326 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



the bones are completely broken, but the incomplete fracture can only 

 be suspected. 



Symptoms. — There is no displacement, but excessive mobility, crep- 

 itation, inability to sustain weight, and the leg is kept off the ground 

 by the flexion of the upper joint. 



No region of the body affords better facilities for the application of 

 treatment, and the prognosis is, on this account, usually favorable. 

 We recall a case, however, which proved fatal, though under excep- 

 tional circumstances. The patient was a valuable stallion of highly 

 nervous organization, with a compound fracture of one of the cannon 

 bones, and his unconquerable resistance to treatment, excited by the 

 intense pain of the wound, precluded all chance of recovery, and 

 ultimately caused his death. 



Treatment. — The general form of treatment for these lesions will 

 not differ from that which has been already indicated for other frac- 

 tures. Reduction, sometimes necessitating the casting of the patient ; 

 coaptation, comparatively easy by reason of the subcutaneous situa- 

 tion of the bone; retention, by means of splints and bandages — 

 applied on both sides of the region, and reaching to the ground as 

 in fractures of the forearm — these are always indicated. We have 

 obtained excellent results by the use of a mold of thick gutta-percha, 

 composed of two sections and made to surround the entire lower part 

 of the leg as in an inflexible case. 



FRACTURE OF THE FIRST PHALANX. 



The hind extremity is more liable than the fore to this injury. It 

 is usually the result of a violent effort, or of a sudden misstep or 

 twisting of the leg, and may be transverse, or, as has usually been the 

 case in our experience, longitudinal, extending from the upper artic- 

 ular surface doAvn to the center of the bone, and generally oblique 

 and often comminuted. The symptoms are the swelling and tender- 

 ness of the region, possibly crepitation ; a certain abnormal mobility ; 

 an excessive degree of lameness, and in some instances a dropping 

 back of the fetlock, with perhaps a straightened or upright condi- 

 tion of the pastern. 



The difficulty of reduction and coaptation in this accident, and the 

 probability of bony deposits, as of ringbones, resulting in lameness, 

 are circumstances which tend to discourage a favorable prognosis. 



The treatment is that which has been recoi^mended for all frac- 

 tures, so far as it can be applied. The iron splint which has been 

 mentioned gives excellent results in many instances, but if the frac- 

 ture is incomplete and without displacement, a form of treatment less 

 energetic and severe should be attempted. One case is within our 

 knowledge in which the owner lost his horse by his refusal to subject 

 the animal to treatment, the post-mortem revealing only a simple 

 fracture with very slight displacement. 



