8 July. 1907-] 



La 111 cm 



ill Horses. 



419 



the foot. It is when the bowel inflammation or the bronchitis or the inflam- 

 mation of the womb is of a septic character that laminitis most usually 

 supervenes and it is in these cases that all four feet are affected. Such 

 metastatic cases are not unusual after a severe foaling in which the womb 

 has been torn or inoculated with septic matter, or following on which 

 there has been retention of the after-birth. The\ also sometimes follow 

 on the giving of strong purgative medicines or the engorgement of the 

 stomach with a full feed of wheat, oats or other expansile grain or meal. 



Horses on shipboard often become foundered. In these cases the attack 

 is induced by the want of exercise resulting in sluggishness of the circula- 

 tion in the feet and a consequent tendency to congestion. Furthermore 

 when large numbers are shipped there is the inabilitv of the animal to lie 

 down and so remove the strain on the sensitive laminae caused by the weight 

 of the animal. This strain is increased if the horse has overgrown hoofs 

 and the whole of the weight has in consequence to be borne by the rim of 

 the wall without anv assistance from the sole. Before shipping horses 

 for a long voyage it is therefore a wise precaution to have them unshod 



Fig. 58. Section through horse's foot affected with chronic laminitis showing the 

 deposit of exudate between the front of the jiednl bone and the hornv wall, whereby 

 the front of the wall has become " dished " and the jiedal bone ]iointed downwards. 

 (After Hayes ) 



and the wall rasped down to the level of the sole so that sole pressure 

 can be assured. It is for the same reason — the insuring of sole pressure 

 and the consequent lessening of liability to founder — that the provision 

 of some yielding material, such as cocoa-nut matting, to stand on has in 

 late years come into vogue when shipping valuable horses. This con- 

 tinuous strain on the feet may have something to do (in addition to metas- 

 tasis) with the occurrence of laminitis as a sequel to chest diseases during 

 which animals are always averse to lying down. It is certainly the cause 

 of those attacks of founder affecting one foot, especially the hind, when 

 the opposite foot or leg is injured or diseased in such a way as tO' prevent 

 weight being borne by it. In all such cases the horse should be placed to 

 stand on straw or other yielding surface or material and the weight-bearing 

 foot should be left unshod and have the wall rasped down so that the 

 weight can be distributed and borne by the sole, frog and wall equally. 



One attack of laminitis always predisposes to a subsequent attack and 

 with horses that have been foundered great care should be taken that they 

 are not over-driven or subjected to inordinate concussion or other of the 

 causes detailed. No matter how slight the attack, a horse that has suffered 

 from laminitis is always to be considered as unsound. 



Symptoms. — In acute laminitis there are certain systemic svmptoms of 

 a febrile character, which assist materiallv to a diagix)sis. The respiration 



