Foal born over at the knee - any experiences?

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BritishWarmblood16

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Hi all, I have a new born filly (a week old tomorrow - how times flies!), she is absolutely gorgeous but is over at the knee. I did the dreaded Google (why do we do that to ourselves?!) and not sure whether I feel better or worse so I thought I'd ask for real life scenarios. Does anyone have any experience with it? What did you do to help your foal? I have started massaging her front legs and it seems to have helped in the last couple of days since I started, has anyone else found that helped? Do you have before or after photos?

Thanks in advance :)

X
 
My boy was extremely wonky and buckled over when born. It is worth getting an expert to assess as mine had limited turnout for a bit to let him strengthen up. He has very straight legs now and no problems as a reult. Sally Foster - Sallyf on here - had him at her stud for a fortnight so knows more about what she did than I do.
 
I actually found a pic in photobucket. He is a standing as straight as he could at that point.
Godot290510006-1.jpg


And this one - he was a tragic looknig little thing!
Godot240510003-1.jpg
 
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'Over at the knee', if anything is a positive. Back at the knee rarely straightens and would be a worry.

Clodagh, I remember the boy well!! Now look at him, but then he always had a certain quality about him! :)

Alec.
 
Absolutely nothing to worry about. I had a colt so bent he had to be helped to stand for a couple of days. He's now 24 and has been as straight as a die since he was 10 days old. If the foal is very knuckled over, very gentle stretching can help, if she'll let you. It's the same physio I do for my wonky hip and knees. You could also let her exercise on a hard surface, which helps a bit, but I've only done that on a very limited basis as foals like to crash about and you have more risk of an accident.

It is very common in TB foals and the studs don't worry about it. The foals invariably straighten. It is a very common scenario, so just give her time. Natural exercise and patience is the ticket!
 
When you think where they were and how they were folded up it isn't all that surprising - tendons elongate with time and straighten, unlike bones. I wouldn't be worried until he was at least a month old
 
Our Shagya filly was a little over at knee when born, it worried me no end. I wrote to a friend working on a stud in Newmarket, she was very re-assuring and told me their vets did not worry overmuch about a little over at knee, back at knee is worst.

Said filly is now 6 four nice straight legs, has jumped 9 clear rounds out of 10 starts this SJ season and qualified for the National Young Horse Championships in Fontainebleau. I hope this re-assures you.
 
BritishWarmblood16 said:
Hi all, I have a new born filly (a week old tomorrow - how times flies!), she is absolutely gorgeous but is over at the knee. I did the dreaded Google (why do we do that to ourselves?!) and not sure whether I feel better or worse so I thought I'd ask for real life scenarios. Does anyone have any experience with it? What did you do to help your foal? I have started massaging her front legs and it seems to have helped in the last couple of days since I started, has anyone else found that helped? Do you have before or after photos?

Thanks in advance :)

X
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Was she born like it.
Has a vet looked at it to assess whether it is caused by contracted tendons of contracture of the knee as they are very different things.
Contracted tendons can be eased with an injection of oxytet and also administering Baileys foal aide helps too.
Contracture of the knees is something much differant and much harder to treat.
We have one here at the moment with contracted knees and he is just coming to the end of 3 weeks in dyna splints with some improvement but its very slow progress.
You need to ascertain what the cause it
 
Thank you all for your comments. The pictures and your previous experiences are all very comforting. I have had the vet out, who actually told us the wrong thing to start off with, she said her her out in the field, she needs lots of exercise on nice hard ground, she then made an impromptu visit the next day and took photos and went back to the surgery and then rang me later on that day and said she needed restricted turnout! So that doesn't fill me with much confidence. The vet have said to see how she improves in the first 2 weeks and let them know as they say they would have to wait 2 weeks before treating? I compared photos from day 3 and day 7 yesterday and have seen an improvement so I'm keeping everything crossed. I'm new to this but I'll try and post a photos if I can work out how.
 
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