674 OPERATIONS ON THE FOOT. 



down. 'WTien standing, his back is arched, the feet closed to- 

 gether, the hind feet resting on the heels, the fore legs on the 

 points of the toes. The fever is severe, sometimes attended with 

 loss of appetite and of rumination. If the disease continues long, 

 the cattle will die. The abdomen is stuck up and the animal 

 loses flesh very rapidly, indicating a serious condition, as the dis- 

 ease is princij)ally found in fat animals, which are obliged to 

 make forced marches to be delivered at their markets. 



II. — Termination and Complications. — Well treated, laminitis 

 is generally of short duration, and ends in three or four days by 

 resolution. Sometimes, however, this is not accomplished until a 

 later period, even toward the tenth day, though cases of this charac- 

 ter are rare ; and even when resolution proceeds slowly, some lesions 

 in the foot may be looked for, and chronic laminitis will probably 

 result. Eesolution in acute founder is marked by the gradual 

 disappearance of the local and general symptoms. In some sub- 

 jects, the improvement is quite rapid from day to day, and the 

 form of termination is known as delitescency. Laminitis ending 

 in resolution is not usually followed by alterations in the horny 

 box or the tissues which it covers. 



When the congestion which constitutes the disease terminates 

 otherwise than by resolution, it is always followed by accidents of 

 varying character. Some of these may have a happy termination, 

 but, in the end, are more or less likely to be followed by a de- 

 formity of the horny box, to which the name of chronic laminitis 

 is given. Before entering upon this, however, let us examine the 

 various complications which may follow acute founder, and study 

 in succession: the hemorrhage, inflammation with exudation, 

 suji2')uration, gangrene, consecAitive arthritis, metastasis, and, 

 lastly, chronic laminitis. Resolution is most commonly met with 

 in the ox. Sometimes the separation of the hoof by suppuration 

 occurs, and chronic founder is not observed in that animal. It is 

 seldom that seedy toe is observed. 



a. — Hemorrhage, or apox)lexy of the reticular tissue, is due to 

 the rupture of the excessively distended capillaries, when the ex- 

 travasated blood either infiltrates into the meshes of congested 

 tissue, or spreads around it, and penetrates between the podophyl- 

 lous and keraphyllous lamellae, filling up the spaces at the toe, the 

 mammse and the anterior parts of the quarters, the os pedis being 

 pushed back by the joressure of the incompressible fluid. The 



