Radial nerve paralysis

[Nipntuck]

I have two experiences, the worst was about 10 years ago, so the technology may have changed. That horse, we believe, slipped in the pasture because he had NO marks. Shipped him to the vet school and he was put down after two weeks. The necropsy showed the radial nerve was ripped all the way up to the spine. I can’t remember what was done for him, but don’t remember electrostimulation or acupuncture. He did have some IV meds (steriods?) and a leg brace that he got some awful tissue damage from.

The other was a kick to the forearm (he probably deserved it!) and manifested just as a toe drag. As soon as the swelling subsided he was fine.

[EqTrainer]

Accupuncture and PT for my guy, his was mild and he had a 100% recovery. We did the accupuncture 3x and started 3 days after it happened.

[LAZ]

Good news on Hollywood–today he was pawing with that leg (his prefered leg to give me the “hurry-ups” with at feeding time). My vet said it was OK to handwalk him, he comes back out tomorrow to do range of motion tests & an exam, we’ll decide what the next course of treatment is then.

[bambam]

That is great!
Nerve regeneration is a beautiful thing

[WarHorse]

Congrats on a very positive sign!

[FloridaHorseman]

My 14 YO mare pulled up severely lame a month ago after an apparent collision with another horse. It took forever to find and get a vet with xray capability out here. No broken bones, so we’re going with extensive radial/medial nerve paralysis diagnosis. The other horse sustained a Sweeney shoulder and is fully ambulatory.

The vet wants to put the leg in a full brace but that would prevent the horse from laying down, risking breakdown of the good front leg. She’s been laying down on her own and resting on a regular basis several times a day. I’m pursuing chiro and electro-stimulation acupuncture therapy, infrared light therapy, daily massages and foregoing the recommended brace. To me it’s like those drugs advertised on TV: the possible side effects are worse than the ailment they are supposed to treat.

I’ve asked the chiro to also attempt manipulation of the C7 thru T2 vertebrae. That’s where the radial/medial nerves branch off the spinal trunk. Hoping they may be pinched rather than torn, but time will hopefully tell.

She’s already experienced dramatic scapular muscle wasting but is seemingly gradually bearing more weight on the toe and resting slight weight on the flat sole when she’s idle. The elbow is still completely dropped but I see her drawing that leg farther back on occasion.

Stall rest is “not her thing” and she’s already pawed her way down to the geologic Cretaceous Period. I’m debating over stall mats but don’t like the way they trap urine underneath. This is gonna be a long haul and I appreciate this thread providing various good treatment info and updates on progress. ~FH

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“Abuse is when a human action or reaction is obviously accompanied by anger, rage or adrenaline. Proper correction and reprimand are done in silence with thoughtful intent. Your horse knows the difference.” ~FloridaHorseman

[goeslikestink]

[QUOTE=LAZ;4672865]
Can anyone who has had expereience with radial nerve paralysis chime in here with recovery time lines, and if recovery was complete?

One of my training horses (absentee owner) came in from turn out last night dragging a front leg. I had seen this (the paralysis) one other time and recognized it, immediately called the vet & he came right over. We ran DMSO & Dex & gave banamine IV. I’ve got him in support wraps & we’re keeping him as immobile as possible. Scott (my vet) is going to brave the impending snowstorm later to come back out & dose him again. It did not appear to have an associated fracture and loading/trailering with the weather conditions the way they are is too risky so we’ll treat him here.

I was afraid he’d get down overnight and not be able to get up so I got up to check him every few hours. Luckily he stayed on his feet (smart boy).

The horse I had years ago made a complete recovery and IIRC, in relatively short order. If anyone else has experience with this I’d appreciate your story.[/QUOTE]

i had that with my old horse arran turned out to be a punchture so small it was missed have agander at his schoulder for any punture wounds

[LAZ]

Gosh, hard to believe this was a year ago!

Hollywood recovered 100% and is doing well a year later.

[deltawave]

[FullCourtFarm]

I had a young horse who made a complete recovery from radial nerve paralysis. She got run into the pasture fence and sustained a huge puncture wound and blunt force trauma to her chest and shoulder with resultant paralysis of one front leg. She was on stall rest for about 2 weeks with anti inflammatory treatment and recovered most of the function in her leg during that time, then recovered the rest with another week or two of turnout.

It sounds like your guy is recovering well. Best wishes for a speedy and full recovery!

[yellowpony]

Hi FH

I feel your pain! My 19 y.o. gelding damaged his suprascapular nerve in July 2010. He is completely herd bound with his 18 y.o. brother, so when he started stall rest we took round pin panels and made him an outdoor stall. After a couple weeks of this he was happy to move into the barn without his brother.

My pony had extensive swelling in the shoulder which we treated with a course of steroids. Vet also gave us Surpass, but we found rigging up our own Back on Track shoulder guard much more effective at reducing the swelling. (We pinned no-bow wraps to a mesh shoulder guard).

My pony started electro acupuncture 2 weeks after his injury. Also, he saw a chiropractor but they said there was not much they could do. I was lucky the DVM who did the acupuncture kept her horses at the same barn and my pony was done every other day for a couple weeks, then we trailed off, as she felt the further from the time of the injury the less effective it would be anyway.

Once the swelling went out of his shoulder we eased him back on full turnout. I believe this helped combat the muscle atrophy but I think this is something your horse will tell you if he/she is able to do.

My pony was also on chinese herbs, equi-shure and the occasional bute when he seemed really ouchy.

