# Injured horse "knuckling over"



## redgate (Sep 18, 2008)

For those of you that followed my thread on our Belgian who lacerated his knee really badly, I figured I'd start another thread for this question. Randomly, when he walks, he doesn't pull the hoof forward on his injured leg, resulting in him stepping down on the top front of the hoof. It looks terribly uncomfortable, and causes him to bend his knee--which he SHOULD NOT do right now. He kind of stumbles when his hoof doesn't catch him, and then steps back on the good leg. I've also noticed his fetlock joint pops sometimes when he does it. We take every precaution we can, but at 2000 lbs, I fear that isn't much. 

Is this a common issue with leg injuries, or is it more indicative of nerve damage? Our vet didn't seem to have an opinion, other than "wait and see." It is not consistent, but does happen most frequently when he is not paying attention while he walks. I'm hoping it has more to do with the pain of bending the knee sufficiently to step properly, as I noticed when I forgot to give him his bute once, he knuckled over much more the next morning. It eased a bit after I got the morning dose of bute into him. 

Any ideas or experiences?


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

I have a big Thoroughbred mare that was badly injured in her front left shoulder. The muscle was affected, and she dragged her toe or knuckled under until the injury healed.

Are you stalling your boy 24/7? I would limit the amount of walking he does until he has a chance to heal internally some. I imagine, but don't know without seeing a radiograph, that the muscle and/or tendon in his knee has been affected by the injury. It should heal, but try to keep him quiet as much as possible so his stumbling doesn't cause the stitches to pull. If he starts holding his leg out in front of him and laying off it, you may want to check it and make sure the stitches are intact still. 

My vet was clear about not doing hydro. And what I meant by keeping it dry, was about adding the extra moisture that would be on the injury site from hydro. The wound itself will seep and have moisture naturally, which is ok. But to keep it as dry as you can otherwise is smart just until the wound is closed.

Hope all is going ok. If you need anything pm me


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

With the cut tendon horse, her hoof knuckled over before we wrapped it HEAVILY so the joint could not bend. 

She was immobilized from hip to bottom of the hoof so tendon could reattach itself and heal up. She kind of swung her leg outward to move it forward, couldn't stride forward with the wrapping.

We used that quilt batting again, but made the covering very thick, sort of a soft cast. We had to change everthing from the skin out, daily for a couple weeks, then every couple days after that. Lots of work on a 2yr old.

If horse is knuckling over, the Vet needs to get back in there to see the amount of damage, decide a course of action to contain, support that bad leg more. If cut, horse needs to be pretty confined, not given room to move about making tendon things worse on unsupported hoof. No chance tendon can regrow if hoof keeps folding back away, ripping the new connections apart. Tendon only grows a small amount each month, so movement of hoof severs that.


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

goodhors said:


> With the cut tendon horse, her hoof knuckled over before we wrapped it HEAVILY so the joint could not bend.
> 
> She was immobilized from hip to bottom of the hoof so tendon could reattach itself and heal up. She kind of swung her leg outward to move it forward, couldn't stride forward with the wrapping.
> 
> ...


Goodhors is exactly right. Excellent advice.


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## redgate (Sep 18, 2008)

Saw vet today. Although he hasn't seen the injury itself (it was still wrapped), he felt good about the way he was walking. He thinks the knuckling over is due to possibly a nerve compressed by the swelling. That theory is, I admit, supported by the fact that the stumbling doubled when I forgot to give him Bute that night, and it is improved a lot as the swelling has been subsiding. He still does it, but not nearly as badly, and he is catching himself a lot more today. I know only time will tell, but I am hopeful, and the wound is looking about as good as can be expected.


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## jennigrey (Jan 27, 2005)

Would a splint be useful? To prevent bending of the knee? I've seen this done in young foals but never grown horses. Half a length of plastic pipe (sliced in half lengthwise), well-padded.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

I am going to say "No" a hard splint on an adult horse, especially a Draft horse. Way too much chance of splint cutting into skin, causing horse to get additional problems with the whole situation of open wound, than just "soft wrapping" with MANY layers of support materials. PVC is not forgiving, can fracture if stressed right, so not such a good material to use for casting or support in this situation, in my opinion. Lot of power in a large horse, even when calm or just standing on his legs, so force of movement can really surprise you when things break and tear during bandaging or healing times. 

Vets? When pushed they do weird things!! I have seen some unique solutions to some ugly wounds!!

Foals with crooked legs, are not so weighty, have softer bones to deal with than adult animals in repairing them. Two completely different issues, so they get very different treatments to heal well.


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