SPRAINS OF TENDONS AND LTGAMKNTS OP TBE FORE-LEO. 345 



694. Treatment of sprains of Sheaths. 



TCest and cold lotions will generally be sufficient to restore the parts in 

 a few days. A chamois leather bandage, kept wet either with cold water 

 or refrigerant lotion, will answer well. If such treatment is not effectual 

 it is probable that the tendon or ligament is also implicated, though the 

 owner may have at first failed to detect the injury. If at seaside, it is 

 a good plan to stand horses twice a day in the sea, as sea water followed 

 by friction by hand-rubbing has a wonderfully recuperative effect on 

 sprained limbs. Where this treatment is adopted, the hoofs should lie 

 smeared with Stockholm tar pretty often, as sea water renders the wall, 

 or crust, very brittle. 



695. Shoulder Sprain. 



Obscure cases of lameness in the fore-hand are pretty generally ascribed 

 to the shoulder. But as a matter of fact, the shoulder, except from out- 

 side violence, is very rarely the cause. 



There are no articular ligaments to the joint, but the bones are held 

 in apposition very firmly by capsular ligaments and muscles, and by the 

 tendon of the muscles, which pass over it. 



The point of the shoulder is sometimes injured by accidental causes, 

 such as a blow, a kick, or a wound from a shaft, or from a fall in the 

 act of turning. Such injuries are of course apparent. They may pro- 

 duce violent inflammation of the joint or of the tendon passing over the 

 head of the humerus, or even fracture of the outer head of the bone. 



696. Elbow lameness. 



In Elbow lameness, the horse, when standing, will keep the affected 

 limb pendulous, with the toe only dragging on the ground and drawn 

 under the belly. In action the shoulder is brought well forward (and in 

 this way it is plainly distinguished from shoulder lameness, as described 

 in the preceding paragraph) ; but when the weight comes on the limb, 

 a sudden giving way and knuckling over at the knee will be noticed. 

 Pain will be evinced when the thumb is pressed close alongside the ex- 

 ternal lateral ligament of the joint, or at the point of the elbow. 



Elbow lameness commonly arises from some injury to the point of the 

 ulna, and occasionally from disease of the joint. The treatment is rest, 

 fomentations, and blisters. 



We may remark in passing, that both shoulder and elbow lameness are 

 very rare, though it is common enough to assign to one or other of these 

 causes, most of those cases of lameness in which the real seat of the 

 disease cannot be discovered. 



697. Rheumatic Lameness. 



The Lameness caused by sprain is sometimes very closery simulated, 

 both in tendons and their sheaths and also in ligaments, by that arising 

 from Rheumatism. The means by which the latter may be distinguished 



