Miraculous Shoulder Injury Recovery - Horse

A 4 year old Quarter Horse gelding suffers a traumatic shoulder injury, but makes a full recovery.

Day 1:
One spring morning, Huckleberry, a 4-year-old Quarter Horse gelding, came to breakfast with a badly injured left shoulder. He was kept on an 80-acre pasture with three other horses that had all been quietly and happily pastured together for over a year. It is unknown how the injury occurred.

The veterinarian who treated Huckleberry described the injury as a "traumatic shoulder injury" and said it appeared Huckleberry had "hit something, hard, fast, and it didn't move." There was massive swelling in the shoulder, and Huckleberry was unable to move it. He stood on 3 legs, walked only when forced, and dragged the left front leg. There was also a puncture wound, a little larger around than a quarter, that extended upward approximately four inches.

The veterinarian said the immobile shoulder was most likely caused by trauma to, or around, the suprascapular nerve. This is the nerve, when permanently damaged, that causes the condition known as "sweeney" where the loss of nerve function leads to permanent muscle atrophy in the affected shoulder. The vet speculated that the top of the scapula bone in the shoulder could also be broken, but thought this was unlikely.

We left the veterinarian's office with a game plan of 1) reducing the shoulder swelling in order to reduce the pressure on the suprscapular nerve in the hopes of avoiding permanent damage (sweeney), and 2) keeping the puncture wound clean and infection free. At-home treatment included daily oral (powder) Phenylbutazone ("Bute") for inflammation and pain, oral (powder) antibiotic, wound cleaning and irrigation, and every-other-day injections of Dexamethasone for inflammation.

Prognosis after a 6 to 12 month recovery period was guardedly optimistic.

Day 2 - 3
Improvement, if any, was difficult to see during this time. He stood on 3 legs, and walked only when forced to. Per the veterinarian's instructions, we forced him to walk several times a day. We kept him turned out in a grassy area away from other horses.

Day 4
On the morning of the 4th day Huckleberry began modestly using the injured shoulder on his own. He would mostly stand on 4 legs instead of 3, and would walk around, though not much, on his own without being forced. By evening, though, he was once again standing on 3 legs and not moving voluntarily.

Day 5
In the morning and afternoon Huckleberry was once again completely non-weight bearing on the injured shoulder and corresponding leg. On a hunch, at 12:00pm we administered Phenylbutazone ("Bute") paste. We had been administering Bute powder on his feed, and guessed it may not somehow be working effectively. That evening Huckleberry not only walked on his own, he trotted a few steps. From this point forward we only used Bute paste, not powder.

Day 6
Huckleberry moved on his own all throughout the day. He stood with a flat foot, and seemed to walk, with a limp, whenever he wanted to. Though lame, he also trotted and loped a few steps.

Day 7 - 23
From here, Huckeberry mostly improved. He continued to stand on 4 legs and walk around voluntarily. On day 14 he experienced an unexplained setback to being very reluctant to bear weight on the shoulder or move, but was improved the following day. Slowly, as the days passed, his significant limp began to disappear. By day 21 the puncture wound had healed so well we could no longer irrigate it and we considered it healed. By day 23 he was off all medication, and walking almost normally, though his gait at times was noticeably odd.

Day 26
Took Huckleberry back to the veterinarian, who seemed to be very surprised at the speed of his progress. The vet said to turn Huckleberry out to pasture. He said the oddness to his gait was likely a loss of muscle memory that would return over time on its own. Per the vet, we were supposed to wait 30 more days and if Huckleberry looked good to us at that time we could resume a light riding schedule.

Day 63 and Onward
Nine weeks to the day after the initial injury we rode Huckleberry, at a walk, for approximately 10 minutes. We rode at a walk every other day for the next week. The 2nd week we walked and trotted. After that we resumed a mostly normal riding schedule at the house. Just to be safe we didn't lope for a couple of more weeks, or take him for any pasture work for a couple of more months.

- - - - - - - - - -

Huckleberry made a complete and full recovery from his traumatic shoulder injury. With an initial, guardedly optimistic prognosis of returning to riding him in 6 months to a year, he recuperated far more quickly and was being ridden again in 9 weeks.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• horse
• injury
• shoulder injury
• puncture wound
• suprascapular nerve

[thekleeblaettchen]

nerve recovery in 3 weeks.

I'll upload some videos I took today, I'd be glad if you were watching them :)

I'm happy 'Huckleberry' recovered so quickly :)

What do you think made him limp that much at the beginning of the video? Maybe the Sweeling caused by the wound? Or the nerve injury itself?

[CowboyWayDotCom]

@thekleeblaettchen

Hi,

We are left with a lot of questions about Huckleberry's injury, and no answers. We don't know why such a drastic loss of use of the leg was then followed by such a fast and full recovery. I am grateful every day, but have no answers for his injury.

I am so sorry to hear about your horse's injury. I know you have a lot of questions and no answers, too. I do wish you both the best of luck on her recovery.

[CowboyWayDotCom]

This is the same video we had on YouTube before. We accidentally deleted it, so we had to re-upload it. We're sorry for any broken embedded links to the deleted video.

[thekleeblaettchen]

but the vet says the injury is likely to be permanent...

She's treated with 'Hypericum', vit.B, massage, Matrix-Massage and acupuncture. No results so far, but I'm happy she's able to walk [Even if she sometimes seems like she was in pain... Mostly after I'd lunged her for about 15minutes in walk and trot..].

I decided to take her to a... How do you call that? Hospital for horses? For x-rays and more opinions on prognosis and treatment, if there still was no suprascapular nerve recovery

[thekleeblaettchen]

At first: I'm German, so my English is not very good x)

Second: I like your horse, beautiful *.*

My mare has injured her shoulder 3 1/2 weeks ago, on Oct 18. At first, she could barely walk, trotting was impossible. For two weeks, she only saw her box or a little paddock (4x4 metres) and she became visibly mad, almost furious to other horses.

Three days ago, the vet allowed me to start lunging her again, and let her out with other horses. She can walk, trot, gallop and buck now, but the vet