LAMENESS IN THE PORE LEG 133 



appliance may be secured over all. In this manner one niay 

 make repeated examinations of the subject, and if slings are 

 used and every other necessary precaution taken to promote 

 comfort for the subject, no harm will result in delaying for 

 several days the application of permanent immobilization — ban- 

 dages and splints or casts. In fact, where much swelling exists 

 at the time one is called to treat such cases, it is advisable to delay 

 the application of a permanent dressing or east until inflamma- 

 tion has somewhat subsided. 



Course and Prognosis. — AVhere conditions are favorable, the 

 nature of the fracture one that will yield to treatment, the sub- 

 ject not aged, and facilities for giving good attention to the 

 affected animal are ample, fractures of the first and second 

 phalanges recover completely in from six weeks to four months. 

 Only simple fractures are considered curable from a practical 

 and economical point of view, excepting in foals, where com- 

 pound, and even comminuted, fractures may be so handled that 

 animals may eventually become serviceable though blemished. 



Age retards the process of osseous regeneration, but in one 

 instance at the Kansas City Veterinary College, a very aged 

 mare suffering from a multiple fracture of the first phalanx was 

 treated and at the end of sixty days was able to walk into an 

 aml)ulance. Large exostoses had developed and the subject re- 

 mained lame, but union of the broken bone took place in a sur- 

 privsingly prompt and effective manner, when age of the subject 

 and nature of the fracture are considered. 



As a nde, one is loath to reconnnend treatment, even in a sim- 

 ple transverse fracture of the first phalanx, in animals ten years 

 of age or older. The conditions which exist in any given locality 

 that regulate the expense of caring for an animal during the 

 period of treatment, especially influence the course to be pur- 

 sued in treating fractures. 



Treatment. — For permanent immobilization of the phalanges 

 in fracture, materials which might adapt themselves to the irreg- 

 ular contour of the member and at the same time contribute suf- 

 ficient rigidity to the parts without doing injury to the soft 



