Equine osteoarthritis drug therapies revisited 20 years on in new review
Barton and Goodrich publish a 20-year follow-up review of medical therapies for equine osteoarthritis in The Veterinary Journal, online 17 October 2026.
Updated
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A new review titled "Medical Therapies for the Treatment of Osteoarthritis in the Horse – 20 years later…" appeared online in The Veterinary Journal on 17 October 2026, updating a field last surveyed roughly two decades ago.
Authors Charlotte K. Barton and Laurie R. Goodrich compiled the paper, which revisits the medical management of osteoarthritis in horses — a condition that remains one of the most common causes of lameness and lost performance in equine practice.
What kind of paper is this?
This is a review, not a new clinical trial. That distinction matters at the exam table. Reviews synthesize published evidence on drugs and intra-articular therapies, and practitioners should read the conclusions as a synthesis of prior work rather than fresh efficacy data from a single study population.
The title itself signals scope: the authors frame their analysis as a 20-year follow-up to earlier coverage of the same topic, which implies they compare what clinicians used two decades ago with what the evidence supports today.
Why equine OA therapy reviews matter
Osteoarthritis in horses is managed largely through medical therapy — systemic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, intra-articular corticosteroids, and biologic products among them — and the evidence base for each option has evolved considerably over the past two decades.
A 20-year retrospective gives practitioners a chance to check which treatments have held up, which have fallen out of favor, and which newer agents have accumulated enough data to justify routine use.
For a food-animal or regulatory angle, horse owners and veterinarians should note that any drug or biologic discussed in such reviews carries its own regulatory status, and practitioners should verify approved labeling with the relevant agency — FDA CVM in the United States — before use, particularly for compounded or biologic products.
What the publication date tells readers
The paper became available online 17 October 2026 through The Veterinary Journal. Online-first placement means the version of record may still be pending final issue assignment and pagination.
Readers seeking the full evidence tables, drug-by-drug analysis, and dosing discussions should consult the complete article directly through the journal.
The road ahead
With this review now online, equine practitioners have a current synthesis against which to measure their own prescribing patterns — and a baseline for evaluating the next two decades of OA therapy evidence.
Source: The Veterinary Journal (Elsevier)
Grace Kim
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Staff writer covering regulation, policy and their impact on Small- and large-animal clinical practice at The Vet Scope.
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