Any help appreciated, radial nerve paralysis.

[aliclare]

Hey,
Our 9 year old collie x lab Silver was hit by a car last monday night (driver didn't stop grr). The vets think he was hit on his left side with the main impact on his shoulder/head. He was fitting violently when we found him but we got him to the vets and he has made a very speedy recovery apart from a few things.
He's paralysed in his left front paw, they think it's radial nerve damage and all his muscles seem to be wasted away in his shoulder. We've been told to massage it for him and to support him if he can't walk. He's mastered hopping on 3 legs quite fast. The odd thing is his right front leg was like this when we took him in, but he's now putting all his weight on this paw and can walk fine with that one.
There seems to be a problem with the 'wrist' joint he seems unable to put it flat, so he drags the bottom half of his paw.
Also he has a bit of a bloodshot left eye, the vet says this is the least of the worries he has.
He has slight arthritis in his back legs.
He's on very strong painkillers and antibiotics.
Anyone got any ideas of ways we can improve it at home and encourage him to use the leg and paw? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Alison.

P.S Forget to mention he has a hairline skull fracture but that is apparently healing well.

[critters]

RNP can heal, but it takes time, as in months.
A splint can hold the limb in the position of function and can help reduce damage from dragging, etc. An excellent example is
http://www.handicappedpets.com/splints/ or
http://www.handicappedpets.com/k9brace/ custom

[Tiffany]

Hello
My GSD Eros was hit by a pick up and among MANY other injuries he had a partial avulsion to the brachial plexus. I don't know if those are just different words for the same thing or not but the outcome was the same he was paralyzed from the middle of his leg down on his front right leg he would walk on the wrist and despite alot of pressure from vets we did not amputate his feeling returned in about 5 months beware if this is the same kind of thing because when his feeling returned he chewed one of his toes off and another down to the bone when we went to bed his foot was whole and useless and when we woke up we were rushing to the vet there were NO warning siqhns My advice to you since he has minor athritis already and that could make him a not so great candidate for amputation is to wait it out as long as you can they have splints and such that you can use. I'm not a vet and only my personal experience with Eros to go on.
We wish you the best of luck!
Eros & Tiffany

[critters]

I forgot to mention that if "itchies" or funny feeling become a problem Neurontin/gabapentin is excellent for that.