RUPTURE OF SUSPENSORY LIGAMENT. 377 



In some cases, especially in old horses long accustomed to fast 

 work, the ligaments of the joints are ruptured, in whole or in part, 

 and the lameness may last a long time. In these cases the joint 

 should be kept completely at rest ; and this condition is best secured 

 by the application of the plaster of Paris bandages, as in cases of 

 fracture. As a rule, patients take kindly to this bandage, and may 

 be given the freedom of a roomy box or yard while wearing it. If 

 they are disposed to tear it off, or if sufficient rest can not otherwise be 

 secured, the patient must be kept in slings. 



In the majority of instances the plaster bandage should remain on 

 from two to four weeks. If the lameness returns when the bandage 

 is removed, a new one should be put on. The swelling, which always 

 remains after the other evidences of the disease have disappeared, 

 may be largely dissipated and the joint strengthened by the use of the 

 firing iron and blisters. 



A joint once injured by a severe sprain never entirely regains its 

 original strength, and is ever after particularly liable to a repetition 

 of the injury. 



RUPTURE OF THE SUSPENSORY LIGAMENT. 



Sprain with or without rupture of the suspensory ligament may 

 happen in either the fore or hind legs, and is occasionally seen in 

 horses of all classes and at all ages. Old animals, however, and espe- 

 cially hunters, runners, and trotters, are the most subject to this 

 injury, and with these classes the seat of the trouble is nearly always 

 in one or both the fore legs. Horses used for heavy draft are more 

 liable to have the ligament of the hind legs affected. 



When the strain upon the suspensory ligament becomes too great, 

 one or both of the branches may be torn from the sesamoid bones, one 

 or both of the branches may be torn completely across, or the liga- 

 ment may rupture above the point of division. 



Symptoms. The most common injury to the suspensory ligament 

 is sprain of the internal branch in one of the fore legs. The trouble 

 is proclaimed by lameness, heat, swelling, and tenderness of the 

 affected branch, beginning just above the sesamoid bone and extend- 

 ing obliquely downward and forward to the front of the ankle. If 

 the whole ligament is involved, the swelling comes on gradually, and 

 is found above the fetlock and in front of the flexor tendons. The 

 patient stands or walks upon the toe as much as possible, keeping the 

 fetlock joint flexed so as to relieve the ligament of tension. 



When both branches are torn from their attachments to the sesa- 

 moids, or both are torn across, the lameness comes on suddenly and 

 is most intense; the fetlock descends, the toe turns up, and, as the 

 animal attempts to walk, the leg has the appearance of being broken 

 off at the fetlock. These symptoms, followed by heat, pain, and 



