Corticosteroid therapy may reduce the recovery time, but have not been shown to reduce the time to reach maximal severity nor the eventual severity of the disease. When respiratory depression is evident, this may be helpful in treating the patient. The clinical course is variable and may last from a few days to several weeks. In some cases, there are permanent neurologic deficits. Recovered animals may have the condition reoccur.
Recurrences are often more severe than the initial incident.
Some cases become chronic in nature, requiring more aggressive medication in hopes of controlling the problem. I have found that many of these patients respond better to antioxidant therapy with drugs like acetylcysteine or ginkgo biloba than to steroid medication alone. The brachial plexus is susceptible to injuries that produce abduction of the thoracic limb from the body wall or a direct blow to the lateral surface of the scapula. The cardinal signs of brachial plexus avulsion are a monoplegia of one front leg, Horner's syndrome on the affected side, lack of panniculus response on the side of the lesion and a Babinski's sign in the ipsilateral rear leg. The nerve roots are stretched or torn from their origin by this trauma, since the meningeal coverings of the nerve roots are thinner than those in the peripheral nerve.