HIP LAMENESS. 953 



of which evades even the most careful examination. Owing to the 

 thickness of the muscles, thorough palpation of deep-seated structures 

 is impracticable, and inflammatory swelling and other anatomical 

 changes often remain undetected, leaving the cause of disease obscure. 

 Such cases are generally included under " hip lameness." The term 

 comprises all forms of obscure lameness, in which, however, the 

 symptoms point to the hip region as the seat of injury. " Hip lame- 

 ness," therefore, has the same position amongst lamenesses of the 

 hind limb as " shoulder lameness " amongst those of the fore limb. 



To enumerate all the diseased conditions which might produce 

 hip lameness would be almost impossible, the causes being too varied. 

 Only the most important can therefore be enumerated. Hip 

 lameness may originate in the following structures : — 



(1) In the hip-joint. Mechanical injuries, bruises produced by 

 falls, collisions, or kicks, displacements in consequence of slipping, of 

 the foot being caught in the ground, &c, are all liable to produce 

 inflammation and lameness. Sometimes the skin and surface muscles 

 are more affected than the joint proper, and then there is more or 

 less pronounced inflammation over the hip-joint or external angle 

 of the ilium. 



Partial or complete rupture of the ligamentum teres and 

 extravasation of blood into the joint are sometimes met with. In 

 a horse which had suffered from hip lameness for more than a year, 

 the hip-joint was found to be surrounded by fibrous connective 

 tissue, and to exhibit periarticular osteophytes. The synovial 

 membrane was about 2 inches in thickness, the articular cartilage 

 had partly disappeared from the cotyloid cavity, and its edges were 

 undergoing degenerative change. The case was therefore one of 

 arthritis chronica sicca (coxitis chronica). Whilst making a post- 

 mortem of ahorse, the subject of hip lameness, Prietsch found fracture 

 of the cotyloid cavity which had not been diagnosed during life. 



In cattle, luxation of the femur may remain unrecognised. Harms 

 states having seen subluxations in these animals. Noack found 

 double-sided purulent inflammation of the hip-joint in an eight-year- 

 old cow. The joints when opened discharged about a cupful of 

 very thick, gruel-like, greyish-brown, offensive pus. Noack described 

 the disease as metastatic, and considered it a result of the traumatic 

 pericarditis which had simultaneously existed. In oxen purulent 

 coxitis is sometimes of tuberculous origin. In the specific arthritis 

 (" navel-ill ") of young animals, purulent disease of the hip-joint 

 may be seen. The arthritis chronia sicca, known in man as malum 

 coxae senile, is not common in horses. Both clinical observation 



