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Three months ago my 15 year old Arab Gelding was diagnosed with Ringbone in his near fore leg. At first he was very lame and had to be on bute and paddock rest. He had a course of Pentosan and a Cortisone injection into the joint. He is now ride able but at the trot he is slightly lame occasionally. I am feeding him dolomite (1 desert spoon per day) plus one cup of apple cider vinegar per day. Can Devils claw be used long term or will it cause stomach ulcers? Could Glucosamine and MSM be of use and if so what doses?
Are there other herbs or natural therapies that would help? I have also been told that Cod liver oil would be useful but I am unsure of this.
Ringbone is just one of the conditions in horses which really result from poor circulation down through horses legs and the resultant difficulty in healing conditions which can really be relatively minor when they first occur.
All horses are prone to such problems because their design as a flight animal was to minimise the weight and bulk of their limbs, rather like alloy rims and low profile tyres on a sports car.
Because the structures within their lower limbs are not continuously bathed in blood, as our ankles are for example, a relatively minor impact, jarring or torsion injury can result in bone bruising and inflammation which can be extremely slow to heal and even result in further degenerative and scarring processes which simply would not occur if there were more blood supply available for healing. Ringbone is a process where a ring of bone tissue scarring develops following such injuries.
Robert N. Oglesby DVM concludes in an article on the subject of Ringbone that; "...most ringbones I have seen are painful and untreatable in the long run. Early, you can keep them usable with bute and injections of cortisone but the more you use them the worse it gets"
I beg to differ with this view.
The two most obvious herbs to think about with any such bone injury or lameness are Arnica and Comfrey.
Arnica works almost as if by magic to promote circulation toward and away from any site of bruising whether in soft tissue, connective tissue or bones. The moment Arnica is applied externally to any such injury it starts to improve the local circulation and carry away debris resulting from injury which can lead to further complications and bring more restorative fluids to the area to facilitate healing.
Comfrey has been used for literally thousands of years to speed up bone healing and encourage normal repair tissue to grow as needed rather than scarred tissue.
Just because modern Veterinary Medicine and its supporting pharmaceutical industry cannot see how to deal with Ringbone does not mean that it is untreatable and it will inevitably get worse and worse over time.
As a professional herbalist I make up a simple internal treatment containing herbs and seeds which provide the ideal nutritional requirements for healthy bone healing along with herbs to stimulate the healing including Comfrey, Yarrow and Kelp. Externally I make up a range of creams and oils containing Comfrey and Arnica and other herbs in extract and oil form to apply directly to the affected area.
On your own you could make up a poultice containing crushed fresh comfrey leaves mixed into Linseed Oil and you could add in a little arnica ointment while stirring it all up. If this poultice was held in place with a bandage for several days at a time and then replaced regularly you would be seeing a positive response and your horse would be much less likely to go lame within 6 weeks.
Devils Claw is one of the anti-inflammatory herbs and there is no danger in giving a small amount over an extended period but I would not use too much. A combination of White Willow, Devils Claw, Guiacum, Burdock, Maritime Pine, Rosehips and Yarrow is what I use in place of Bute is a much better and more balanced mix, more effective and less likely to cause upsets.
I personally do not recommend Glucosamine and MSM as I feel my Tendon and Bone formulation is far superior however I do have clients who have reported some benefits from this approach.
I am very uncomfortable about steroid injections as they do not even pretend to provide benefits over the long term, basically like Bute they are providing short term comfort while hoping that nature will heal the problem. I would rather assist nature in its task than bear the cost, or risk the side effects, of intrusive drugs such as these.
I hope this explanation helps you with your decisions as to how to manage your Gelding's ringbone.
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