Joint Support Verdict

the actual cutest.

Previously, I mentioned that Tristan has been stiff behind, and that the barn manager mentioned that something called OsPhos, which other horses in the barn were getting, might be a solution for him. I was a bit wary, based on my research in the COTH forums.

Then, I read Austen's excellent overview of her use of Estrone for Guinness's stifles.

That spurred me into action, so I emailed my vet and asked her about both OsPhos and Estrone for Tristan.

Being the sensible and clear-headed person that she is, she said she'd want to take a look at how he's actually moving first before prescribing things. (grumble, grumble, stymied once again by the intelligent professionals around me) She wasn't wild about either of the things I suggested, though.

I tried to describe as best I could how Tristan was traveling, and what my concerns were. I told her that bute hadn't made a huge difference, nor had our Previcox trial. He was actually overall going really well and looking great, but I just wasn't thrilled with the way he was using his hind end, and the stiffness starting off.

A few emails back and forth later and we had a surprisingly simple solution that I was really happy with.

It turns out that many vets often recommend doing a loading dose of Pentosan annually. So in addition to the monthly injections that he's already getting, once a year Tris could do a month of weekly injections.

Pentosan works out to be about $12 a dose, and I already knew it works well for Tristan. SOLD.

So, this past Tuesday, Tristan was due for his monthly injection, and that will be the first of four weeks of regular injections. I re-upped his prescription at Wedgewood to make absolutely sure he had enough (though he still had probably 5 doses left in his old bottle). We'll see where we go, but I'm really optimistic. In the past I've been able to feel pretty clearly when he was getting ready for some help, and the idea that we could get back to a great baseline makes me really optimistic!