374 rupture of the flexor metatarsi. 



Rupture of the Flexor Metatarsi. 



The following narrative*, given in 1841, of an occurrence of 

 this class of lamenesses, by Mr. Cartwright, V.S., Whitchurch, 

 Salop, will be read with interest in this place. 



" On the 21st of November, 1840, the Rev. R. Mayow, of this 

 town, rode after the hounds a fine chestnut horse nearly 17 hands 

 high. After a burst of twenty minutes, they came to a leap, where 

 the horse's hind legs slipped into a boggy ditch with his breast 

 on the fence, and he thereby became staked in the breast, while 

 his hind legs sunk in the ditch, and became fastened there. In 

 a short time, however, the off hind leg was liberated, but the other 

 he had very great difficulty in pulling out. 



"When he came to the bank, it was found- that some injury had 

 taken place in the near hind leg. A farrier near Cholmondeley 

 was called in, who said he had ruptured some of the muscles on 

 the hack of the haunch above the hock. 



'*The horse was brought home a distance of eight or nine miles. 

 1 saw him immediately after his arrival, and found him rather ex- 

 hausted. I examined the breast, but found that no mortal injury 

 had been inflicted. I then went to the hind extremity, and saw 

 in a moment that there probably was a rupture of the flexor meta- 

 tarsi muscle or its tendon, and most likely of the latter. 



*' The action of the limb indicated the loss of power of that 

 muscle, as the leg could be bent at the hock completely straight 

 behind, and he had no power of any importance before, in oppo- 

 sition to those antagonist ones — the gastrocnemii — behind. In 

 some of his movements the limb appeared quite loose about the 

 hock, and was occasionally knocked against the other leg. On 

 moving him about, there was a twitching up backwards of the leg 

 at the hock, and when he walked forwards, it was evidently done 

 without the concurrence of the flexor metatarsi. 



" There was a soreness in front at about six inches above the 

 hock, and also a little higher up, and the usual tenseness and dis- 

 tinctness of the tendon could not be seen. There was no apparent 

 pain of any importance. 



♦ Taken from The Veterinarian, voL xiv, p. 273-4. 



