Clinical studies on humans have shown that the ingestion of gelatine hydrolysate over a longer period of time reduces the amount of pain felt in patients with osteoarthritis. The same observation have been made in the case of dogs and horses; lameness tends to be reduced after long-term treatment with gelatine hydrolysate and the healing periods for joint and tendon injuries are shorter. Initial results would appear to indicate that gelatine hydrolysate increases the capacity of cartilage and tendons to deal with stress as minor injuries tend to heal quicker. Within the scope of a Ph.D. thesis, it was shown that gelatine has a positive influence on the growth and bone development of foals. The foals, fed over a period of five and half months with gelatine hydrolysate, were considerably larger than the control group and their joint cartilage was thicker. In addition, hair and hooves showed better growth. Further improvement of hoof horn was established by adding zinc and biotin. Dr (med, vet) Claudia Brunner
German observation by Dr (med, vet) Arne Timm
In this study which was carried out in November 1993, 44 horses ( Holstein and Hannoverian warm-blood horses) on two stud farms and were fed a basic ration of 5.5kg hay and 2kg of oats supplemented with 50g of gelatine hydrolysate for 5 and ½ months, twice daily. The study was to find the influence of supplementing gelatine hydrolysate – feeding to a hay-oat ration on the parameters growth, growth of hoof-horn, thickness of hair and width of the articular-split of weanlings and yearling, 27 foals served as controls. Body growth was determined by the height of the animal as measured at the level of the withers (Lydin’s stick), hoof growth by marking below the coronet.
The measurement and x-rays investigations were carried out five times during the one year experiment. The results are as follows:
In comparison with the control animals, the total body growth of the test horses showed a significant effect with 47%.
The test horses had thicker hair than the control-horses. The thickness of the hair was an average of 34.8μm in summertime and an average of 56.7μm in wintertime.
The growth of the horny wall of the hoof (10mm/28days) of the test-horses were up to 37% more than in the control group.
The evaluation of the x-rays of the pastern-joint-split showed a significantly stronger width of the articular-split of the test-horses during feeding the gelatine-hydrolysate.
