Is Hyaluronic Acid For Horses Injection Better Than Oral Supplements
The hyaluronic acid for horses injection is used to medicate joints that are severely inflamed. It is normally injected directly into the joint, normally in conjunction with corticosteroids to reduce inflammation. Some forms of hyaluronic acid for horses injection are given via intravenous injection.
All types of hyaluronic acid for horses injection can only be administered by a qualified veterinarian. The intravenous form is considered to be relatively risk free, but when used to medicate joints there is high risk of infection. It can also lead to flares of inflammation, which may outweigh the benefits of the injection.
Unless there is a specific reason why the injection is required, such as a deterioration in your horses lameness, it is normally preferable to use oral feed supplements instead. However, your veterinarian will be able to fully discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each type of hyaluronic acid for horses, helping you to decide what is best for your horse.
If you do decide to use a feed supplement for your horse with joint problems, make sure you opt for a high-quality product that contains a broad spectrum of joint-enhancing ingredients.
Feed Fibre Before Exercise
One of the age-old golden rules of feeding horses is not to exercise on a full stomach, however, this only applies to concentrate feeds and it is actually highly recommended to allow your horse some hay or chaff immediately before exercise. Having fibre present in the stomach will help to prevent the gastric acid splashing up into the non-glandular portion of the stomach, where ulcers are most common.
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Vita Flex Equinyl Joint Supplement With Hyaluronic Acid
With about 30 mg of hyaluronic acid per serving Vita Flex Equinyl Joint Supplement with Hyaluronic Acid is a great option if youre looking for just a little bit of hyaluronic acid to supplement your horses diet.
This supplement contains other active ingredients that are great for your horses joints, including MSM and glucosamine.
But while it contains those active ingredients, it also has some fillers, such as alfalfa meals.
And weve discussed elsewhere on our blog how important it is to have as many active ingredients in a supplement as possible.
The fact that this supplement contains other important active ingredients for joint health puts it on our radar as a great supplement.
But its lower levels of hyaluronic acid for horses, especially at this price point, keep it solidly in third place.
Price: $53.19 to $102.99 as of August 2021
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Everything But The Kitchen Sink
Earlier I wrote about the fear of Zeldas ulcers re-occurringand how I monitor her behavior based on whether or not it is being caused by ulcers.
Ive never been a big buyer of supplements. Until now. I dont give my horses joint supplements, which have very little documented success. I dont give calming supplements. But I am big time invested in digestive supplements. Heres what Im trying.
These are what Ive been feeding since weaning her off of the official ulcer medications. The safety of long-term use of omeprazole in horses has not yet been widely studied, but research has shown that it has the potential for rebound gastric hyperacidity when you stop giving it , for decreased calcium absorption during administration and for disruption to hindgut function when administered alongside nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. Its also very expensive. Thats why finding maintenance products is such an important part of keeping your horse ulcer free.
Since discontinuing drug therapy, Ive started on the following treatments and also added some alfalfa hay along with her timothy.
Most recently, because Zelda is still showing some resistance to bending and collected work, Ive added Succeed to her meals.
If that doesnt help, I have another product waiting in the wings.
What has helped your ulcer-prone horse recover and stay ulcer free?
Ulcer Rates Before Training
The researchers assigned each horse a score of 0-4 for squamous ulcers and 0-2 for glandular ulcers , with higher scores being more severe.
Surprisingly, the prevalence was high when the horses were first brought in, said Luthersson, noting 71.6% had squamous ulcer scores of 2 or higher, and 47% had glandular ulcer scores of 1 or higher.
Initially, when looking at equine squamous gastric disease , 26% of the horses had Grade 2 ulcers, 40% had Grade 3 ulcers, and 6% had Grade 4 ulcers. When looking at equine glandular gastric disease , 27% had Grade 1 ulcers, and 20% had Grade 2 ulcers.
At the second evaluation, 14% of horses had Grade 2 ESGD ulcers and 11% had Grade 3. None of the horses had Grade 4 ulcers. This was a significant reduction in the squamous ulcers without any medical treatment. When looking at EGGD at the second evaluation, results showed 32% had Grade 1 ulcers and 9% had Grade 2, which Luthersson said was not a significant change.
For ESGD, the team saw no significant differences between horses of varying sexes and ages. However, the farm and region the horses were from did make a difference.
Age, initial BCS, behavior, number of days worked per week, and performance quality appeared to play a role in EGGD prevalence.
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What Are The Symptoms
The clinical signs are variable between horses with some patients displaying no symptoms at all. The signs are as follows but are vague and can be inconsistent
- Variable appetite
- Resistance to leg aids or grooming
- Stereotypies such as cribbing
The most important consideration is any change in behaviour whether it be appetite, manner, eating behaviour or poor performance.
