376 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 
one of wire. It may easily occur to a runaway horse when he is 
“ whipped” with fragments of harness or “flogged” by fragments 
of splintered shafts “thrashing” his legs, or by the contact of his 
legs with the wagon he has overturned and shattered with his heels 
while disengaging himself from the wreck. 
Symptoms.—It is not always necessary that the skin be involved 
in this form of injury. On the contrary, the tegument is fre- 
quently left entirely intact, especially when the injury follows 
infectious diseases or occurs during light exercise after long periods 
of rest in the stable. Again, the skin may be cut through and the 
tendons nearly severed. <A point a little above the fetlock is usually 
the seat of the injury. But irrespective of this, and whether the 
skin is or is not implicated, the symptoms resemble very much those 
of a fracture. There is excessive mobility, at least more than in 
a normal state, with more or less inability to carry weight. There 
may be swelling of the parts, and on passing the hands carefully 
along the tendon to the point of division the stumps of the divided 
structure will be felt more or less separated, perhaps wholly divided. 
The position of the animal while at rest and standing is peculiar 
and characteristic. While the heels are well placed on the ground, 
the toe is correspondingly elevated, with a tendency to turn up— 
a form of breaking down which was described when speaking of 
the fracture of the sesamoids. Carrying weight is done only with 
considerable difficulty, but with comparatively little pain, and the 
animal will unconsciously continue to move the leg as if in great 
suffering, notwithstanding the fact that his general condition may be 
very good and his appetite unimpaired. 
The effect upon the general organism of compound lacerated 
wounds of tendinous structures, or those which are associated -with 
injuries of the skin, are different. The wound becomes in a short 
time the seat of a high degree of inflammation, with abundant 
suppuration filling it from the bottom; the tendon, whether as the 
result of the bruise or of the laceration, or of maceration in the 
accumulated pus, undergoes a process of softening, and necrosis and 
sloughing ensue. This complicates the case and probably some form 
of tendinous synovitis follows, running into suppurative arthritis, 
to end, if close to a joint, with a fatal result. 
Prognosis—The prognosis of lacerated tendons should be very 
conservative. Under the most favorable circumstances a period of 
from six weeks to two months will be necessary for the treatment, 
before the formation of the cicatricial callus and the establishment 
of a firm union between the tendinous stumps. 
Treatment—As with fractures, and even in a greater degree, the 
necessity is imperative, in the treatment of lacerated tendons, to 
obtain as perfect a state of immobility as can be obtained compatibly 
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