327 



In small animals, howevcM-, attempts at treatment are justifiable, 

 and Ave are convinced that in many cases of dilficulty in the applica- 

 tion of splints and bandages a patient may be iDlaced in a condition 

 of undisturbed quiet and left to the processes of nature for "treat- 

 ment " as safelj" and with as good an assurance of a favorable result 

 as if he had been subjected to the most heroic secundum artem doc- 

 toring known to science. As a case in point, we maj' mention the 

 ease of a pregnant bitch which suffered a fracture of the upper end 

 of the femur by being run over by a light wagon. Her "treatment" 

 consisted in being tied up in a large box and let alone. In due time 

 she Avas delivered of a family of pui^i^ies, and in three weeks she was 

 running in the streets, limping very slightly, and nothing the worse 

 for her accident. 



Fracture of tlie pcdella. — This, fortunately, is a rare accident and 

 can only result from direct violence, as a kick or other blow. The 

 lameness which follows it is accompanied with enormous tumefac- 

 tion of the joint and disease of the articulation. The prognosis is 

 unavoidably adverse, destruction being the only termination of an 

 incurable and very painful injury. 



Fractures of the tibia are probably more frequently encountered 

 than any others among the class of accidents we are considering. As 

 witii injuries of the forearm of a like character, they may be complete 

 or incomplete; the former when the bone is broken in the middle or 

 at the extremities, and transverse, oblique, or longitudinal. The 

 incomijlete kind are more common in this bone than in any other. 



Comijlete fractures are easy to recognize, either with or without dis- 

 j)lacement. The animal is very lame, and the leg is either dragged' or 

 held up clear from the ground b}' flexion at the stifle, while the lower 

 part hangs down. Carrying weight or moving backwards is impossi- 

 ble. There is excessive mobility below the fracture and well-marked 

 crepitation. If there is much displacement, as in an oblique fracture, 

 there will be considerable shortening of the leg. 



While incomj)lete fractures can not be recognized in the tibia with 

 anj- greater degree of certainty than in any other bone, there are 

 some facts associated with them by which a diagnosis ma}' be justi- 

 fied. The hypothetical historj' of a ease may serve as an illustration: 



An animal has received an injury b}' a blow or a kick on the inside 

 of the bone, perhaps witliout showing any mark. Becoming very 

 lame immediately afterwards, he is allowed a few days' rest. Being 

 then taken out again, he seems to have recovered his soundness, but 

 within a day or two he betrays a little- soreness, and this increasing 

 he becomes very lame again, to be furloughed once more, with the 

 result of a temi^orar}- improvement, and again a return to labor and 

 again a relapse of the lameness; and this alternation seems to be the 

 rule. The leg being now carefully examined, a local periostitis is 

 readily discovered at the point of the injury, the part being warm, 



