216 DISEASES OF THE HORSE’S FOOT 
more so than when the plantar aponeurosis alone is 
injured. 
Should the original wound be insufficiently enlarged, or 
should its opening become oceluded by 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. 
(f) 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.) 
