Sore after a knock or a bad landing

What this tends to look like

• Using the leg or the body normally, just visibly careful with it
• Flinches or turns to look when you touch one specific area
• Sometimes a slight swelling you can feel more easily than see, especially under fur
• Bruising rarely visible through coat, so absence of a bruise means nothing
• Often stiffer the following morning than they were on the day
• Otherwise eating, drinking and behaving normally

What is usually going on

Soft tissue bruising is bleeding and swelling within muscle and the tissue under the skin. It hurts most in the first two days, is often at its stiffest on the morning after, and then improves steadily. In an animal who is still using the limb normally and is otherwise themselves, that is a reasonable thing to manage at home for a few days with rest and observation.

The physical measures that help are simple and worth doing properly. Cold in the first day or so reduces the bleeding and swelling, applied through a cloth for around ten minutes at a time and never directly against skin. After roughly forty eight hours the useful thing switches to gentle warmth and gentle movement, which improves blood flow to tissue that is repairing. What does the most harm is the opposite of what most people expect: not too little activity, but a normal walk on day two because the animal seemed fine.

Where arnica sits deserves a straight answer. It is the most widely used remedy for bruising in both human and animal homeopathy, and it is also one of the most extensively tested, with well-conducted trials generally failing to show an effect beyond placebo. We list it because it is what this page is about and because it is very unlikely to do harm at the potencies sold. We are not going to tell you it is what makes the bruise resolve. Rest and time do that, and they do it reliably.

What people commonly use

Educational information only — not veterinary advice. Check with your vet before starting anything new.

What you can do at home

• Rest for two to three days. Lead walks only, short and flat, no stairs and no jumping
• Cold through a cloth for about ten minutes, two or three times on the first day. Never ice directly on skin
• From day two, gentle warmth and short gentle walks rather than complete confinement
• Do not massage the area. It increases bleeding into bruised tissue in the early days
• No human painkillers at all. Ask your vet if you think pain relief is needed, because it often is
• Check the sore spot once daily and note whether it is smaller or larger than yesterday

What progress should look like

How long to give this before you conclude it is not working.

• First 24 to 48 hoursMost painful phase. Cold, rest, and no exercise beyond toileting.
• Day two to fourShould be clearly improving. Gentle warmth and short walks from here.
• Five to seven daysMost simple bruising is essentially resolved by a week.
• If not better at four daysSoreness that has not improved by then is not simple bruising. Get it examined.

When to stop and call your vet

• A limp appearing or worsening after the first day
• Swelling that is growing rather than settling
• Refusing food, becoming withdrawn, or unable to settle
• Any suspicion they were hit by a vehicle or fell any distance