580 Veterinary Medicitie. 



up they do not hold the limbs plumb, but allow them to deviate 

 one way or another in an unsightly way. There is liable to be 

 swelling of important joints of the limb, (knee, hock, stiffle, fet- 

 lock), which are tender to pressure and kept partly flexed. The 

 ends of the ribs are often enlarged. Bending of the long bones 

 (tibia or radius), and deviations of the back or sternum from 

 the straight line are significant. Thickening of the ends of the 

 bones, or in the region of the epiphyseal cartilages are lairgely 

 diagnostic. The bones are easily fractured. In swine fed on 

 potatoes, corn, etc. , besides the affections of the limbs, the thick- 

 ening of the bones and swelling of the joints, especially the 

 hock and pastern, there is enlargement of the nasal and maxil- 

 lary bones so as to seriously obstruct breathing ( ' ' Snuffles " ) . 

 The teeth suffer and break readily and in the general break down 

 diarrhoea, bronchitis or skin eruption appears and the subject 

 falls into marasmus and perishes. In the necropsy arthritis is 

 commonly found. In cattle beside the epiphyseal swellings, the 

 bow legs and joint enlargement, the back becomes crooked, ver- 

 tically or laterally. The same general symptoms appear in dogs 

 in which bow legs are a very prominent feature. Goats suffer 

 badly and mostly remaifi recumbent. 



Birds suffer most, showing knotty thickening of the bones of 

 the legs and wings, and flexibility of the bones generally but 

 above all of the keel of the sternum, which is usually badly dis- 

 torted from sitting on the perch. 



In all alike there are usually a few days of fever, followed by 

 indigestion, colics, anorexia, and a general air of illness. Then 

 appear the lameness, stiffness and swelling of bones and joints. 

 Any joint may suffer, shoulder, elbow, knee, hips, stifle, hock, 

 or fetlock. The lameness may shift as in rheumatism,^ it may 

 intermit, occurring periodically, or it may advance uninterruptedly 

 to a fatal issue. Paraplegia is common and appears to be due at 

 times to pressure on the spinal nerves by the diseased vertebrse. 

 Before this becomes complete, the animal may walk with the 

 whole digits and metatarsi in contact with the ground, and the 

 softened crumbling calcis may project through the skin forming 

 an unsightly sore which soon becomes septic. The same happens 

 at times to the point of the elbow. 



Treatment. The most important, are the hygienic considera- 

 tions. Reject weak or cachectic animals from breeding, and those 