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Grand Meadows Grand Ha
Grand Meadow Grand H.A. is another great hyaluronic acid for horses supplement option.
This product boasts that its the first HA product with 300 mg per serving, so it really packs a punch!
In addition to hyaluronic acid, Grand Meadows Grand H.A. contains Biocell Collagen II. This active ingredient helps your horses body absorb the chondroitin and hyaluronic acid also present in this supplement.
And this type of collagen also helps promote joint health because it closely mimics the collagen your horses body naturally produces.
But the reason it takes second place?
Grand Meadows Grand H.A. has a high level of inactive ingredients, and thus the cost per serving is higher.
Price $48.95 to $321.95 as of August 2021
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How Do Gastric Ulcers Develop
Horses differ from humans because they secrete stomach acid continuously, even when not eating. Adult horses secrete 30 litres of gastric acid daily. When horses are unable to access food on a continual basis, such as when grazing, the pH balance of the stomach changes drastically and gastric juices begin to attack the stomach mucosa. Acid produced in the stomach is generally buffered by saliva which contains a high concentration of bicarbonate and mucus.
If access to feed is limited, then consequently the horses saliva production is reduced. As a result the squamous portion of the horses stomach, the most common part to be affected, lacks the buffer bicarbonate and protective mucous coating to protect the stomach lining from acid.
Various feed stuffs produce different amounts of saliva. For example, 1kg of hay takes 3000 chewing movements and produces 4 litres of saliva, versus 1kg of grain, which takes only 1000 chewing movements and produces 2 litres of saliva.
How To Treat Horse Ulcers Naturally
Intestinal ulceration is increasing in performance horses. The main reasons behind it are modern methods of rearing and feeding the horses. It was previously thought that intestinal ulcers were only limited to racehorses. However, with changing methods of horse rearing, many sport horses are also becoming victims of this condition.
Horses have a natural habit of grazing continuously, and they mostly spend half of their day 12 hours grazing. Naturally, the survival mechanism of horses is flight. That is why they do not need their stomach to be full all the time.
The equine stomach is designed to receive a small but continuous supply of food.
Hydrochloric acid in the stomach can cause ulcers if horses do not receive small, frequent meals.
What if your horses are affected by ulcers? How will you treat them? Is there a natural way to treat ulcers in horses naturally? Here in this article, we will discuss some of the natural ways to treat ulcers in horses.
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Forage And Hay Selection
Ulcer-prone horses will benefit from a forage-first diet. Hay is naturally lower in non-structural carbohydrates than grains or concentrates.
This is beneficial for gut health as high NSC feeds can result in excessive acidity due to overproduction of volatile fatty acids .
Hay also contains fibre which has a prebiotic effect to support gut health and hindgut fermentation.
Consumption of fibrous foods is particularly beneficial for horses prior to exercise. Fibre appears to reduce the splashing of gastric acids into the squamous region of the stomach during exercise.
Hay, or forage, should be fed at 1 to 2% of your horses body weight per day. That means that a 500 kg horse should consume 5 to 10 kg of forage each day.
Hyaluronic Acid And The Health Of Your Horse
When Lisa Yarchars Thoroughbred horse sustained a fracture of the tibial crest with open wounds to the joint, she was told by several vets that he would never be sound enough to ride except on trail rides and only at a walk. After trying all kinds of treatments from different methods over eight months, three sets of X-rays showed there was no apparent change.
We began to use Equitonic sound therapy every other day for thirty minutes, she later said. I held the device directly over the fracture. After a month, we had him X-rayed again this time it showed a significant change to the bone and surrounding tissue. Our veterinarian commented, I dont know what you are doing but keep it up and dont stop. The fracture has healed and most of the arthritis has diminished. You should see him run and buck and play he never takes a sore step now!
To understand why Equitonic sound therapy was so effective at treating Lisas horse, it helps to first know a little about an important building block of the body called hyaluronic acid, part of a group of compounds called glycosaminoglycans. Found highly concentrated in the skin, corneas, cartilage, and synovial fluids, our bodies naturally produce this viscous fluid to lubricate our joints, hold the structure of our extracellular matrix, and heal wounds.
What is the Equitonic 9?
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Dietary Management Of Colonic Ulcers
A primary goal for horses with hindgut ulceration is to reduce the amount of work the colon has to do by limiting long fiber hay consumption. Hay should be replaced with short fiber hay cubes, pellets, or chopped hay.
In some cases, a complete feed is suitable. Small, frequent meals should be offered whenever possible to support gut health and improve nutrient absorption.
Psyllium is often recommended for these horses as it will help to lubricate and shorten transit time for feed and roughage and increase water content in the intestines. Psyllium also increases fatty acid concentration in the colon and reduces inflammation.
