XII. 



LAMENESS. 



How Diagnosed. — First determine the limb in which the 

 patient is lame. Have the horse trotted from and towards you. 

 The assistant who trots the horse should take hold of the reins 

 about two feet from the head and run by the side of the horse. 

 Of course, there are many lamenesses that can be diagnosed 

 without even moving the horse; at the same time, there are 

 many other cases so slight in degree as to require the most rigid 

 scrutiny. 



If the lameness be in one of the fore limbs, the patient will 

 drop on the sound limb. If there is well-marked lameness, the 

 head will drop in a marked degree. Do not make your diagnosis 

 from simply having the horse trotted from you. In such case 

 you are liable to mistake a lameness of the off fore limb for that 

 of the near hind. When he is trotted from the observer, the 

 quarter seems to ascend and descend. This ascending and de- 

 scending of the quarter depends upon the elevation and dropping 

 of the head and body. It will be plainly seen when the horse 

 returns that the lameness is in the fore limb. The lameness may 

 be in both fore limbs, and the animal seem to go sound. Ad- 

 vantage of this has been taken by low horse dealers, who, when 

 they have a horse lame in one fore foot, make him lame in the 

 other also. They do this by jilacing a small piece of iron tightly 

 under the shoe of the sound foot, and by paring the toe of the 

 sound foot almost to the quick. A horse lame in both fore feet 

 will be short in action; each foot will be quickly lifted up and 

 carefully put to the ground, while at the same time there is a 

 peculiar rolling motion of the body. He may go lame in one 

 foot as he goes from you, and in the other as he approaches the 



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