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Discussion on What does "open knees" mean?
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Posted on Monday, Feb 12, 2001 - 8:54 pm:
The other day a friend of mine sugested that i up the calcium levels for my 3mo filly as he noticed she had "open knees". What i want to know is what does this term mean and what are the causes? I am currently feeding 90mg of Folactin Blue suppliment which has a few calcium types and recomends 60-90mg's per day.
Any clarity on this would be great.
Julie
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 13, 2001 - 7:19 am:
Hi Julie
I have seen this term used for a number of knee conformations but usually the term is used for older horses with prominent radial physis. This can bee seen when standing either in front or to the side of the foal as a prominnet bulge in the profile at the top of the knee and some horses also have a prominent bulge at the bottom of the knee. I guess the idea is the physis still look very active suggesting they have not closed.
Of course a 3 month old should have a active, and frequently pronounced, physis. This term really does not mean much and most these kness in weanlings to yearlings that are pronounced "open" seem to "close" fine by themselves.
But this does not mean that there is nothing wrong with your filly kness or the diet but that has to be evaluated by examination of both you foal and all your food stuffs. If the legs look good to you things are probably fine. Review the article on Equine Diseases: Lameness: Diseases of Joints : Epiphysitis, Physitis, and Physeal Dysplasia for more information on related information.
DrO
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