Small swelling on front of knee

[Nevada10]

First, I’ve already called my vet and left a message… hoping they can come out tomorrow. I’m anxious to know what this could be, as I don’t have any experience with knee injuries. My mare ran around a lot I her pasture yesterday. Today, she has a small (2"x2") squishy swelling on the front of her knee. No heat. No pain when palpated. Jogged sound in the aisle, but I didn’t flex her… wish I had.

When I rode her, she felt 100% sound walking both directions. She felt 100% sound trotting to the left. When I trotted right, she felt sound most of the time, but tried to pop into canter on the corners, so I called it a day since something wasn’t right. When I was putting her back in her stall and she pivoted on that knee, I saw her take a bad step.

Does this sound like a chip? Or a tear of some sort?

[RUDoinGoodRUGoodDoin]

One of my geldings had a similar injury this summer–we determined he’d whacked his knee in an upward motion, most likely on the bottom of his stall gate. He didn’t have heat and appeared sound, but he looked like he had a little hard knot on the outside of his cannon bone right below the knee, in addition to the squishy swelling on the front, so we thought he might have developed or was developing a splint in a rare location (most are on the inside I think).

Held off riding til the vet came out; he jogged sound, but we took it easy for a few weeks and she prescribed Surpass to bring the swelling down (successfully). No lasting effects (but he now has a bumper for his gate). I know how you feel–knees are nothing to mess around with; hopefully all will be well with your mare when the vet sees her

[bambam]

Knees often swell a lot for nothing injuries so no need to panic according to my vet. I wouldn’t work him until the vet can come out but good chance he just knocked it and it is not a big deal if he is jogging out sound. One of mine has had swollen knees a couple of times from silliness in the field and it has never been a sign of a major injury- once it was so swollen he couldn’t really bend it but no lasting damage and within a couple of weeks, he was back to normal.

[walktrot]

My gelding has had a lump on his knee since I bought him 16 years ago. It has never bothered him, never x-rayed, never needed any attention. It got a little more prominent this spring and then went back to its usual size. The vet checks it out thoroughly whenever he sees him, and still can’t find anything to worry about. I figure it’s bound to get arthritic since he’s 23. People do take care to point it out to us, though. Oh that? It’s nothing, is the usual answer.

[Nevada10]

Disappointing news… her weirdness is definitely coming from her knee. We did flexions, blocks, and xrays. My vet saw something suspicious on the xrays and recommended going to the university for a surgeon’s opinion. Bummer. Today, her knee was huge, so now I’m worried she’s getting a joint infection (no fever and not hopping lame; vet said not to worry too much).

[walktrot]

Seems like a joint infection would come from a penetrating injury and would take longer to develop. My guy’s left knee with the lump has never been a problem, but he had an issue on the right front. I had a teenager riding him at the time, and he was off going around corners to the right at the trot. The vet looked at him and when the tech turned him in a tight circle to the right he staggered, but was much better on a larger circle. It was probably a soft tissue injury. We put him on Previcox for a while and it cleared up and he has been fine since.

This is one of those times when we wish they could tell us what hurts. Did the vet tell you to do anything to it? I think we massaged some Sore No More into it. It made me feel better! I have my fingers crossed for you!