370 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



An exception is to be made, while considering the subject in con- 

 nection with the region now under advisement, in respect to the 

 formidable affection known as morbus coxarius, or hip- joint dis- 

 ease ; and leaving the detail of other lesions to take their place under 

 other heads, that relating to the shoulder, for instance, we turn to 

 the hip joint and its ailments as the chief subject of our present 

 consideration. 



Symptoms.^— In investigating for morbus coxarius, let the ob- 

 server first examine the lame animal by scanning critically the out- 

 lines of the joint and the region adjacent for any difference of size 

 or disturbance of symmetry in the parts, any prominence or ro- 

 tundity, and on both sides. The lame side will probably be warmer, 

 more developed, and fuller, both to the touch and to the eye. Let 

 him then grasp the lower part of the leg (as he would in examining 

 a case of shoulder lameness) and endeavor to produce excessive pas- 

 sive motion. 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 manifesta- 

 tion 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 

 opposite side will be easily recognized. Usually the animal does 

 not extend the foot so far as customarily and picks it up much 

 sooner. 



The abductiveor 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. 



Tre(dmen,t. — As before intimated, this is little more than a repeti- 

 tion of the remarks upon the lameness of the shoulder, with slight 

 modifications occasioned by the muscular structure of the hip, and we 

 are limited to the same recommendations of treatment. The ad- 

 vantages 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. 



