338 THE FARM DOCTOR. 



exercise. The superficial position of the bone renders all dis- 

 tortion very apparent, and this with the impossibility of resting 

 weight on the limb and the grating of the broken ends when 

 handled are unmistakable. 



Treatment. — If comminuted, as it often is, the animal had 

 best be slaughtered. If only compound, hopes may be enter- 

 tained, especially in young animals, an opening being made in 

 the bandage to dress the wound. If simple and the fracture 

 not too oblique, nothing is easier than to set it, to envelop it 

 in a bandage extending over and fixing the knee, and to keep 

 the patient in slings until union has taken place. 



SPRAINS OF THE BACK TENDONS. 



These are the two cords which form the posterior line of the 

 limb between the knee and the fetlock. About midway do\vn 

 the shank the front one is joined by a strong cord coming from 

 the upper end of the cannon-bone and the lower row of small 

 knee bones. This last is by far the most frequent seat of 

 sprain, so that the swelling and tenderness are observed be- 

 tween the upper half of the cannon-bone and the round cord 

 which forms the posterior outline of the limb. In other cases 

 the tendons have participated in the sprain, and they too are 

 thickened and tender from the middle of the shank (the point 

 of junction with the ligament) down to the fetlock. In a third 

 class the sprain is confined to an inch or two above the fetlock. 

 In these the swelling is to the two sides if the anterior of the 

 two tendons is injured, and backward if the posterior is sprained. 

 The syinpto77is are a stumbling gai<, with a tendency to stub the 

 toe into the ground and to bend over at the knee and fetlock ; 

 an inclination to stand with the knee and fetlock slightly bent, 

 the pastern upright or the heel a little raised ; then passing the 

 hand along the line of the tendons and in front of them in the 

 upper half of the bone, the thumb on one side and the fingers 

 on the other, any slight thickening is easily recognised, and if 



