Banged knee?

[haejilnyeok]

I took my gelding hunting almost 4 weeks ago when I'm pretty sure he banged his knee on a stone wall. Didn't think too much of it as he remained sound and there was no obvious mark on him immediately afterwards but I gave him the next few days off to recover from any possible muscle soreness as he'd done a lot that day. He had short in hand walks and a little bit of turnout for the next four days before the next day when I noticed the swelling. I was a bit concerned when I saw it but he trotted up sound, there wasn't really any heat (it was slightly warm due to the obvious swelling but not hot or pulsing) and it wasn't sore to touch so I just put it down to him eating a bit too much haylage and rode him that night. The following day I asked my yard owner to have a look at it. He immediately put it down to knocking it out hunting and told me to hand walk him and plenty of cold hosing to bring the swelling down.

So for the next week I followed his advice with some slight improvement but nothing drastic. My yard owner and a friend of mine had another look at him when they suggested applying DMSO over his knee to bring down the swelling down. They also said as he was sound he should be fine to continue ridden work so for the next week I applied the DMSO solution and gave him a mixture of hand walks and short hacks and started to see some improvement with the swelling. The next week I switched to the gel form of DMSO as I ran out of the solution which seemed to be a bit more effective and introduced some trot work into his routine again.

This now brings us to this week where I'm still applying the gel and the swelling is down a lot more however everything feels a lot less squishy and seems to be hardening.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? I'm happy that he has been sound through the entirety of his injury but there doesn't seem to be a lot of info regarding horses knees on the internet. I am however worried it'll leave him with an ugly knee or leave a weakness in that leg so I'm reluctant to up his work load to what it was previously. A friend also recommended he wears a knee boot when it comes to jumping again as if he knocked a pole with his knee it could flare up again?

 

[be positive]

As an experienced YO I am often asked to advise on minor injuries, most improve quickly and never need the vet but if the horse does not respond to the treatment I advise I always want the vet involved in case there is something more serious going on.
I would want this horse to have the knee checked and scanned by a vet, he may not be lame but could have damage inside that is not healing or even a bone chip that needs removing, lameness, or lack of is not always a good indication of what is really going on, if the treatment is inappropriate it could be that he does go lame once the workload increases and even more damage is being done.

 

[twiggy2]

As above its time for the vet

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Definitely time for the vet. I had a mare out on loan who developeda lump on her knee. The loanees had no idea how it had happened as she wasn't ridden just turned out. Anyway they decided to return her and had it x-rayed first. No injury, just a fibrous lump which my vet confirmed once she was home. She also had a slightly filled tendon which they hadn't noticed.
The lump was quite prominent and although she was sound she did trip a lot possibly due to restriction in the knee but over time the tripping improved. However, over the years the lump got harder, I suspected it calcified and she started to be slightly lame then more lame/stiff. Got to the point she couldn't stand for long to have the other foot trimmed and that leg was stiffening too. Had her put down at 17 as she was struggling too much.

So, get a vet and get it sorted asap.

 

[Shay]

You need a vet - he could have a thorn in there. Or as BP says a bone chip etc. Its been too long for simple bruising to recede.