SynOsteon Healthy Bone

SynOsteon® Healthy Bone

Developed to help manage bucked shins and stress fractures of the shin, tibia and humerus

Bucked shins and stress fractures of the shin, tibia and humerus have plagued racehorses and racehorse trainers for many years.  During the months of rigorous training a racehorse needs to achieve racing fitness, the stress cycling of the long bones often overcomes the body’s ability to remodel, resulting in bucked shins, tibial stress fractures and humeral stress fractures.  These injuries are not only dangerous to the racehorse, they also cause a significant economic burden to the owner and trainer.  SynOsteon contains a unique blend of nutrients to support strong, healthy bone development.

Healthy bone requires a collagen matrix for flexibility as well as a support medium for calcium and phosphorus deposition.  SynOsteon® is formulated to support the development of a healthy frame for healthy bone.   Nutrients such as silicon are key in building and maintaining collagen, while menaquinone (vitamin K2) and β-glucans stimulate calcium deposition in bone.  Vitamin D is necessary for nutritional calcium absorption.  Icariins from Herba epimedii (epimedium) limit osteoclastic bone resorption and promote osteoblast activity. SynOsteon is also a rich source of calcium and magnesium.

SynOsteon® was designed to support healthy bone development and fracture healing with three distinct horse populations in mind:

1. Young unfit racehorses in early training. These horses should be supplemented daily when they begin training and continue through the time they are racing at full distance.  In a population of more than 100 two and three-year-olds in the first year that SynOsteon was available, none stopped training for bucked shins, tibial stress fractures or humeral stress fractures.
2. Racehorses that have had significant time out of training (over one month) that were not supplemented with SOM (SynOsteon Maintenance). The longer fit horses are out of training the more calcium phosphate they resorb from their bones. This is the reason for the all too common tibial and humeral stress fractures that develop during the retraining phase after horses have been turned out.  By supplementing these horses when they begin training fractures of the tibia and humerus can be avoided.
3. Racehorses that have developed bucked shins, tibial or humeral stress fractures. For all of these conditions it is important for your veterinarian to evaluate radiographs to know if there is a cortical fracture or just a callus.  With shins the protocol is generally to walk for a few weeks, jog for a few weeks and resume normal training.  For most bucked shin cases no other therapy is needed, although shock wave therapy is often used.   For the tibia and humerus without a visible fracture the protocol is to walk until the horse is sound at the trot (~2weeks), then one more week.  Jog a few weeks and if sound start gradually introducing gallops.  Cortical fractures will require more walking but these average about 5.5 months to the first start back.  This is a general protocol and should be adjusted by an experienced veterinarian to fit the individual racehorse’s condition.