My mini pony mare has some arthritis in her knee. She has some swelling and over the last year or so has steadily gotten worse. The vet X-rayed the knee about four months ago, and while there were some changes in the joint, there appeared to be more soft tissue swelling than huge joint changes. Vet injected the knee and it helped almost immediately. But over the last few months it has started to get worse again and her knee buckles forward and looks like it is bending outward when she walks. It is like she can’t straighten it. It does straighten if I push the knee back manually and hold it in place. Almost like a brace would help it. I have the vet coming back out this Wednesday to do teeth and vaccines etc. I am really scared that there is little that can be done and I am going to have to put her down sooner than later. Has anyone had a horse or pony with knee arthritis that causes the knee and leg to deform like that? Is there anything that helped? I can’t stand the thought of losing her and am frankly a mess over it. I would do anything at this point to help it.
It’s unlikely that the knee is deforming. She’s not straightening the leg because it hurts. A brace is a bad idea–it would just lock her into a painful position.
Have the vet back out to reassess. It might be time for more injections. Daily Surpass on the knee might help the injections last longer. Injectables like Legend, Adequan or Pentosan might also be useful
Sure she’s not unweighting something that hurts lower down? Classic stance for a DDFT as the horse stands with bent knee to keep weight off the heel/back of the lower leg. Very well could be more then one thing going on.
I’ve seen that in a few older horses. They have terrible arthritis and their knee does in fact stay shifted to the side so that the whole leg is crooked. The oldest one I know is 36 and he walks slowly because of it but still has a sparkle in his eye, a solid appetite and is as active as he can be. The knee will definitely shorten his life by some years but he’s been carefully managed to try to offer him the best quality of life he can have given the knee.
[QUOTE=DancingArabian;8722550]
I’ve seen that in a few older horses. They have terrible arthritis and their knee does in fact stay shifted to the side so that the whole leg is crooked. The oldest one I know is 36 and he walks slowly because of it but still has a sparkle in his eye, a solid appetite and is as active as he can be. The knee will definitely shorten his life by some years but he’s been carefully managed to try to offer him the best quality of life he can have given the knee.[/QUOTE]
This. As I understand it, this condition— knee “bending” laterally, not in the direction of rotation" hurts a lot. I watched someone keep an old mare who had this condition around for far too long.
[QUOTE=DancingArabian;8722550]
I’ve seen that in a few older horses. They have terrible arthritis and their knee does in fact stay shifted to the side so that the whole leg is crooked. The oldest one I know is 36 and he walks slowly because of it but still has a sparkle in his eye, a solid appetite and is as active as he can be. The knee will definitely shorten his life by some years but he’s been carefully managed to try to offer him the best quality of life he can have given the knee.[/QUOTE]
I wish my girl was 36, that might make this a LITTLE easier to handle. Not exactly sure of her age, but my guess is she is around 15-17. So not a spring chicken, but not that old either. She also seems okay otherwise. Still interested in life and has a great appetite. She doesn’t look miserable with pain or anything. Still moves around fairly good, the knee just looks scary bowed out. I love this little pony so much and can’t stand the thought of losing her, but I also won’t put her through a miserable existence either. The last injection she had made a huge improvement, so hopefully we can do that again. I am preparing myself to not have her around much longer, just really hard to imagine her gone. I just wish there was something, anything, I could do to fix it. 
