250 



HEALTH AND DISEASE 



If the foot be rotated or forcibly Hexed on the fetlock, crepitus or 

 rubbing of the broken pieces will be felt. Great sensibility to pressure 

 along the surface of the bone soon appears, accompanied by a firm diffused 

 swelling. In split pastern the lameness, although sometimes considerable, 

 is less severe, and there is usually no crepitus. The swelling may be 

 inconsiderable, and the existence of a fracture altogether overlooked. 



Treatment. — No time should be lost in placing the animal in slings. 

 The shoe should be removed, and the stable littered with 3 or 4 inches 

 of saw-dust or peat-moss. If there is no displacement, which will be 

 readily determined by the undisturbed outline of the pastern, a starch 

 bandage should be applied at once. In making the application, the 

 hollow of the heel should first be filled in with a pad of tow, over which 



the bandage should be rolled and carried 

 over the fetlock joint from the coronet, 

 nearly as high as the knee. In those cases 

 in which displacement occurs, the parts 

 should be readjusted and the bone sup- 

 ported by a starch bandage or some more 

 suitable splint. 



A light, spare diet should be prescribed, 

 and a little linseed-oil may be incorporated 

 with it night and mornino- until the bowels 

 are gently acted upon. All that is now needed is to avoid any sudden 

 excitement, and to keep the animal perfectly quiet. 



So soon as he begins to throw his weight upon the limb, and to con- 

 tinue it, the bandage may be removed. More or less enlargement will 

 be found to have developed on the bone in the form of a reparative callus, 

 and subsequent treatment must be directed towards eftectiug its reduction. 

 For this purpose a repetition of blisters must be applied over the part 

 during a continuance of rest. In some cases a large ring-bone, with more 

 or less lameness, remains as a permanent result of the fracture, while in 

 others but little enlargement follows, and the action is in no respect 

 affected by it. 



FRACTURE OF THE SESAMOID BONES 



Fig. 340. — Obliiiue and Transverse Fractures 

 of the Os Suffraginis 



Fracture of the sesamoid bones is by no means of uncommon occurrence. 

 It happens most frequently in old hunters and chasers when carrying 

 heavy weights over deep ground, and mostly at the end of a long and 

 tiring run. 



The line of the fracture is usually transverse. Sometimes the accident 

 is confined to one bone, but more frequently it involves both, and now 



