Equine arthritis can be very painful for your horse.

• If you are a horse lover you are already probably aware of the fact that horses can fall victim to a great deal of ailments, many of which they share with their human counterparts. One of the biggest and most common of these ailments is arthritis; although it may seem that people are the main sufferers of this affliction, arthritis is a condition of the bones, joints, and cartilage around the joints so it is quite easy for horses to fall victim to this ailment just as you yourself might.

• Needless to say, arthritis is quite a painful condition and it can lead to degeneration of the tissues around the joints if it is not caught early enough and taken care of. Arthritis is also known as Degenerative Joint Disease and many of the older horses are at risk of this condition.

• Arthritis is a condition that usually occurs in older horses; once horses pass the age of about twelve to fifteen years old they are at risk for a variety of conditions and equine arthritis is just one of them. It can be difficult to watch your horse go through such a painful experience and if it is not caught and treated early enough equine arthritis can turn into a painful and seriously progressive condition, getting worse with each passing year.

• While it may seem like it should be easy enough to suspect arthritis in your horse, it is not always the most obvious thing to detect. Some horses seem to deal with arthritis better at first than others, and it can take longer for the effects of the disease to be obvious in some horses. If your horse is experiencing problems with lameness then you can probably have some good idea that equine arthritis is to blame, but what if it isn’t that easy? Many times it takes a veterinarian and some tests and examinations to diagnose arthritis and treatment proceeds from there. This is one reason why it pays to have regular visits to the veterinarian scheduled for your horse, because the longer equine arthritis goes untreated the worse it can get and the more painful the condition is for your beloved horse.

• By paying good attention to your horse, you should be able to pick up on some of the signs and symptoms of arthritis, or an impending condition of that nature. Puffy joints, sensitive joints and lameness or semi-lameness is one way of going about it, while other times the inspection of the joints and legs is not necessary.

• By implementing a healthier diet and incorporating more exercise into your horse’s daily routine, you can help to ensure that arthritis does not become more of a health issue with your horse than it may already be.

• Feeding your horse a joint-friendly diet and making sure that they get out to walk at least once a day, even if they are not working horses, is smart horse ownership and will decrease the amount of your vet bills in the end, not to mention the worry and stress it can create having an ill horse on your hands.

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