214 V'BJ!: HORSB. 



Where the animal stands, or where constant lying indicates it, 

 to prevent extensive sores, the patient should be placed in slings, 

 and the weight supported in this manner to the relief of the 

 feet. When all four feet are affected it may be impossible to use 

 slings, for the reason that the patient refuses to support any of his 

 weight on his feet and simply hangs in them. lyastly, convalescent 

 cases must not be returned to work too early, else permanent recovery 

 may never be effected. 



Peditis. This is the term which Williams applies to that serious 

 complication of laminitis where not only the laminae but the periosteum 

 and the coflEin bone are also the subjects of the inflammatory process. 

 Neither is this all, for in some of these cases of peditis acute inflamma- 

 tion of the "coffin joint" is present, and occasionally suppuration of 

 the joint. A mild form of periostitis, iti which the exudation is in the 

 outer or looser layer of the periosteum only, is a more common condi- 

 tion than is recognized by practitioners generally, and the intimate 

 contiguity of structures is the predisposing cause, the disease either 

 spreading from the original seat, or the complication occurs as one 

 of the primary results of the exciting cause. In the severer cases 

 where the exudate separates the periosteum from the bone, suppu- 

 ration, gangrene, and superficial caries are common results; where 

 infiltration of the bone tissues is rapid the blood supply is cut off 

 by the pressure upon the vessels and death of the coffin bone ensues. 

 Grave constitutional symptoms mark these changes and soon prove 

 fatal. 



In the mild cases of periostitis it is by no means easy to determine its 

 presence positively, for there are no special symptoms by which it may 

 be distinguished from pure laminitis. In the majority of the acute cases, 

 though, which show no signs of improvement by the fifth to seventh 

 day, it is safe to suspect that periostitis is present, particularly if the coro- 

 nets are very hot, the pulse remaining full and hard, and the lameness 

 acute. In the fortunately rare cases where the bone is affected with 

 inflammation and suppuration, the agony of the patient is intense; he 

 occupies the recumbent position almost continually, never standing for 

 more than a few minutes at a time, suffers from the most careful hand- 

 ling of the affected feet; maintains a rapid pulse and respiration, high 

 temperature, loss of appetite and great thirst. It is in these cases the 

 patient continually grows worse, and the appearance of suppuration at 

 the top of the hoof in about two weeks after the inception of the dis- 



