# What's the difference between MSN and glucosamine?



## xx chico (Mar 12, 2009)

I use pureform glucosamine on our old gelding at home. I also use it on my 8 year old pony, for his hocks.

Theres a bunch of random ones but I find this one helps the best.

And I may be wrong on this but isn't it MSM?


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

Skyhuntress said:


> I'm sure this is a foolish question, but really, what is the difference between MSN and glucosamine?


MSN is an internet service provider.

MSM is a bio-available sulfur compound. Sulfur is important in skin, hair, connective tissue, hormones and immunoglobulins. Dynamite MSM is Ultra Pure(tm) containing 450 gm. per pound.

(From Wikipeida) Glucosamine is is an amino sugar and a prominent precursor in the biochemical synthesis of glycosylated proteins and lipids. A type of glucosamine forms chitosan and chitin, which composes the exoskeletons of crustaceans and other arthropods, cell walls in fungi and many higher organisms. Glucosamine is one of the most abundant monosaccharides.[1] It is produced commercially by the hydrolysis of crustacean _exoskeletons_ or, less commonly and more expensive to the consumer, by fermentation of a grain such as corn or wheat. Glucosamine is commonly used as a treatment for osteoarthritis, although its acceptance as a medical therapy varies.

MSM is on some organizations 'no' list.


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## Appyt (Oct 14, 2007)

Another way to look at it is MSM is an anti inflamitory... Glucosamine and Chrondrotin are joint fluid building blocks.. Soooooooooooo, I give my old Appy just MSM daily as he not only has a bad shoulder and certainly joint issues at 30, he also has Moonblindness and this helps in that arena as well.


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

MSM is mainly used in the really active and athletic horses when worked hard. I would be giving a good mix of both for your grey beast because of his size and use glucosemine for your young monkey. Even under hard work (which I don't think he is going to be doing for some time yet) he is so young and in such good shape that he really shouldn't need any extra supplements, UNLESS you have some some conformation fault concerns that you think might cause problem years down the road.

That brings up a good question for me...what happens if you have a horse on these supplements, likely been on them for years and now suddenly you decide to stop giving them. This supplement they have gotten used to is now gone. 

How would that effect their body?


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## hotreddun (Jun 27, 2008)

CacheDawnTaxes said:


> That brings up a good question for me...what happens if you have a horse on these supplements, likely been on them for years and now suddenly you decide to stop giving them. This supplement they have gotten used to is now gone.
> 
> How would that effect their body?


In my personal experience the horse gets "immune" to joint supplements anyway...so you need to switch your ingredients occasionally. Right now Im working with pure flax and it seems to be doing really well. While a very powerful msm, glucosamine, hyaluronic acid, etc. mix I was using kept edema in his lower legs...a symptom that was unexplainable by atleast two vets.


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## ~*~anebel~*~ (Aug 21, 2008)

Skyhuntress, I really highly recommend against oral supplements. They really do very little for the amount of money they cost, even in clinical trials. I would recommend monthly IV/IM injections of Adequan and Legend, or just the Adequan. These injections kept Bully sound with ringbone, and are doing the same thing for my mum's current horse who was on oral supplements and on and off sore with his owner (he is now 100% sound). I have my horse on them for a preventative and Anebel was on them when we had her too. We get them for a little under $125/month injected by a vet per horse (we don't get the name brand though). When you look at these oral supplements, that's easily what you're going to be paying anyways for something that doesn't work nearly as well.
If you are going to just go the oral supplement route, the only thing that has really had enough clinical testing to be called "proven" is Corta-FLX or Corta-RX. Even then they don't work nearly as well as the injections, they still work. I would grab the more "high-powered" one (I totally forget which one that is), even hough it's more expensive, it's worth it.

Good luck!

Also - for your question about the supplement removal, all these supplements do (in theory) is stimulate joint fluid creation and thickening, and improve the cartilage. When you stop using or injecting the supplements, the body's function was not affected, just assisted by the supplements, so gradually they will leave the horse's system and it will go back to "normal". This means that the joints will begin to deteriorate normally and inflame normally as well, so you can end up with a lame horse if you keep the workload high when you take them off supplements. All they basically aim to do is slow down or stop joint deterioration, so when we remove them, everything just naturally ages.
But, with the steroidal therapies, these can actually deteriorate the joint by only reducing the inflammation in the joint without actually strengthening anything, so the horse will over use it (in theory) and cause damage.


And if you have any questions about what's legal, I think I'm pretty up to date on that. Just stay far away from the "organic/natural" stuff because that will mostly all test. The Adequan/Lengend combo is fine, along with the Corta-FLX and -RX.


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