Two dynamic nonlinear finite element models are developed to study juxtarticular stresses in the splinted rabbit knee, an established laboratory model for creating osteoarthrosis through impulsive loading. The first model is relatively coarse in the juxtarticular region, allowing less time consuming parametric investigation of general system parameters. The second model is considerably more refined to allow more detailed analyses of phenomena in the rabbit knee. Plane strain finite element results are validated by comparison with corresponding experimental data. Parametric effects studied with the preliminary model include the distributed mass properties, accelerated mass of the experimental animal, the input tibial displacement speed, the local bone density distribution, the modulus of cartilage and subchondral bone, and the resistance to flexion of the impacted joint. While the computed resultant contact force magnitude is found to be sensitive to a number of model parameters, the stress patterns, when normalized to a given resultant force magnitude, are not. The more refined mesh is used to investigate the effects of calcification in the basal cartilage layer as well as stress wave propagation in the juxtarticular region. The results suggest that basal calcification contributes only minimally to the elevation of deep peripheral shear stresses. Although the articular cartilage layers are observed to be a site of transient stress elevation compared to adjacent metaphyseal bone during impulsive stress wave propagation, local stress wave reflection from interfaces of modulus discontinuity does not appreciably contribute to this effect. Despite comparable force peaks, the finite element results show approximately six-fold higher effective strain rate levels for a severely impulsive loading protocol known to induce rapid osteoarthrosis, versus those for a mildly impulsive loading protocol not usually associated with cartilage damage. A propensity for elevated shear in the deep cartilage layer near the contact periphery, observed in nearly all computed stress distributions, is consistent with previous experimental findings of fissuring at that level in the impulsively loaded rabbit knee.