Treatment. Paralysis of the Kadial Nerve. 739 



disease. The more rapidly the atrophy makes its appearance, 

 and the more rapidly it progresses, the later will be the cure, 

 or there may be no recovery. The animal will only be pre- 

 vented from moving at a fast pace, walking is not much 

 affected. 



Treatment. Schimmel's treatment appears to be rational 

 and to have yielded very good results. His treatment consists 

 in massaging the aff'ected muscles for the lirst two weeks, pas- 

 sively moving the leg after the first fortnight, by extending 

 and flexing it, adducting and abducting, and then from the third 

 or fourth week, giving the horse systematic exercise. Elec- 

 tricity may sometimes be used with advantage, but the various 

 stimulants (strychnine, veratrine, etc.) appear to be almost 

 useless. As a general rule paralysis of peripheral nerves tends 

 to recover without treatment, provided the lesion is not suffi- 

 ciently severe to exclude the possibility of regeneration. 



Literature. Bru, Eev. Vet., 1908, 741.— Kovacs, A. L., 1907, 495.— Maschke, 

 S. B., 1904, 181.— Sehimmel, O. M., 1900, 120 (Lit.).— Szekely, A. L., 1909, 040.— 

 Zimmermann, Vet., 1897, 576. 



8. Paralysis of the Radial Nerve. 



Occurrence. Paralysis of the muscles supplied by the 

 radial nerve is seen with comparative frequency in the horse. 

 In other animals it is far more rarely met with, but neverthe- 

 less it does occur, and principally in the ox and dog. 



Etiology. The radial nerve is easily injured by traumatism 

 at the point where it is almost immediately under the skin, and 

 turns round the bone to reach the outer surface. This point 

 is just above the lateral epicondyle. In horses and cattle the 

 nerve may be crushed through ipalling, heavy draught, kicks, 

 or blows with the shaft, collisions, etc. Slipping backwards or 

 sprawling the leg forwards may cause injury to the radial 

 nerve. (Nietzold, Castagne.) 



In many cases the paralysis appears to be partly due to 

 cold. Brauer records the occurrence of the condition simul- 

 taneously in three horses which were exposed to a cold wind 

 while w^et, but the s^anptoms rather appear to suggest that 

 the condition was one of muscular rheumatism. On the other 

 hand, there is sometimes radial paralysis after influenza. Froh- 

 ner and Moller have observed the condition in the dog, prob- 

 ably resulting- from distemper. Scoffie and Seres ascribe the 

 paralysis to neuritis resulting from inflammation of the axil- 

 lary gland. Hebrant records a case in which the radial nerve 

 was compressed by an enlarged axillary gland. Hansen ob- 

 served a case in an ox following the injection of tuberculin. 



The cause is in some cases situated in the spinal cord. A 



