Radial Nerve Contusion

[sorrelfilly721]

About two weeks ago, my yearling filly suddenly went dead lame. She had been cantering around the arena and was sound and fine. She came down to a walk and stopped in the corner. When I put on her halter and went to lead her away, she was dead lame. I had the vet out and he said it was a shoulder muscle injury. I scared myself by reading about that on the internet, so I took her to a lameness expert for a second opinion. Vet 2 said there is no muscle injury, but that she has a radial nerve contusion. He said she looked like she was already recovering (walking fine but limping at trot). He showed me how the nerve was not reacting to stimulus, prescribed three days of DMSO and anti-inflammatory, and said she would be fine. I asked several times what I was supposed to do after three days and he kept repeating “she’ll be fine”.

After 3 days, she seemed vastly improved and I turned her out in the arena. She ran around for a minute or two and looked sound. After she stood for a minute, she was lame again. I sent Vet 2 a message and asked if I had done something wrong. He said I should not have turned her out and to start over. I am trying to get ahold of him (to no avail so far) to find out how long to rest her in the stall and what to do after that. I’m a bit of a nervous jervis and so I thought I’d ask here to see if anyone has any experience rehabbing this injury.

Does anyone have any ideas on the amount of stall rest/hand walking prescribed for rehabbing this sort of injury?

[RedHorses]

My horse got kicked once and the swelling put pressure on the radial nerve. I had heard about a radial nerve injury from another horse owner who had told me the marker of the injury was a dropped elbow. When I saw my horse in the field dropping his elbow, I called the vet. As I had a visible injury and swelling I was told to give 4 grams of bute, and ice the shoulder immediately and again later that day. I was also to put my horse in a stall to limit his movement.

The purpose of all this was to stop the internal bleeding and decrease the pressure on the nerve as quickly as possible. My horse was not dropping his elbow the next day, but I kept him in for another day or two, then kept him alone in a small turnout for another week to make sure that the broken blood vessel had healed and would not be bumped open again by another horse.

My guy just had swelling putting pressure on the nerve. If the nerve is injured I would expect healing to take longer.

The horse owner who told me about her horse’s injury was told to limit the horse’s movement and to not think about how it would turn out for six months.

These things take time.

[sorrelfilly721]

Thanks RedHorses. I finally got him on the phone and that’s pretty much what he said. Hand walk and massage with some stretching to get blood flow to the area. He called it a “significant pinch”. He said if she is not sound at a walk in 3 weeks to bring her back and they would x-ray. He said he had not done that initially because there was no swelling or deformity. I don’t mind waiting - she’s a baby, so there’s plenty to do with her on the ground.

I don’t see the dropped elbow on her, but he showed me how the nerve was not reacting to stimulus (with a pen). It seems like the nerve has recovered some reaction, so that’s a good sign.