326 SLANTING DIRECTION OF THE SHOULDER. 



len-ce of the shock, and then by their elastic power, immediately regain their 

 former situation. 



SPRAIN OF THE SHOULDER. 



These muscles are occasionally injured hy some unexpected shock. Although 

 in not more than one case in twenty is the farrier right when he talks of hia 

 shoulder-lameness, yet it cannot be denied, that the muscles of the shoulder are 

 occasionally sprained. This is effected oftener by a slip or side-fall, than by fair, 

 although violent exertion. It is of considerable importance to be able to distin- 

 guish this shoulder-lameness from injuries of other parts of the fore extremity. 

 There is not much tenderness, or heat, or swelling. It is a sprain of muscles 

 deeply seated, and where these symptoms of injury are not immediately evident. 

 If, on standing before the horse, and looking at the size of the two shoulders, or 

 rather their points, one should appear evidently larger than the other, this must 

 not be considered as indicative of sprain of the muscles of the shoulder. It 

 probably arises from bruise of the point of the shoulder, which a slight exami- 

 nation will determine. 



The symptoms, however, of shoulder-lameness can scarcely be mistaken; 

 and, when we relate them, the farmer will recollect that they very seldom 

 occurred when the village smith pointed to the shoulder as the seat of disease, 

 and punished the animal to no purpose. In sprain of the shoulder the horse 

 evidently suffers extreme pain while moving, and, the muscle underneath 

 being inflamed and tender, he will extend it as little as possible. He will drag 

 his toe along the ground. It is in the lifting of the foot that the shoulder is 

 principally moved. If the foot is lifted high, let the horse be ever so lame, the 

 shoulder is little, if at all affected. In sprain of the back sinews, it is only when 

 the horse is in motion that the injured parts are put to most pain ; the pain is 

 greatest here when the weight rests on the limb in shoulder- lameness, and 

 there is a peculiar quickness in catching up the limb the moment the weight is 

 thrown on it. This is particularly evident when the horse is going down hill, 

 and the injured limb bears an additional portion of the weight. In the stable, too, 

 when, in other cases, the horse points or projects one foot before the other, that foot 

 is usually flat on the ground. In shoulder-lameness, the toe alone rests on the 

 ground. The circumstance which most of all characterises this affection is, that 

 when the foot is lifted and then brought considerably forward the horse will 

 express very great pain, which he will not do if the lameness is in the foot or 

 the leg. This point has been longer dwelt upon, in order that the reader may 

 be enabled to put to the test the many cases of shoulder-lameness, which exist 

 only in the imagination of the groom or the farrier. 



In sprain of the internal muscles of the shoulder, few local measures can be 

 adopted. The horse should be bled from the vein on the inside of the arm (the 

 plate vein), because the blood is then abstracted more immediately from the 

 inflamed part. A dose of physic should be given, and fomentations applied, and 

 principally on the inside of the arm, close to the chest, and the horse should be 

 kept as quiet as possible. The injury is too deeply seated for external stimulants 

 to have very great effect, yet a blister will properly be resorted to, if the lame- 

 ness is not speedily removed. The swimming of the horse is an inhuman prac- 

 tice : it tortures the animal, and increases the inflammation. The pegging of the 

 shoulder (puncturing the skin, and blowing into the cellular structure beneath 

 until it is considerably puffed up) is another relic of ignorance and barbarity. 



SLANTING DIRECTION OF THE SHOULDER. 



The lessening or breaking of the shock, from the weight being thrown 

 violently on the fore legs, is effected in another way. It will be observed, that 

 (see G and J, p. 108) the shoulder-blade and the lower bone of the shoulder are 

 not connected together in a straight line, but form a very considerable angle with 



