LAMENESS: ITS CAUSES AND TKEATMENT. 349 



assurance of a favorable result as if he had been subjected to the 

 most heroic secundum artem doctoring known to science. As a 

 case in point, mention may be made of the case of a pregnant bitch 

 v'hich suffered a fracture of the upper end of the femur by being 

 run over by a light wagon. Her " treatment " consisted in being 

 tied up in a large box and let alone. In due time she was delivered 

 of a family of puppies, and in three weeks she was running in the 

 streets, limping very slightly, and nothing the worse for her 

 accident. 



FRACTURE OF THE PATELLA. 



This, fortunately, is a rare accident, and can result only from 

 direct violence, as a kick or other blow. The lameness which follows 

 it is accompanied with enormous tumefaction of the joint, pain, 

 inability to bear weight upon the foot, and finally disease of the 

 articulation. Crepitation is absent, because the hip muscles draw 

 away the upper part of the bone. The prognosis is unavoidably 

 adverse, destruction being the only termination of this incurable 

 and very painful injury. Most of the reported cases of cures are 

 based upon a wrong diagnosis. 



FRACTURES OF THE TIBIA. 



Of all fractures these are probably more frequently encountered 

 than any others among the class of accidents we are considering. As 

 with injuries of the forearm of a like character, they may be com- 

 plete or incomplete; the former when the bone is broken in the 

 middle or at the extremities, and transverse, oblique, or longitudinal. 

 The incomplete kind are more common in this bone than in any 

 other. 



Symptoms. — Complete fractures are easy to recognize, either with 

 or without displacement. The animal is very lame, and the leg is 

 either dragged or held clear from the ground by flexion at the stifle, 

 while the lower part hangs down. Carrying weight or moving back- 

 ward is impossible. There is excessive mobility below the fracture, 

 and well-marked crepitation. If there is much displacement, as 

 in an oblique fracture, there will be considerable shortening of 

 the leg. 



While incomplete fractures can not be recognized in the tibia 

 with any greater degree of certainty than in any other bone, there are 

 some facts associated with them by which a diagnosis may be justi- 

 fied. The hypothetical history of a case may serve as an illustration : 



An animal has received an injury by a blow or a kick on the inside 

 of the bone, perhaps without showing any mark. Becoming very 

 lame immediately afterwards, he is allowed a few days' rest. If 

 taken out again, he seems to have recovered his soundness, but within 



