216 DISEASES OF THE HOESE'S FOOT 



more so than when the plantar aponeurosis alone is 

 injured. 



Should the original wound be insufficiently enlarged, or 

 should its opening become occluded l)y the solid matters of 

 the discharge, then this condition, like the last, ends in 

 the formation of fistulous openings in the heel. These 

 make their appearance as hot, painful, and fluctuating 

 swellings in that position. Later they break, discharge 

 their contents, and leave a fistulous track behind. 



(e) Fracture of the Navicular Bone. — Penetration of the 

 substance of the navicular bone, without its fracture, adds 

 nothing to the symptoms we have described under puncture 

 of the bursa. That the bone has been reached by the 

 penetrating object may be detected by probing. This, 

 however, must be performed with care, especially if a flow 

 of synovia is absent. Otherwise, the wound, as yet, per- 

 haps, superficial enough to avoid penetrating even the 

 bursa, is made a penetrating one by the probe itself. 



Fracture of the navicular bone is fortunately rare. 



(/) Penetration of the Pedal Articulation and Arthritis. — 

 This we shall consider in greater detail in Chapter XII. 

 It is sufficient here to state that the condition may be 

 suspected when a hot and painful swelling of the whole 

 coronet makes its appearance. There is at the same time a 

 diffused cedema of the fetlock and the region of the cannon, 

 sometimes extending upwards to the whole of the limb. 



Of all the complications to be met with in punctured foot 

 this is the one most to be dreaded. The intense pain and the 

 high fever render the animal weak and thin in the extreme. 

 The appetite becomes impaired, sometimes altogether lost, 

 and the patient in many cases appears to die from sheer 

 exhaustion. Added to this is always the extreme proba- 

 bility of the wound becoming purulent, and later the dread 

 of general septic infection of the blood-stream ensuing, and 

 death resulting from that. Even with the happier ending 

 of resolution, anchylosis of the joint and incurable lame- 

 ness is more often than not left behind. (See Suppurative 

 or Purulent Arthritis, Chapter XII.) 



