Capped Knee

Daisychain

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My horse knocked his knee somehow a couple of months ago, which has left a large watery swelling on the front of it, if you press it you can here the water squeeking about!

He has remained perfectly sound on it and it doesnt hurt him to squash it etc.

Sometimes it appears to be going, then it comes up again. From what i have read up on it, it could possibly be there as a cosmetic blemish.

Should i leave it hoping it will go away in time? Or have it drained etc. He is an eventer not a show horse.
 
Daisychain I have one horse with this right now and had another in the past. I have repeatedly been told that there is very little you can do about it. If you have it drained, the likelihood is that it will come back again now that the pocket is there to fill with fluid. An eventer near me has been drained twice and it just comes back.

This is my horse. You can see how bad it is, and how little it affects him:

http://www.klickonfotos.co.uk/photo_galleries/161010cf/pages/161010cf 402.htm

It's a bummer isn't it, to have such a nasty blemish that doesn't affect their performance but absolutely ruins their looks!? I keep trying to tell myself that I am lucky the injury that caused it did not break his leg.... Sometimes it works.
 
It looks a fair bit better than that now, though still nasty. I have been using cold laser on it, and if you have a bit of money to spare, I'd say give it a go. You can buy a one-diode one on eBay for about £60, or a bigger one for about £350. My husband made mine for me. Since I have been using it, the size has gone down from 42 cm to 41cm in three weeks. When I dropped the treatment to every other day it came up again, so it's doing something though I have no idea how or what! My horse's injury is a similar age to yours, though there was tendon damage from a kick. But there was no improvement for a month or more before the cold laser, so it could be worth a try.
 
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