lameness: its causes and treatment. 373 



fore to this deformity, in consequence of the greater amount of labor 

 they are required to perform as the propelling levers of the body. 



Sym'ptoms. — The symptoms of knuckling are easily recognized. 

 The changes in the direction of the bones vary more or less with the 

 degree of the lesion, sometimes assuming such a direction that it 

 almost becomes a true dislocation of the pastern. 



The effect of knuckling upon the gait also varies according to the 

 degree of the deformity. As the different degrees of the shortening 

 of the leg affect the motion of the fetlock, the lameness may be very 

 slight or quite extreme. Another consequence of this shortening is 

 such a change in the position of the foot that the heels cease to come 

 in contact with the ground and assume a greater elevation, and the 

 final result of this is soon witnessed in the development of a clubfoot. 



Treatment. — ^To whatever cause the knuckling may be ascribed, it 

 is always a severe infirmity, and there is but little room for hoping 

 to overcome it unless it be during the very first stages of the trouble, 

 and the hope dwindles to still smaller dimensions when it is secondary 

 to other diseases below the fetlock. If it is caused by overworking 

 the animal, the first indication, of course, will be rest. Line firing 

 has proved very efficacious in these cases. The animal must be turned 

 loose and left unemployed. Careful attention should be given to the 

 condition of his feet and to the manner of shoeing, while time is 

 allowed for the tendons to become restored to their normal state -and 

 the irritation caused by excessive stretching has subsided. A shoe 

 with a thick heel will contribute to this. If no improvement can be 

 obtained, however, and the tendons though retracted have yet been 

 relieved of much of their thickening, the case is not a desperate one, 

 and may yet be benefited by the operation of tenotomy, single or 

 double — an operative expedient which must be committed to the 

 experienced surgeon for its performance. 



SPRUNG KNEES. 



Though not positively the result of diseases of the tendons acting 

 upon the Imees, we venture to consider this deformity in connection 

 with that which we have just described. It consists in such an alter- 

 ation in the direction and articulation of the bones which form the 

 various carpal joints that instead of forming a vertical line from the 

 lower end of the forearm to the cannon bone they are so united that 

 the knee is more or less bent forward, presenting a condition caused 

 by the retraction of two of the principal muscles by which the cannon 

 bone is flexed. 



Cause. — This flexion of the knee may be a congenital deformity 

 and have continued from the foaling of the animal ; or, like clubfoot, 

 it may be the result of heavy labor which the animal has been com- 