Probiotics and prebiotics can also be helpful for increasing the number of good bacteria and restoring gut health in horses with hindgut ulcers. Your veterinarian may also prescribe medications such as sucralfate or misoprostol.
- 20 billion CFUs per serving
- Pure probiotic with no fillers
- Blend of 5 beneficial strains
- Only $10 for 1 month
Minimizing stress is an important part of recovery from Right Dorsal Colitis. This might include reduction of strenuous exercise or training, more turnout time, and minimal transport.
Once a treatment plan has been implemented, it generally takes one to two weeks to see a reduction in symptoms. However, it can take two to three months for ulcers to fully heal.
Summary Hyaluronic Acid For Horses Injection
So, as we have heard, the hyaluronic acid for horses injection is sometimes suggested as an alternative to conventional oral hyaluronic acid feed supplements. Hyaluronic acid for horses injections are normally given directly into the joint by your veterinarian, or via intravenous injection. Although this is a convenient way of administering this useful joint supplement, it is normally preferable to give an oral feed supplement either instead of or as well as the injection.
Wed love to hear your thoughts about hyaluronic acid for horses injection! Do you prefer to give your horse oral joint supplements rather than expensive injections? Or maybe youve found another way to help a horse with joint problems? Leave a comment below and well get back to you!
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Feeding Practices To Reduce Risk Of Squamous Ulcers
While omeprazole will help heal existing squamous ulcers, successful management and prevention of future ulcers requires a combination of both medication and nutritional management. Some nutritional management steps include:
How Do They Work
How joint supplements work is still a bit of a mystery. The effects they have on cell cultures in a laboratory may not be what they are actually doing inside the body. One common effect appears to be to tie up the enzymes that break down joint fluid and cartilage. If the supplement can get the attention of these destructive enzymes and occupy them, the balance inside the joint has a chance to get on top of the inflammation. Hyaluronic acid may also have important cell signaling effects, meaning it could help stimulate the production of other glycosaminoglycans
It wasnt long before American companies jumped on board the HA bandwagon and FDA-approved hyaluronic acid products became available. The high-molecular-weight products worked better than the less expensive, low-molecular-weight ones that had shorter chain lengths and were more likely to make joints painfully swell for a few days afterward. In those days, it was thought that this was because they werent as purified as the more expensive products. We now know it was probably because low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid actually causes an inflammatory response in the joint.
The advantage to the intravenous product was that it completely removed the low, but real, risk of causing a joint infection or accidentally damaging the joint cartilage with a needle. In fact, it worked so well that nowadays IV injection is used more often than direct joint injections.
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Oral Hyaluronic Acid Products
Learn what hyaluronic acid is, how it works, and what the benefits of today’s oral HA products are for your horse.
There has been such an explosion in oral supplements for joint support with various new ingredients that its hard to keep up with them all. One ingredient that shows up in more products all the time is hyaluronic acid .
Hyaluronic acid is a member of a group of compounds called glycosaminoglycans. These substances are what give skin its elasticity, cartilage its give, and fluids their lubricating properties. Hyaluronic acid is found both in joint fluid and the cartilage itself. It is a major factor contributing to the slippery feel of joint fluid. In inflamed joints, breakdown of HA makes the joint fluid more watery and less able to keep the joint greased. Inside the cartilage itself, hyaluronic acid combines with another glycosaminoglycan called aggrecan to form a complex that helps trap fluid in the cartilage and keeps it flexible and resistant to being overly compressed.
The Importance Of The Horses Hindgut
Its important to understand what the horses hindgut is and how it functions. The hindgut includes the cecum and colon and is an essential part of the overall digestive system.
Horses are hindgut fermenters which means that the hindgut is necessary to process digestible energy from the food that a horse consumes. When this function is impaired, it can have wide-ranging impacts on the health and well-being of your horse.
When feed moves through the horses digestive system, the stomach and small intestine produce enzymes that start to break down the feed. Simple sugars and amino acids are mostly absorbed in the small intestine.
But fibre makes up a huge portion of the horses diet and it does not get digested in the small intestine. Horses cannot break down fibre without the help of microbes in the hindgut.
Bacteria, yeast and other microorganisms digest fibre through a process known as fibre fermentation. This process provides the horse with energy, volatile fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids necessary for good health.
These nutrients are then assimilated through the intestinal wall for utilization in the horses body. A healthy intestinal wall provides a protective barrier that allows nutrients to be absorbed, but doesnt allow toxins and microbes to enter the body.
If this barrier becomes damaged by ulcers or compromised by leaky gut syndrome, harmful substances can cross into the bloodstream, which can lead to infection and disease.
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