Cytat:"I believe what the vet who spoke to Allen must have been talking about is glucosamine and chondroitin that are administered by mouth. When a mammal -- whether it be horse, human, dog, pig, guinea pig, cow, sheep, etc. -- eats these substances, they are degraded by the acids in the stomach but the resulting molecules are not easily absorbed in the upper part of the small intestine so that they can pass into the bloodstream. This is why they "seem to disappear" -- you are not going to find them in the same form in poop that they had when administered, because between going in the mouth and coming out the poopchute they have been chemically changed. They don't show up in the blood or urine to any great extent, either, because they don't get absorbed.

What IS effective is glucosamine, only in the hydrochloride form, and only when administered by intramuscular injection. This is variably effective, and yes, Joe's information is correct, there has to be an initial "loading dose" and then you look-see what happens in the particular individual. Some animals will keep showing you good effect on a very long plateau; others will require a "booster" of another loading-dose after a year or so. Still others get only minimal effect, unfortunately, but this is probably due to their problems either being already too great before the therapy was started, or else not of a sort that is remediable by glucosamine.

Chondroitin and all sulfur-containing compounds, including glucosamine sulfate and MSM, are much more problematic than glucosamine hydrochloride. Many mammals show allergic-type responses to sulfur-containing substances, and based on personal experience I do not recommend them. They can actually make joint problems worse, and they are no more digestible. They can also cause bronchospasm and respiratory trouble.

The bottom line is that, dollar for dose, I wouldn't waste my shekels on any orally-administered product containing any form of glucosamine, MSM, or chondroitin. I have had great success, however, with horses on intramuscular injections containing glucosamine hydrochloride. We will wait a few months for a report from RobV., for example, who has recently started a mare with diagnosed arthritis in her ankles on this regimen.

Two things I would like to hear further about on the subject of supplements: one, the use of herbal anti-inflammatories such as Turmeric that seem to have fairly strong positive effects in humans (read Andrew Weil, M.D., on this subject). Maybe Pauline Moore can comment on this -- I do not know whether Turmeric is safe to feed to horses, and I do not know what the dosage would need to be (we don't want to impoverish ourselves by buying tons of Turmeric, either)."