210 SHOULDER LAMENESS. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



INJURIES AND LAMENESS OF THE FORE 

 EXTREMITIES. 



SHOULDER LAMENESS. 



This, in a few instances, occurs, but not so frequently 

 as the farrier imagines. The proof of the lameness 

 being in the shoulder, and not lower down, is the 

 peculiar gait of the animal. The horse suffers pain 

 at every motion of the shoulder, and therefore limits 

 the action of the bone as much as he can by not lift- 

 ing or advancing the foot ; but dragging it after him 

 along the ground. This is the principal and most 

 general symptom. When the lameness is in the foot 

 or leg, the foot is readily lifted ; in an affection of 

 the shoulder the foot may not be raised at all. 



Another, and even a more certain mode of distin- 

 guishing between lameness of the foot and the shoulder, 

 is to lift the foot; and then gradually extend the 

 limb forward. If the injury is in the foot, the horse 

 will generally suffer no kind of pain from the exten- 

 sion of the leg; but if the shoulder be injured, he will 

 exhibit very great agony when it is attempted to 

 bring the limb forward. 



The shoulder should be well fomented; a calkin 

 put on the heel of the shoe ; blood taken from the 

 toe of the foot or the plate vein ; and a dose of physic 

 administered. If the lameness continue after this, a 

 liquid blister, diluted by the addition of its own bulk 



