SPAVitf, 993 



Hering, Schrader, Stoekfleth, and Trager. The ligamentous apparatus 

 is considered to be the primary seat of disease by Aronsohn, Bartels, 

 Barrier, Hess, von Hochstetter, Roloff, and Pflug. 



An unprejudiced examination of the foregoing views can only lead 

 us to the conclusion that to regard spavin as invariably originating 

 in one of the regions named, i.e., to consider it as a fixed and invariable 

 disease, is an untenable, position. The variations in the anatomical 

 changes discovered by different observers are due less to the stage 

 at which the disease has arrived than to fundamental differences 

 in its nature. Depending on whether the spavin has arisen from 

 disease of the bone or of the ligaments, the anatomical changes will 

 vary. Only on this hypothesis can we explain why in one case a 

 large exostosis is accompanied by spurious anchylosis, and in another 

 a scarcely visible bony enlargement is found along with true anchylosis 

 between the cuneiform bones or between the cuneiform and the 

 metatarsus. For this reason, Frick, whilst keeping an open mind 

 as to the essential nature of spavin, declares that the most varying 

 forms of chronic disease of the inner surface of the hock may produce 

 the clinical appearances which, in practice, we recognise as " spavin." 

 Anatomically, spavin may be divided into various forms which, 

 however, may all be regarded as having one point in common, viz., 

 that they eventually lead to deformity of the affected joint, and 

 may, therefore, rightly be designated as arthritis chronica deformans. 

 In a word, " spavin " is a collective clinical term covering a number 

 of extremely diversified antomical changes in the hock. 

 Pathological anatomy. Examination reveals : — 



(1) Changes in the articular cartilage of the cuneiform, and of the 

 upper part of the metatarsus, sometimes of the scaphoid, and other 

 bones of the hock. Changes in the cartilage, abrasions, ulceration, 

 and, at the borders of the articular surfaces, rugged, uneven swellings, 

 produced by thickening of the cartilage, which later becomes ossified, 

 can all be detected by the naked eye. Microscopically, the inter- 

 cellular substance is seen to be fibrillated, and the cartilage cells 

 to be undergoing multiplication, processes peculiar to arthritis 

 chronica deformans. 



(2) The affected bones show deposits termed osteophytes, which 

 sometimes start from the ossified cartilaginous growth, sometimes 

 result from inflammation attacking the periosteum of the bones 

 named. Gotti and Eberlein state that the bone shows rarefying 

 and condensing ostitis. 



This local growth of bone is in fact the so-called spavin. It is 

 usually only a secondary symptom due to inflammation extending 



