Last updated on March 22nd, 2023 at 05:24 am
Hyaluronic Acid for Horses
Hyaluronic acid is used for horse’s joints. Yes Hyaluronic acid for horses is a thing.
What is Hyaluronic acid for horses?
When dealing with the horse’s healthy joints, hyaluronic acid can work as a lubricating mechanism that encourages smooth and frictionless motion. Hyaluronic acid can also mitigate the action of inflammatory mediators inside the joint and protect the horse’s articular cartilage from degenerating. Basically, hyaluronic acid is used to help keep the joints of your horse healthy and functioning.
Hyaluronic acid can be a great horse arthritis supplement as well, and may be beneficial in a number of ways.
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If your horse suffers from joint trauma, they tend to lose a good amount of hyaluronic acid, and this can result in elevated friction, which is believed to increase cartilage wear and the degeneration of joints. After your horse suffers some kind of accident where it has hurt its joints, a depletion of hyaluronic acid can cause even more damage.
Hyaluronic acid Is an oral supplement for joint support. It’s a member of a group of compounds known as glycosaminoglycans. These types of substances are the key to healthy cartilage. Hyaluronic acid Is found in high levels in joint fluid inside of the cartilage itself. It’s a huge factor in contributing to how slippery and fluid a joint is. And so, when a joint is inflamed, the breakdown of hyaluronic acid causes the movement of the joint to be waterier and less fluid. Basically, without hyaluronic acid, your horse is going to have rusty hinges. By adding hyaluronic acid, you will be effectively spraying WD40 onto those rusty hinges.
How Does Hyaluronic Acid Work?
Hyaluronic acid has been used since the early 1970s. Almost 50 years ago, hyaluronic acid was injected straight into the joint. As more and more people started using hyaluronic acid as a treatment, it began to spread across the world. Before it was ever used, joint problems were typically treated with corticosteroids. And this worked for awhile, but if it was injected too often and with doses that were too high, the steroids would cause problems by inhibiting the metabolism of the joint cells. Obviously, it was not a stable solution. Corticosteroids often caused infections of the joints in the long run.
Today, hyaluronic acid is used as a joint supplement, but how exactly it works is still something of a mystery. The hyaluronic acid appears to fix the enzymes that break down joint fluid and cartilage. If the supplement works properly, it is effective at healing the inflammation. Hyaluronic acid can also help to stimulate the production of other important glycosaminoglycans, which work to heal your horse even more.
Luckily, we have moved away from intravenous injections to oral treatment. You can now purchase hyaluronic acid in a gel form.
What are the Side Effects of Hyaluronic Acid?
You will be happy to know there are almost no side effects when using hyaluronic acid. It’s extremely safe when taken by mouth, when applied directly to the flesh, or even when injected. However, when hyaluronic acid is injected, there may be redness and soreness near the place where the needle was injected into the joint.
In very rare occasions, hyaluronic acid can cause an allergic reaction.
What is the Best Joint Supplement for Horses?
The best joint supplement for horses is glucosamine. This is the number one ingredient in every joint health supplement available for horses. It’s the critical ingredient in healing your horse back to perfect health. If you’re looking for the best horse supplement that contains all the greatest ingredients, including glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, you should check out Nutramax Cosequin ASU Equine Powder.
This is the top pick out of all the currently available joint supplements. It comes as a powder, it’s packed with all the main ingredients that will work to relieve the soreness of your horse while promoting healing, and it’s super affordable. Horses like the taste, it contains high purity MSM, and most users report an improvement within about four weeks after their horse started taking the supplement.
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Does Hyaluronic Acid Really Work for Joints?
This can depend on who you ask. It’s definitely not the biggest mainstream joint supplement, but it has proven to be effective in the past. A study published in 2006 showed that the effects of using hyaluronic acid in its gel form would seriously reduce the swelling of joints in the treated horses. In another study in 2003, 100 milligram doses were given to racing thoroughbred horses, and it effectively reduced the number of times that veterinarians were asked to check out the horses for lameness.
To conclude, in all the studies hyaluronic acid proved to reduce inflammation and swelling, to be absorbed well even in its gel form, and to assist in the overall healing of joint issues. Many people claim that hyaluronic acid is supremely effective when delivered orally for rapidly fixing joints that are inflamed, painful, and hot.
Even more, results are proven to be seen within 24 to 72 hours. And this is all done through the gel form. However, hyaluronic acid is now widely available in a powder form, and it seems to work even though it has not been studied to compare its absorption or effectiveness.
If you are trying to figure out if using hyaluronic acid as a joint supplement for your horse is appropriate, you don’t really have much to lose. Many joint supplements contain hyaluronic acid, and we recommend you give one a try. It’s definitely a beneficial ingredient when your horse has inflamed or swollen joints. It’s also an ideal treatment if your horse is worked hard and regularly.
The only times it might not help is if your horse is old and has had arthritis for a while, as there may be no dramatic changes. The best advice is that if your current joint supplement is not giving you the intended results, you should definitely switch to something that contains hyaluronic acid to see if it will work. You could also switch to a combination of hyaluronic acid and other useful ingredients that will help with the joint health of your horse.
Sources
https://www.mvsequine.com/ask-a-vet-does-my-horse-need-a-joint-supplement/