296 



HEALTH AND DISEASE 



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physic should be given at once, then a high-heeled shoe should be applied 

 to the foot and the patient put into slings. Hot fomentations should 

 be applied to the part three or four times daily, and hot-water bandages 

 in the intervals. This will have the effect of reducing existing inflam- 

 mation, after which irrigation with cold water will give tone to the vessels 

 and restore healthy action. A long bandage firmly applied to the leg from 

 the knee downward will give needed support to the fetlock-joint, which 



will be rendered still more eflicient if a thick pad 

 of cotton-wool or tow be placed in the space be- 

 tween the fetlock and the heel. 



As soon as j)ossible the patient should be re- 

 moved from slings and allowed to lie down. Firino- 

 or blistering, or both, should be resorted to in' due 

 course with the twofold object of inducing absorp- 

 tion of superfluous material from the seat of in- 

 jury, and of thickening the skin so as to aflbrd 

 a bracing support to the part. 



SPRAIN OF THE PERFORANS AND 

 PERFORATUS TENDONS 



This may occur to either one or the other 

 separately, or to both at the same time, when the 

 muscles to which they belong are over- fatigued, 

 and fail to act in time and with sufiicient force to 

 prevent excessive traction on the tendons. 



The hand familiar with the horse's leg will 

 have but little difficulty in distinguishing between 

 injury of either or both of these structures, and 

 those strains of ligaments adjacent which have 

 already been described. They are found to be 

 swollen, hot, and softer than in health, and the enlargement, in bulging 

 backwards as well as laterally, gives the tendons a convex or " bowed " 

 appearance (fig. 367). Lameness is always present in recent cases, and 

 during the inflammatory stages which supervene upon the accident; but 

 there are many chronic sprains of these structures of a slowly progres- 

 sive character which do not render a horse unworkable or even palpably 

 lame to the ordinary observer. They have been described as coming 

 "unstitched", by which term we are to suppose that in overworked 

 horses a softening and weakening process is induced in the tendons by 

 long-abiding strain and irritation, and a few fibres at a time rupture 



Fig. 367. -SinMiii of tlie Perforans 

 and Perforatus Tendons 



