324 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



scope of human ingenuity. If the reduction were successfully per- 

 formed, would it be possible to keep the parts in place by any known 

 means at our disposal? At the best the most favorable result that 

 could be anticipated would be a reunion of the fragments, with a con- 

 siderable shortening of the bone, and a helpless, limping, crippled 

 animal to remind us that for human achievement there is a "thus far 

 and no farther." 



In small animals, however, attempts at treatment are justifiable, and 

 Ave are convinced that in many cases of difficulty in the application of 

 splints and bandages a patient may be placed in a condition of undis- 

 turbed quiet and left to the processes of nature for "treatment" as 

 safely and with as good an assurance of a favorable result as if he had 

 been subjected to the most heroic secundu?n artem doctoring known to 

 science. As a case in point, mention may be made of the case of a 

 pregnant bitch which suffered a fracture of the upper end of the femur 

 by being run over by a light wagon. Her "treatment" consisted in 

 being tied up in a large box and let alone. In due time she was 

 delivered of a family of puppies, and in three weeks she was running 

 in the streets, limping very slight!}^, and nothing the worse for her 

 accident. 



FRACTURE OF THE PATELLA. 



This, fortunatel}", is a rare accident and can onh" result from direct 

 violence, as a kick or other blow. The lameness which follows it is 

 accompanied with enormous tumefaction of the joint, pain, inabilitj'^ to 

 bear weight upon the foot, and, finally, disease of the articulation. 

 Crepitation is absent, because the hip muscles draw away the upper 

 part of the bone. The prognosis is unavoidably adverse, destruction 

 being the only termination of this incurable and very painfid injury. 

 Most of the reported cases of cures are based upon a wrong diagnosis. 



FRACTURES OF THE TIHIA. 



Of all fractures these are probably more f requenth^ encountered than 

 any others among the class of accidents we are considering. As with 

 injuries of the forearm of a like character, they may be complete or 

 incomplete; the former when the bone is broken in the middle or at 

 the extremities, and transverse, oblique, or longitudinal. The incom- 

 plete kind are more common in this bone than in any other. 



.Sym-ptoms. — Complete fractures are easy to recognize, either with 

 or without displacement. The animal is verj^ lame, and the leg is 

 either dragged or held up clear from the ground by flexion at the 

 stifle, while the lower part hangs down. Carrying weight or moving 

 backward is impossible. There is excessive mobilit}" below the frac- 

 ture, and well-marked crepitation. If there is much displacement, as 

 in an oblique fracture, there will be considerable shortening of the leg. 



