Glucosamine Side Effects For Horses

Glucosamine supplements are often hailed for their benefits on joint health and function in both horses and humans. But what exactly are the glucosamine side effects for our horses and what should we be noticing when adding the super supplement to our horse’s diet?

With a variety of glucosamine for horses on the market, all preaching different qualities, we un-picked the science to tell you exactly what glucosamine supplementation will do for your horse.

Joint Tissue Turnover

Glucosamine is a precursor for glycosaminoglycans (GAG), an essential molecule to form protein bonds for strength and repair of tissue. Therefore, assessment of GAG levels in the body is a reliable indicator of cartilage turnover and can be useful in monitoring joint health and disease – the higher the GAG level, the healthier the joints.

When diets were supplemented with glucosamine in horses, GAG levels elevated and remained high for around three months after treatment. This has led researchers to believe that not only does glucosamine aid joint tissue turnover, and therefore the health and maintenance of the structure, but has prolonged properties for joint protection. Glucosamine can be used intermittently in horse’s diets and still reap results, researchers suggest usage in a three-month on, three-month off glucosamine supplementation cycle.

Decrease Pain

Supplementing with glucosamine can be beneficial to those horses suffering from mild joint pain, such as early osteoarthritis (OA).

One study has shown after supplementing diets of horses with mild OA, they showed improvement during flexion tests, decreased joint inflammation, and a decrease in lameness score.

In addition, the horse’s supplemented with glucosamine has improvement in the diagnostic images of the affected joints, suggesting that the pain was decreased due to enhancement in tissue health of the joint.

Increased Range Of Motion

In addition to a decrease in pain symptoms, supplementing with glucosamine has shown to increase limb range of motion in horses.

One study has revealed that after supplementing with glucosamine, horses showed an increase in stride length and joint range of motion. This could be beneficial in performance, increasing the ability to perform movements with agility, and precision. The influence of glucosamine supplementation could also see a reduction in onset of fatigue, reduced occurrence of injury, and improved learning, with decreased pain and fear of pain during competition and training.

An increased duration of swing in the stride has also been shown with glucosamine supplementation. This means marks for cumulative marks for ‘suppleness’ on the dressage test could increase, as well as assisting with power generation during the stride and when jumping.

Metabolism

Extremely high levels of glucosamine supplementation can affect the metabolism of our horses. This can be dangerous for equine already suffering from metabolic disorders, such as Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) and Insulin Resistance.

Administering large amounts of glucosamine can lead to elevated serum glucose. Sustaining a high glucose level in the blood takes its toll on the body, increasing pressure on internal organs, damage to nervous systems, and weakening the immune system. However, elevated serum glucose as a side effect of glucose supplementation has only been recorded when animals are given 100 times their recommended dose, therefore it is highly unlikely that joint supplements will be the cause of elevated blood sugars.

Toxicity

Another concern with high levels of glucosamine supplementation is toxicity.

In bovine and canine subjects, administering large doses of glucosamine has had extremely negative effects on health. With the high administration doses, the animal subjects were shown to have decreased cell viability and tissue turnover; the opposite to the desirable effects of glucosamine inclusion.

However, the high doses achieved in these studies would not be possible in clinical or oral administrations of glucosamine. Plus, for peace of mind, even feeding twice the recommended loading dose of glucosamine to horses for 30 days, has shown no adverse side effects.

You may also like to read