DIAGNOSTIC PRINCIPLES 39 



complicated by the presence of a large amount of hyperplastic 

 tissue, cannot be successfully represented to be an acute and 

 recently developed atfection, where a trained practitioner is left 

 to judge the validity of the statement. 



In complicated conditions, where there is evident a chronic 

 disturbance which could not be conceived as sufficient cause for 

 a nuirked manifestation of lameness, accurate history of the case 

 may he of great aid in arriving at a diagnosis. An aged animal, 

 having recently become very lame, showing a small exostosis on 

 the first phalanx, and with the history given that the osseous 

 deposit was of long standing, should at once lead the veterinarian 

 to seek the source of trouble elsewhere. 



Visual Examination. 



As in all diagnostic work, a careful visual examination of the 

 subject should ])e made before it is approached. The novice is 

 given to hasty examination by palpation, not realizing how 

 nnieh may be revealed by a careful scrutiny of the subject. In 

 this way he is led to erroneous conclusions which the skilled 

 diagnostician has learned from experience to avoid. Too much 

 (iitphasis cannot he 2)laccd on the importance of making a 

 thoughtful visual examination in every instance before the sub- 

 ject is approached. In this examination, type, conformation 

 and temperament are taken into account at once, for each of 

 these qualities is in itself, a determining factor in predisposing 

 a subject to certain ailments or inherent attributes, which may 

 exert a favorable or unfavorable intiuenee upon existing condi- 

 tions and thus make recovery probable or otherwise. 



Draft animals are less likely to be permanently incapacitated 

 as a result of tendinitis, than are thoroughbreds. Likewise, 

 one would not expect to find this affection present in heavy 

 harness horses as frequently as in light harness animals. 



]\ral-formation of a part, or an asymmetrical development of 

 the body as a whole, may render an animal susceptible to cer- 

 tain affections which cause lameness. A "tied in" hock predis- 

 poses the subject to curb, and an animal having powerful and 

 well-developed hips and imperfectly formed hocks, will, if sub- 

 jected to heavy work, be a favorable subject for bone spavin. 



