Shoulder Injury

[wildoak]

My two year old stallion who injured his shoulder about a month ago is still very lame. He was xrayed, vet thought no bone involvement, just soft tissue injury. He is sore all over now as a result of compensating for the injury, and the lameness is maybe just very marginally better. I had a vet out last night who did some acupuncture on him, and am hopeful that will help him - he does seem to feel better generally today, and maybe be putting a little weight on the leg. What concerns me is that I see some atrophy now in the shoulder. He's been pretty much on stall rest for a month now, and rests that leg most of the time, even takes the weight off of it when he stretches out to urinate.

I'm hoping for some reassurance that he will ultimately heal from this - have never had something drag on so long with so little visible progress. Vet is coming back next week to check him and probably repeat the acupuncture.

Jan

 

[AJ]

Has Sweeny been ruled out? Most vets today are not familiar with it.

 

[Marty]

Good call on the sweeny AJ because usually just us old timers know about that one. Sweeny came to mind quickly here too.

I'm all for the acupuncture Jan but also ask your vet about adequan injections. I've had miracles with that stuff.

 

[DebiM]

Jan, several years ago I had a young mare with a shoulder injury. It was a long road but she did get almost completely normal again. I stopped the stall rest because I couldn't see improvement so I left her out all the time. She stopped getting worse after that. If they've ruled out bone, ligament and say a deep shoulder injury then you may want to try what I did. I also massaged her shoulder as well as putting DMSO on it a couple times a day. At first she got Banamine for the pain as well as inflammation. When it first started I gave her Tagament to coat her stomach then Gastraguard when it came out to prevent ulcers from the Banamine. She got to where she would actually pick both front legs up at a time to come into the barn. I believe Maggie went almost 6 mths without running period. She was a brave girl and never gave up so together we pulled her through it.

Here's her page on my website for you to check her pictures then and now. Maggie was sold to Angie Cavalier here on the forum at the time of her injury. I'm happy to say that she was able to go to Angie's last year. Maggie's Story

Best of luck with him, Mona!

Debi

 

[lyn_j]

[SIZE=14pt]GQ did better off stall rest and in a small paddock by himself... it has been 10 months now... he was sound enough not to limp in July but because of the wasting of his left shoulder he was uneven for halter but was at least placed. I have not started driving him yet tho. He received a ccortisone injection into the joint back in January. He is improved but will be off this whole year. His x rays also showed just fuzziness over his scapula. We now believe that was a callous from a crack healing.[/SIZE]

Will pray for your boy.... also get some chiropractic treatment. Im sure his back is all out of wack from limping and using the other side more...... GQ required two treatments and adjustments.

Lyn

 

[wildoak]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I have also come to the conclusion that he needs to be out again - the muscles sure are not going to strengthen with him standing in a stall 24/7. It's so hot here that I just let him out last night in the round pen. The vet who did the acupuncture also adjusted him, yes he is out of whack from shifting his weight off the sore leg.

Debi, the DMSO is a good thought - I'll run that by the vet. We did 2 weeks of Banamine / Tagamet when this first happened, had no improvement whatsoever but I guess it did keep him a bit more comfortable.

I mentioned sweeny to the vet when it first happened, and basically got no response. I'll bring it up again with them. Everyone who has looked at him (3 vets now) feels it is absolutely in the shoulder.

Marty, adequan is a good possibility too, this boy needs all the help he can get. He's been such a trouper through it all - he's a 2 year old stud with a sweet disposition - no kicking, never pins his ears, etc - but he has a busy busy mouth that he just can't seem to control lol. We've had lots of one on one time, and I think he's finally beginning to get tired of trying to chew on me.

Jan