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HorseAdvice.com » Treatments and Medications for Horses » Anti-inflammatories (NSAID's, Steroids, Arthritis Rx) » Oral Glucosamine, ChonDrOitin Sulfate, and Hyaluronic Acid, their use in Arthritis »
  Discussion on New Study on Oral Hyaluronan (HA)
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Member:
Ajudson1

Posted on Saturday, Dec 23, 2006 - 9:07 am:

Dr.O,

Equus magazine this month has a short article on a study done on oral HA. It was done on yearlings that had surgery to treat OCD lesions in their hocks. They treated half of the 48 horses with oral HA and followed their treatment for 30 days and found that those getting the oral HA had less swelling.

They didn't list dosage or the kind of HA product.

Do you have any updated info on this? Any idea on amount used?

I personally have found that one of my horses who doesn't respond to the normal chon/gluc supplement did respond to one that had HA as an added ingredient. 50mg of HA

Hyaluronan is the same thing as Hyaluronic acid, isn't it?
Member:
Dstrom

Posted on Saturday, Dec 23, 2006 - 5:11 pm:

Angie,

I've been using a brand called Hyalun for about 4 months now on my 22 year old Thoroughbred, and I think he is much less stiff in his movements.

I chose to try it because he won't eat supplements, period. This one requires only a couple of milliliters, like an eyeDrOpper full, per day. So he doesn't even notice it's there.

I had my doubts about that small dose having any effect, but I really think it has.

Danielle
Member:
Dmilliga

Posted on Saturday, Dec 23, 2006 - 7:47 pm:

My mare has ringbone and I give her 1 gm bute and 3000units glucosamine/1500units chonDrOitin/3units(I think)Hyaluronic acid per day. She is pasture sound now after 1 year of this. I get the medicine in pills from COSTCO for humans. I give the mare 2 pills per day to make that amount as specified above. Human type has good QC quality control. I was giving it without the Hyaluronic acid before and it is not as good from my observation. PS: I take it for myself and I know it is better for me with the Hyaluronic acid.
Hope this helps someone decide.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 26, 2006 - 8:19 am:

Angie this is the particulars of this study including dosage:

Twenty-four of the yearlings (27 joints) were treated with 100 mg of HA orally for 30 days post operatively and 24 (30 joints) with a placebo orally for 30 days. At 30 days post operation, a blinded examiner scored the effusion of the dorsomedial tarsocrural joint individually using a scale of 0 to 5 (0 = no effusion, 1 = barely palpable effusion, 2 = palpable effusion [without plantar effusion], 3 = golf ball sized effusion with plantar effusion, 4 = tennis ball sized effusion with plantar effusion, 5 = > tennis ball sized effusion with plantar effusion). Half grades were allowed and OCD lesion sizes and locations were compared. RESULTS: A total of 57 joints were examined, of which 33 had OCD of the distal intermediate ridge of the tibia, 19 OCD of the distal lateral trochlear ridge of the talus and 5 OCD of the medial malleolus. The mean 30 day effusion score of the HA treated group (27 joints) was 0.67 while the mean of the 30 day placebo group (30 joints) was 2.05 (P < or = 0.0001).

Hyaluronan is a chemical name for hyaluronic acid. It is the first good support for the oral use of hyaluronic acid in joint disease that I have seen. The relative scores of the treated and untreated suggest those treated varied between no swelling to barely detectable swelling and those not treated varied between barely detectable swelling and a small amount of detectable swelling. What this means for the horse with DJD (chronic arthritis) is uncertain but does suggest it might be helpful.
DrO
Member:
Sunny66

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 26, 2006 - 8:40 am:

I use the conquer paste on Brave, he did seem to improve on it.
Member:
Ajudson1

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 26, 2006 - 10:49 am:

Thank You DrO.

The supplement I had good results with has 50 mg of HA, along with 5,000 mg of glucosamine HCI and 2,075 mg of chondoritin. Also MSM, yucca, bioflavonoids, creatine.

Is it possible the HA is being absorbed any better by the body with the addition of the above ingredients? Or the gluc and chon are being absorbed better with the HA added? Maybe it's just coincidence that my horse responded only when the HA was added.

We discussed here what is my horses lameness stems from, like shoulder bursistis or something like that. Not DJD as far as I know.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Dec 27, 2006 - 6:41 am:

I am afraid coincidences like this happen every day Angie (see story of misbehaving site and computers earlier this week). I have been wondering why Dr Bramlage did not mention these findings in a lecture he gave several weeks ago that often dealt with treatments for arthritis. He is listed as one of the primary researchers on the paper, but this test was for a very specific condition a bit removed from DJD as the effusion is largely a response to the surgery. (Or possibly I was taking a coffee break?)

I think the important thing is to not consider this a replacement for IA therapy which has a wide and deep compliment of research to go behind it. I would consider it as a possible alternative to the IV HA injections which while still expensive have much less support. And lastly when an acute flare hits none of the above treatments should be substituted for NSAID's for the treatment of acute pain and inflammation relief which is still the main stay of arthritis therapy, whether human or horse.
DrO
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