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[RC] shoulder sweeney/injury - Ridecamp Guest

Please Reply to: wendy lumbert or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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In response to a query about therapies for shoulder sweeny:
We found a great way to heal that type of injury this year.
One of our 2 year olds had a severe injury to his shoulder last summer. He was 
out on a huge pasture and noone knows what happened but the vet consensus was 
that he most likely hyper extended his leg perhaps by stepping in a hole. He 
was not able to use his right front leg at all and the shoulder looked like it 
had dropped about 6 inches. Horrible injury. Long story short he stayed at the 
vet's for about 2 months without a huge change, still very lame, and shoulder 
now completely atrophied.
I hauled him home to NC where a vet facility here (Hassingers)
has an underwater treadmill. We put him in 45 days of therapy with the 
treadmill 6 days a week and electrical stimulation twice a day also. Let me 
stress that the treadmill was underwater, using warm water. Water level up to 
his belly.
The vets explained (as best as I can paraphrase) that the nerve pathways were 
most likely severed or damaged and that the goal was to make them repair 
themselves or create new pathways. The electrical stimulation and having to use 
his leg in the deep water in a way that he could exercise without weight on the 
leg were key. We did a little massage and daily handwalking also.
He began to improve noticeably within 3 days. At the end of 45 days he had 
about 90 percent use of the leg, no longer tripped on it, was able to trot and 
canter, and had obvious filling in of the muscle. Now, two months later the 
muscle is almost completely filled in and there is no sign that he has had an 
injury.   A friend of mine also had a horse years ago that had terrible 
shoulder sweeney - she swam him in a pond daily and he also had full recovery.  
Hope this helps!


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