SPRAIN OR STRAIN 295 



In slight cases, too, where the lameness is not considerable, a good 

 deal of care is needed to discover the seat of trouble. When this is so 

 the leg should be raised and the canon forcibly extended on the operator's 

 knee. At the same time the operator must firmly compress the ligament 

 between the fingers along its length, noticing while so doing any tender- 

 ness which the animal may display, or any enlargement the part may 

 show by comparison with the opposite ligament. 



Treatment. The aperient dose recommended in connection with 

 sprains of other structures is advisable here, and the lines of treatment 

 in the last article should be followed, with the addition of placing a high- 

 heeled shoe on the foot so that the injured ligament may be relieved from 

 traction and put to rest. Care will be needed not to allow the heels to 

 be raised too long lest in the course of reparation shortening of the tendons 

 result. 



SPRAIN OF THE SUSPENSORY LIGAMENT 



The reader who has studied the anatomy of the limb, and informed 

 himself of the origin, attachments, and divisions of this structure (figs. 356 

 and 3G6), will be prepared to learn that the ligament may be sprained 

 in one of its branches, in both, or through its body at a point before its 

 division takes place; or it may be ruptured or torn away from the sesamoid 

 bones so completely that the fetlock-joint, losing its support, descends 

 towards the ground. In slight sprains the reverse is the case; instead of 

 the fetlock-joint coming to the ground and the toe inclining upward, the 

 patient will endeavour to impose weight on the latter, and straighten the 

 limb more or less in the effort. 



Race-horses and hunters most frequently suffer by this accident in the 

 fore-legs, and among draught-horses it is more often noted in the hind- 

 limbs. 



Injury to these weight-bearing structures is always a serious matter, 

 and calls for so much time and patience that animals of little value seldom 

 repay treatment. This is especially the case where, as sometimes occurs, 

 it is associated with fracture of the sesamoid bones. 



Every degree of lameness may be associated with injury to the sus- 

 pensory ligament. In all but the very slightest cases more or less swelling 

 appears at and about the seat of injury. There is heat in the part, and 

 pain is provoked by pressure. To relieve the ligament from traction when 

 standing the fetlock is maintained in a semi-flexed condition. In the 

 severer cases the entire limb, from the knee downward, becomes more or 

 less enlarged, and there is an entire inability to support weight. 



Treatment. Where the ligament is seriously sprained a dose of 



