DISEASES OF THE FETLOCK, ANKLE, AND FOOT. 403 
animal to hobble on three legs. While at rest the leg is flexed at the 
joint affected, and the toe rests on the ground. ; 
Treatment.—If the injury is slight, cold-water bandages and a few 
days’ rest are sufficient.to effect recovery. When there is an intense 
lameness, swelling, etc., the leg should be placed under a constant 
stream of cold water, as described in ‘the treatment for quittor. 
When the inflammation has subsided, a blister to the joint should be 
applied. 
In some cases, especially in old horses long accustomed to fast 
work, the ligaments of the joints are ruptured, in whole or in part, 
and the lameness may last a long time. In these cases the joint should 
be kept completely at rest; this condition is best obtained by the 
application of plaster of Paris bandages, as in cases of fracture. 
Asa rule, patients take kindly to this bandage, and, while wearing it, 
may be given the freedom of a roomy box or yard. If they are dis- 
posed to tear it off, or if sufficient rest can not otherwise be obtained, 
the patient must be kept in slings, 
In the majority of instances the plaster bandage should remain on 
from two to four weeks. If the lameness returns when the bandage 
is removed, a new one should be put on. The swelling, which always 
remains after the other evidences of the disease have disappeared, 
may be largely dissipated and the joint strengthened by the use of the 
firing iron and blisters. 
A joint once injured by a severe sprain never entirely regains ‘its 
original strength, and is ever after particularly liable to a repetition 
of the injury. 
RUPTURE OF THE SUSPENSORY LIGAMENT. 
Sprain with or without rupture of the suspensory ligament may 
happen in either the fore or hind legs, and is occasionally seen in 
horses of all classes and at all ages. Old animals, however, and espe- 
cially hunters, runners, and trotters, are the most subject to this 
injury, and with them the seat of the trouble is nearly always in one 
or both the fore legs. Horses used for heavy draft are more liable to 
have the ligament of the hind legs affected. 
When the strain upon the suspensory ligament becomes too great, 
one or both of the branches may be torn from the sesamoid bones, one 
or both of the branches may be torn completely across, or the liga- 
ment may rupture above the point of division. 
Symptoms.—The most common injury to the suspensory ligament 
is sprain of the internal branch in one of the fore legs. The trouble 
is indicated by lameness, heat, swelling, and tenderness of the affected 
branch, beginning just above the sesamoid bone and extending 
obliquely downward and forward to the front of the ankle. If the 
whole ligament is involved, the swelling comes on gradually, and is 
