INFLAMMATORY AFFECTIONS 271 



rendered hard and ivory-like (condensed) near what was 

 the original centre, while the edges and other portions show 

 often a tendency to become brittle and porous. 



Fig. 118 illustrates the effects of a severe ostitis in pedal 

 bones removed from hoofs with laminitis of several weeks' 

 standing. 



(e) Chronic Laminitis. — The most common complication 

 — or, perhaps, rather we should term it ' sequel ' — to acute 

 laminitis is the chronic form of the disease. For this con- 

 dition we have reserved a separate section of our work. It 

 will be found described in Section B 1 of this chapter. 



Diagnosis and Prognosis. — One is almost tempted to state 

 that the diagnosis of laminitis offers no difficulty. In the 

 very early stages, however, it may, as we have already 

 indicated, be mistaken for the oncoming of Enteritis, 

 Lymphangitis, or even Pneumonia. The paddling of the 

 feet may help us. If this is absent, however, nothing but 

 a most careful examination, or, if necessary, the withhold- 

 ing of our opinion until the following visit will prevent a 

 blunder being made. 



Even when well established, laminitis has been mistaken 

 for paralysis, for tetanus, for rheumatic affections of the 

 loins, or even for some undiscovered affection of the muscles 

 of the arms and chest. This latter is no doubt suggested 

 to the uninitiated by the reluctance the animal shows to 

 move the muscles apparently of that region, and led the 

 older writers to give to the disease its name of ' Chest- 

 founder." It is only fair to add, however, that these 

 blunders in diagnosis are nearly always committed by per- 

 sons without a veterinary training. 



Thus w T arned, the veterinary surgeon of average ability 

 should have no difficulty in establishing a distinction be- 

 tween the diseases we have enumerated as likely to be 

 confounded w T ith it, and the one this chapter is describing. 



The prognosis in liminitis should, in our opinion, always 

 be guarded. Xo advice given in a work of this description 

 can be of any real use, for every case must be judged 

 entirely on its merits. The severity of the symptoms, the 



