350 



Like all similar injuries, tlies^are the result of traumatic violence, 

 such as contact with objects botli blunt and shari?; a curbstone in the 

 city; in the country a tree stump or a fence, especially one of wire. 

 It may easily occur to a runaway horse when he is "whipped" with 

 fragments of harness or "flogged" by fragments of splintered shafts 

 "thrashing" his legs, or by the contact of his legs with the Avagon he 

 has overturned and shattered with his heels while disengaging himself 

 fi-om its wreck. 



It is not always necessary that the skin should be involved in this 

 form of injury. On the contrary the tegument is frequently left 

 entirely intact, or exhibits only some slight and superficial abrasions. 

 Yet, again, the skin maj^be cut through and the tendons nearly severed. 

 A point a little above the fetlock is usually the seat of the injury. But 

 irrespective of this, and whether the skin is or is not implicated, the 

 symptoms very much resemble those of a fracture. There is excessive 

 mobility, at least more than in a normal state, with more or less ina- 

 bility to carry weight; there may be swelling of the parts, and on 

 passing the hands carefully along the tendon to the point of division 

 the stumps of the divided structure will be felt more or less separated, 

 I)erhaps wholly divided. The position of the animal while at rest and 

 standing is x^eculiar and characteristic. While the heels are well 

 placed on the ground, the toe is correspondingly elevated with a dis- 

 sion to turn up — a form of breaking down which we have described 

 when speaking of the fracture of the sesamoids. Carrying weight is 

 done only with considerable difficulty, but with comx)aratively little 

 pain, and the animal will unconsciously continue to move the leg as 

 if in great suffering, notwithstanding the fact that his general condi- 

 tion maj" be very good and his appetite unimpaired. 



The effect upon the general organism of compound lacerated wounds 

 of tendinous structures, or those which are associated with injuries of 

 the skin, are different. The wound becomes, in a short time, the seat 

 of a high degree of inflammation with abundant suppuration, filling 

 it from the bottom; and the tendon, Avhether as the result of the bruise 

 or of the laceration, or of maceration in the accumulated pus, under- 

 going a process of softening, and necrosis and sloughing ensue. This 

 complicates the case, and probably some form of tendinous synovitis 

 follows, running into suppurative arthritis, to end, if close to a joint, 

 with a fatal result. 



The prognosis of lacerated tendons should be very cautiously 

 attemi)ted. Under the most favorable circumstances a period of from 

 six weeks to two months will be necessary for the treatment, before 

 the formation of the cicatricial callus and the establishment of a firm 

 union between the tendinous stumps. 



As with fractures, and even in a greater degree, the necessity is im- 

 perative, in the treatment of lacerated tendons, to secure as perfect a 

 state of immobility as can bo obtained compatibly with the disposition 



