times a day of hay replacer. The rest of the herd do NOT need to be indoors and would eat the stable walls and get colic - they've done that before. They would steal all the hay replacer too.

Big oldies don't want to be inside. Full stop. Last time I put them in a huge stable all together plus huge hay nets, they were panicking (whites of eyes and nostrils flaring panic) and rushed outside to stand in a 4 foot snow drift in a Force 11 all night. Ditto rugs. I gave up. If they are rugged, they just stand there and never ever move. Haakon loses the will to live with a rug on.

So, I do rug up the little oldies when it rains or blows hard. They appreciate that but I only use a rain-sheet or 50g fill at best as, being natives, they do tend to over-heat very quickly.

It is a tough one, I won't lie. I tend to feed extra to the oldies if bad weather is coming so they have something in their internal combustion engines.
 
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