452 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 
Syinptoms. — It is not always necessary that the skin should be in- 
volved in this form of injury. On the contrary, the tegument is fre- 
quently left entirely intact, especially when the injury follows infectious 
diseases or occurs during light exercise after long periods of rest in the 
stable. Yet, again, the skin may be cut through and the tendons nearly 
severed. A point a little above the fetlock is usually the seat of the 
injury. But irrespective of this, and whether the skin is or is not im- 
plicated, the symptoms very much resemble those of a fracture. There 
is excessive mobility, at least more than in a normal state, with more or 
less inability to carry v^^eight. There may be swelling of the parts, and 
on passing the hands carefully along the tendon to the point of division 
the stumps of the divided structure will be felt more or less separated, 
perhaps wholly divided. The position of the animal while at rest stand- 
ing is peculiar and characteristic. While the heels are well placed on 
the ground, the toe is correspondingly elevated, with a tendency to turn 
up — a form of breaking down which was described when speaking of the 
fracture of the sesamoids. Carrying weight is done only with consider- 
able difficulty, but with comparatively little pain, and the animal will 
unconsciously continue to move the leg as if in great suffering, notwith- 
standing the fact that his general condition may be very good and his 
appetite unimpaired. 
The effect upon the general organism of compound lacerated wounds of 
tendinous structures, or those which are associated with injuries of the 
skin, are different. The w^ound becomes in a short time the seat of a 
high degree of inflammation with abundant suppuration, filling it from 
the bottom; and the tendon, whether as the result of the bruise or of the 
laceration, or of maceration in the accumulated pus, undergoes a process 
of softening, and necrosis and sloughing ensue. This complicates the 
case, and probably some form of tendinous synovitis follows, running into 
suppurative arthritis, to end, if close to a joint, with a fatal result. 
Prognosis. — The prognosis of lacerated tendons should be very conserva- 
tive. Under the most favorable circumstances a period of from six 
weeks to two months will be necessary for the treatment, before the 
formation of the cicatricial callus and the establishment of a firm union 
between the tendinous stumps. 
Treatment. — As with fractures, and even in a greater degree, the nec- 
essity is imperative, in the treatment of lacerated tendons, to secure as 
perfect a state of immobility as can be obtained compatibly with the 
disposition of the patient; the natural opposition of the animal, sometimes 
ill-tempered and fractious at best, under the necessary restraint, causing 
at times much embarrassment to the practitioner in applying the neces- 
sary treatment. Without the necessary immobility no close connection 
of the ends of the tendons can be secured. To fulfill this necessary con- 
dition the posterior part of the foot and the fetlock must be supported 
and the traction performed by them relieved, an object which can be 
obtained by the use of the high-heeled and bar shoe, or possibly better 
accomplished with a shoe of the same kind extending about 2 or 2i/4 
inches back of the heels. The perfect immobility of the legs is obtained 
in the same w^av as in the treatment of fracture, with sulints. bandages. 
