lines of the joint and the region adjacent for any difference of size 

 or disturbance of symmetry in the parts, any prominence or rotund- 

 ity and on both sides. The lame side will probably be warmer, 

 more developed and fuller, both to the touch and to the eye. Let 

 him then grasp the lower part of the leg (as he would in examining 

 a case of shoulder lameness) and endeavor to produce excessive 

 passive motion. This will probably cause pain when the leg is made 

 to assume a given position. Let him push the thigh forcibly against 

 the hip bone, and the contact will again probably cause a manifesta- 

 tion of pain. If the horse is trotted, the limited action of the hip 

 joint proper and the excessive dropping and rising of the hip of the 

 opposite side will be easily recognized. Usually the animal does 

 not extend the foot as far as customarily and picks it up much sooner. 



The abductive or circumflex motion observed in shoulder lame- 

 ness is also present in hip lameness, >but under special conditions, and 

 the test of the difficulty, either by traveling on soft ground or in 

 turning the horse in a circle, may here also contribute to the diag- 

 nosis, as in testing for lameness in the anterior extremity. 



Prognosis. The prognosis of hip lameness is at times quite 

 serious, not only on account of the long duration of treatment re- 

 quired to effect good results, and because of the character which may 

 be assumed by the disease, but of the permanence of the disability 

 resulting from it. Exostosis and ulcerative arthritis are sequelae 

 which often resist every form of treatment. 



Treatment. As before intimated, this is little more than a 

 repetition of the remarks upon the lameness of the shoulder, with 

 slight modifications occasioned by the muscular structure of the 

 hip, and we are limited to the same recommendations of treatment. 

 The advantages of rest must be reaffirmed, with local applications, 

 of which, however, it may be said that they are more distinctly in- 

 dicated and likely to be more effective in their results than in shoul- 

 der lameness, and may be more freely employed, whether in the 

 form of liniments, blisters (singly or repeated) , firing, or setoning. 



SPRAINS OP SUSPENSORY LIGAMENTS AND OF THE FLEXOR TENDONS 



OR THEIR SHEATH. 



The fibrous structure situated behind the canon bones, both in 

 the fore and hind legs, is often the seat of lacerations or sprains re- 

 sulting from violent efforts or sudden jerks. 



Cause. The injury may be considered serious or trifling, ac- 

 cording to the circumstances of each case as judged by its own his- 

 tory. Among the predisposing causes are a long thin fetlock and a 

 narrow knee or hock as viewed from the side, with the flexor muscles 

 tied in just below the joint. The longer and more oblique the pas- 

 tern the greater is the strain on the flexor tendons and suspensory 

 ligaments, hence a low quarter, a toe calk, and no heel calks, or a 

 thin calk placed at the tip under the toe, and leaving the quarters 

 long abnormally stretches the back tendons and causes a great 

 strain upon them just before the weight is shifted from the foot in 

 locomotion. In runners and hunters the disease is apt to be periodic. 

 In driving horses it is most common in well-bred animals of nerv- 



