Day 47- Knock Kneed Horses

      Today we admitted a very interesting case for surgery tomorrow! Angular limb deformity with Valgus of the Carpal Joint, which is the fancy doctor term for a foal that is knock kneed! She is extremely cute and rambuncious, but has trouble walking and has continued to get worse. Tomorrow her surgery will consist of putting screws into the bone at the point of the growth plate, with a figure 8 wire around the screws, kinda like braces on teeth. This will halt growth on one side of the leg so that the other side can catch up, thus straighting the leg.
                                                 

    This can be caused by a variety of things from nutrition to injury to simply a birth defect. When this particular foal was born it not only had carpal valgus (knock kneed on the front) but it also had a mixture of valgus (knock kneed) and varus (bowlegged) in the rear legs, when they have both the condition is called "wind swept." It gets it's name by looking like the wind in blowing the legs over! In actuality one leg is bowlegged and one is knock kneed. Fortunately, like many foals born with this condition our little foal grew out of being wind swept but needed surgical correction for the knocked knees in the front.