SPRAIN OF LIGAMENTS OP FEET. 345 



grasp the lower part of the leg (as he would in examining a case of 

 shoulder lameness) and endeavor to produce excessive passive mo- 

 tion. This will probably cause pain when the leg is made to assume 

 a given position. Let him push the thigh forcibly against the hip 

 bone, and the contact will again probably cause a manifestation of 

 pain. If the horse is trotted, the limited action of the hip joint 

 proper and the excessive dropping and rising of the hip of the oppo- 

 site side will be easily recognized. Usually the animal does not 

 extend the foot as far as customarily and picks it up much sooner. 



The abductive or circumflex motion, observed in shoulder lameness 

 is also present in hip lameness, but under special conditions, and 

 the test of the difficulty, either by traveling on soft ground or in 

 turning the horse in a circle, may here also contribute to the diag- 

 nosis, as in testing for lameness in the anterior extremity. 



Prognosis. — The prognosis of hip lameness is at times quite seri- 

 ous, not only on account of the long duration of treatment required 

 to effect good results, and because of the character which may be 

 assumed by the disease, but of the permanence of the disability re- 

 sulting from it. Exostosis and ulcerative arthritis are sequelae which 

 often resist every form of treatment. 



Treatment. — As before intimated, this is little more than a repetition 

 of the remarks upon the lameness of the shoulder, with slight modifi- 

 cations occasioned by the muscular structure of the hip, and we are 

 limited to the same recommendations of treatment. The advantages 

 of rest must be reaffirmed, with local applications, of which, however, 

 it may be said that they are more distinctly indicated and likely to be 

 more effective in their results than in shoulder lameness, and may be 

 more freely employed, whether in the form of liniments, blisters 

 (singly or repeated), firing, or setoning. 



SPRAINS OF SUSPENSORY LIGAMENTS AND OF THE FLEXOR TENDONS OR THEIB SHEATH. 



The fibrous structure situated behind the cannon bones, both in the 

 fore and hind legs, is often the seat of lacerations or sprains resulting 

 from violent efforts or sudden jerks. 



Cause. — The injury may be considered .serious or trifling, according 

 to the circumstances of each case as judged by its own history. Among 

 the predisposing causes are a long thin fetlock and a narrow knee or 

 hock as viewed from the side, with the flexor muscles tied in just below 

 the joint. The longer and more oblique the pastern the greater is the 

 strain on the flexor tendons and suspensory ligaments, hence a low 

 quarter, a toe calk, and no heel calks, or a thin calk placed at the tip 

 under the toe, and leaving the quarters long abnormally stretches the 

 back tendons and causes a great strain upon them just before the 

 weight is shifted from the foot in locomotion. In runners and hunters 

 the disease is apt to be periodic. In driving horses it is most common 



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