204 VETERINARY MEDICINE ANB SURGERY. 



rising in frequency, becoming hard and wiry in its character, and the 

 animal evincing acute and agonizing pain by partial tremors and sweats 

 upon his body. In fact, all the constitutional symptoms indicate a state 

 of great irritability. The lameness is excessive. The animal is scarcely 

 able to put its foot to the ground, whilst at the same time the joain 

 causes it to keep it in an almost continual state of motion. An injury 

 not at first penetrating the joint may do so in the course of three or four 

 days, by sloughing of the tissues around it, these having been destroyed 

 but not removed by the violence of the injury. 



The discharge of synovia may be very trifling for some days after the 

 accident; but it gradually increases as the inflammation advances, is thin 

 in its consistency, and mixed with flakes of lymph; coagulates upon the 

 lips of the wound, and oozing through this there will be a thin watery 

 discharge. There is exudation of a large quantity of lymph into the tis- 

 sues surrounding the joint, Avhich becomes partly organized, forming a 

 hard, firm swelling. The secretion from the wound is now unhealthy, 

 purulent, or tinged with blood, whilst abscesses begin to form around 

 the articulation. 



When blood is seen in the synovial discharge, it is an indication that 

 the laminal extremities of the bones have been removed, that their vas- 

 cular interior is exposed, and that, if the joint affected be one of exten- 

 sive motion, it will be useless to keep the animal longer in its misery. 



Bring the lips of the wound together by suture, which must be either 

 metallic or catgut. If there are any foreign bodies, such as dirt, gravel, 

 or portions of disintegrated tissue in the wound, they must be carefully 

 removed before its lips are brought together. To support the suture, 

 and to prevent the admission of air and germs into the wound, the styp- 

 tic colloid, shellac, or collodion, must be applied, by being painted on in 

 successive layers with a camel's-hair pencil. The next thing to be done 

 is to place the animal in slings as soon as possible. This is essential to 

 the successful treatment of open joint, as it places the patient in the 

 most favorable position for repose, and by preventing him from making 

 even the attempt to lie down, does away with the danger of reopening 

 the wound. All other local applications, by interfering with the healing 

 process in the wound, are at this stage calculated to do harm. 



Wounds upon or near articulations should never be meddled with, by 

 any probing, for the purpose of discovering if there be fracture of the 

 bones. If fracture exist, the lameness will be excessive from the first. 



