My 21 year old Belgian/QH was diagnosed with fairly significant arthritis in one knee and to a lesser degree, one hock. The vet recommends Adequan injections, one every 4 days for 28 days then once a month for the foreseeable future. Other information I have read suggests it only needs to be used occasionally. Since it's so expensive I'd like to be sure we'll be using it correctly, so which is it? Occasionally or forever?

Marilyn; We have a qtr. horse mare that was diagnosed the same and we gave the shots , and from what we were told it would not have to be an on going thing , however, we saw no big improvement, so we started looking around at treatments and found cetyl m by Veterinery Response Products , in Fl. 877-266-9757 , I called and talked to their chemist and asked what the difference was between their product and adequan and what he told me made sense, so we tried it and it worked great , after the first month we cut the dose in half and continued to half it every month after that till we now only give it once a month . Call them and talk to someone in the lab, not sales , I've found that when the person you talk to isn't affected by comissions then you get a more honest answer. Good luck

I have a gelding diagnosed with both high & low ringbone. Three vets have looked at his x-rays and asked how lame is he? Problem is, he's not lame. We don't jump him anymore, but he's great to ride. Long story short - he's on the D-Acetyl Glucosamine mentioned by Butch and is doing wonderful. It's a third the cost of Adequan easily, and after the loading dose we are down to every 3 weeks, aiming for every 4 weeks. Good luck.

The knee issue could be more of a problem than the hock or lower issues. Adequan doesn't work for all horses but it certainly works for some. I'd suggest going with your veterinarian's suggestion and see how it goes. If it works, it would be well worth the money. If it doesn't help the lameness within a few weeks I'd suggest trying something else. The glucosamine products are interesting and I'm glad to hear they seem to have worked for some horses. I've not been convinced they have helped my horses with degenerative joint disease, but I give them anyway, just in case. Good luck, and do let us know how things go.