TRAUMATIC DISLOCATIONS 



503 



nomenon ensues. The leg, while able to support weight, 

 dangles helpless in the posterior stride, as if affected with 

 a serious fracture. (Fig. 251). The anterior stride is wanting, 

 and hock flexion nil, but the pathognomonic symptom is the 

 curling up of the tendo-Achilles while walking and the ex- 

 treme relaxed condition found on palpation when the leg is- 

 not supporting weight. 



TREATMENT. — The patient is kept in the standing 

 position with slings for two weeks and then given the 

 freedom of a loose box or paddock, or else turned out alone 

 in the pasture. The surface of the anterior tibial region 

 may be medicated with liniments, and later with a good 

 cantharides blister. 



Fig. 251 — Rupture of Posterior Metatarsi. 



PROGNOSIS. — Recovery occurs in eight weeks to three 

 months in a horse in the prime of life. Aged horses recover 

 such slower, and some of them never entirely recover the 

 lost hock flexion. 



Traumatic Dislocations. 



The truly ginglymoid character of the joints of quad- 

 rupeds, the interlocking arrangement of most all of the ar- 

 ticular surfaces and the strength of the binding ligaments 

 protect animals against luxations. Animals are more ex- 

 posed to the very kind of injuries that should cause luxations 

 than human beings, but on acount of these anatomical fea- 

 tures their occurrence is rare. 



