FRACTURES OF THE SCAPULA. 759 



DISEASES OF THE FORE LIMB. 



A. DISEASES OF THE SHOULDER REGION. 

 I.— FRACTURES OF THE SCAPULA. 



On account of the position and slight mobility of the scapula 

 in domesticated animals, it is comparatively seldom broken, though 

 fractures are described as having resulted from blows with blunt 

 bodies, from collisions, kicks, treads, and falls, particularly from 

 falls on the shoulder, or with the legs widely straddled. Trasbot 

 saw the scapula fractured by struggling whilst in hobbles ; oxen 

 occasionally fracture the bone in falling. The accident is also at 

 times caused by violently reining-up animals, the neck of the bone 

 being then generally broken. 



Sometimes the cervical or dorsal angle is broken across, sometimes 

 the spine or body, not infrequently the neck or glenoid cavity. The 

 greater number of these fractures are subcutaneous ; only occasionally 

 is the skin perforated. Such fractures are commonly fissured, but 

 comminuted fractures also occur. Complications are commonest 

 after fractures of the spine, the fragments of bone becoming necrotic 

 and causing abscess formation. Moller saw one in a horse which 

 was working in a gravel-pit during the winter. The scapula was 

 crushed into more than eighty pieces by the falling of a mass of 

 frozen earth. 



Diagnosis. In well-nourished animals, notably in horses, and 

 in cases where severe swelling has occurred, diagnosis is difficult. 

 Displacement of the broken fragments is often slight, and crepitation 

 may be entirely absent. It is, therefore, clear that every marked, 

 rapidly-produced lameness, which is evident both when the animal 

 stands on the limb and when it moves, must awaken suspicion of 

 fracture of the scapula, provided there is no other self-evident cause. 



Fracture of the scapular spine is the only one of the above 

 conditions in which the foot may be placed on the ground in the 

 usual way, though movement is then in the highest degree painful. 

 In fracture of the scapular spine, and of the anterior or posterior 

 angle of the scapula, the fragments can be displaced with the hand. 

 Fractures of the neck of the scapula are attended with excessive 

 mobility of the limb, especially in ab- and ad- duction, Fractures 



