In 2014 the FDA approved bisphosphonates to control signs of navicular disease in horses age 4 and up, changing the way veterinarians manage performance horses of all disciplines. | Photo: iStock

In 2014 the FDA approved bisphosphonates to control signs of navicular disease in horses age 4 and up, changing the way veterinarians manage performance horses of all disciplines. To evaluate their use in the five years since, Dechra, maker of the intramuscular injectable bisphosphonate Osphos, recently organized a roundtable of English and Western sport horse practitioners.

Rob Boswell, DVM, an English sport horse veterinarian based in Wellington, Florida, and Billy Maupin, DVM, who treats Western performance horses in Nampa, Idaho, summarized the discussion’s take-homes during a Dechra-sponsored Sunrise Session at the 2019 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 7-11 in Denver.

Bisphosphonates primarily work by preventing excess bone resorption, which occurs with navicular disease (aka podotrochlosis) and other bone disorders. They might offer the additional benefit of reducing bone pain. While bisphosphonates are labeled for navicular treatment alone, Boswell and Maupin said veterinarians use them off-label in other lameness cases