It was a pretty depressing process as he made leaps and bounds the first two months or so, and then sort of plateaued for a while. Then after Thanksgiving he would have moments where he would look sound.

I started taking him for walks around Christmas. January he got the go ahead to drive again. We have progressed to trotting a bit. He is older too, so I have had to make sure his other parts are okay too. His hind end bothers him now too, I think from compensating. Overall, he is doing really well and it doesn’t really matter if he goes back to normal work except that he is super fun. I think he will though.

Swimming was also recommended to me, but I was unable to find somewhere that I could swim him in the winter. I decided against underwater treadmill because I thought it would be too hard.

What part of Florida are you in? Part of the problem I had when this happened is no vets have seen this injury and there is not tons of information. (The vets at NC State video-ed my pony because “we see it in books but not in real life”). The vet that treated my guy works in Florida sometimes, let me know if you want her contact info.

Hope this helps.

[smb]

Radial nerve paralysis

I have a gelding that had a freak pasture injury and had a radial nerve paralysis with a brachial plexus injury of the shoulder. He had stall rest for several weeks and then was turned out 24/7. The radial nerve paralysis did resolve- was told by vets from Michigan State that this sometimes takes months for eventual recovery. The brachial plexus injury did not - the horse has muscle atrophy but is sound and does enjoy his life ( this horse is now 28 years old and still going). The biggest problem after this injury is the damage the horse can do to his other legs (as in founder). Would do everything again if this happened again - I am a strong believer that your horse will let you know what to do.

[FloridaHorseman]

[QUOTE=yellowpony;5471340]
Hi FH

I feel your pain!..
…What part of Florida are you in? Part of the problem I had when this happened is no vets have seen this injury and there is not tons of information. (The vets at NC State video-ed my pony because “we see it in books but not in real life”). The vet that treated my guy works in Florida sometimes, let me know if you want her contact info.

Hope this helps.[/QUOTE] I’m in Lakeland, FL. Near Tampa. It’s been 4 1/2 months since the injury and just yesterday it appears my 14 YO mare has turned a major corner toward recovery. She has started walking normally while grazing and standing square on all four while at the feed bucket. There’s still no scapular muscle. But her weight bearing capability on the bad leg has suddenly improved dramatically.

In the beginning I was concerned about foundering, too. The vets wanted to splint the leg. But that would totally eliminate her ability to lay down, so I decided against it. But my sensible mare figured out how to lay down and get back up on only three legs and did so frequently. The vets all ordered extended stall rest and I did my best to comply. But the mare was pawing and kicking the walls so much I decided it was counter-productive and gave her full liberty within 10 days of the injury. She hobbled and hopped around, swinging the leg in a wildly uncontrollable fashion for awhile, eventually gaining a little better control to bring it forward. The best she could do was use it as an outrigger to balance herself on the toe.

About 2 months in she began to get better flexion and rest the leg fully on the sole with the leg extended but still no weight-bearing capability. And that’s the way she’d been until about a week ago when I saw her roll, get up and briefly stand square. So I asked her to yield her hind feet to see if she was stable enough to get at least three feet trimmed and she was. The turnaround in her walking and standing normally seemed to come right after the trim. It may be a coincidence.

Her only therapy has been electro-acupuncture and Magnawave treatments about every two weeks. She’s lost some weight in addition to the muscle atrophy but I didn’t want to get her grained up and put excess weight on that leg. I’m now upping her protein a little to help rebuild some muscle mass since she’s weight-bearing again.

I was having my doubts about any possible recovery after 4 months of no perceptible improvement. Two of three vets initially suggested she be put down. But I decided early on she would get at least 12 months or longer to try. She’s been too good of a horse to me to get discarded so casually. I’ll post with updates as they occur. ~FH

[silverstonefarms]

Hi I am new to this forum but have gained a bit of hope in reading your posts. I am 3 weeks in on a severe radial nerve injury. We had 2 horses collide in the paddock. One did not survive. I am having a hard time finding any information on rehabbing. She is now finally laying down and getting some much needed rest. I know its going to be a long haul, but anyone with some indepth info I would forever be grateful…Thank you

[pstein49]

Our yearling thoroughbred had a pasture accident and came up lame with radial nerve paralysis. It has almost been 3 months. She is laying down a lot, but she doesn’t seem to be in a lot of pain. Her attitude has been good. She immediately had DMSO and is getting electro accupuncture. She is trying to put weight on it, and does it a little with the front edge of her hoof. She now can move the leg somewhat. She paws and now seems to be moving more of the leg ahead of her shoulder with more range of motion. Muscles in her shoulder are atrophying, but we expected that.

The vet has suggested cold laser. Has anyone tried that?
A big concern is the unaffected leg is starting to bow. So far no laminitis. The farm has suggested a brace for both legs. Has anyone tried this? We will do it if it’s not a permanent situation to always have a brace. We are aware that she will very likely not race, even if she gets through this.

Any other suggestions? She is a well bred beautiful filly and we are heartbroken.

[Dbliron]

We had one who hit a fence post as a yearling and lost complete use of that foreleg. She hopped around on three legs for about a year, with the affected leg trailing. Just about when we were ready to give up and euthanize her she started to be able to move the leg, and by the time she was three she was back to normal, and winning hunter in hand classes. She went on to have a stellar career as a hunter over fences. We did not encounter laminitis or supporting leg issues during her recovery. At first she was stable wrapped all the time, but she amused herself by destroying those (and who could blame her) so by about 3 months in we gave up on them.