Contusion of Obhirator Nerves. Obturator Paralysis 869 



animal can stand without difficult3^ but the moment it raises one 

 foot the two sHp apart again and the animal falls. 



In one case occurring in the clinic of the New York State Vet- 

 erinary College, a mare had foaled apparently naturally, but im- 

 mediately afterward it was seen that in walking she carried the 

 leg in extreme abduction, so that it was exceedingly difficult for 

 her to walk. The condition had existed for about a year before she 

 was presented at our clinic. We promptly diagnosed injury to 

 the obturator nerve upon the affected side. She still walked 

 with the affected limb in extreme abduction, while the muscles of 

 the inside of the thigh were greatly atrophied. As we believed her 

 incurable after so long a duration, she was destroyed, and a post- 

 mortem examination revealed all the muscles supplied by the in- 

 jured obturator nerve, very pale and greatly atrophied, so that 

 their volume was only about '3 that of the corresponding muscles 

 of the opposite side. The other muscles of the limb were normal. 

 The obturator nerve was apparently normal, except at its point 

 of disappearance in the obturator foramen, where there existed 

 a very distinct enlargement, consisting chiefly of connective 

 tissue, as shown in Fig. 140. 



Fig. 140. Contusion of Obturator Nkrve. 

 I, Ilium. Is, Ischium. P, Pubis. ON, Obturator nerve. 

 O, Obturator foramen. 1, Inflammatory induration of obturator nerve. 



