DISEASES OF THE FETLOCK, ANKLE, AND FOOT. 449 
Complications —Complications concurrent with or supervening 
upon: laminitis are frequent and varied, and are often dependent 
upon causes not fully understood. 
Excessive purgation is one of the simplest of these, and not usually 
attended with dangerous consequences. It rarely occurs unless in- 
duced by a purgative, and the excessive action of the medicine is 
probably to be explained upon the theory that the mucous membrane 
sympathizes with the diseased lamine, is irritable, and readily be- 
comes overexcited. The discharges are thin and watery, sometimes 
offensively odorous, and occasionally persist in spite of treatment. 
It may prove disastrous to the welfare of the patient by the rapid 
exhaustion which it causes, preventing resolution of the laminitis, 
and may even cause death. 
Septicemia and pyemia.—Septicemia and pyemia are unusual com- 
plications and are seen only in the most. severe cases in which bed 
sores are present or suppuration of the laminz results. They die, as 
a rule, within three days after showing signs of the complication. 
‘Pnewmonia—the so-called metastatic—needs no special considera- 
tion, for in its lesions and symptoms it does not differ from ordinary 
pheumonia, although it may be overlooked entirely by the practi- 
tioner. Examinations of the chest should be made every day, so as 
to detect the disease at its onset and render proper aid. 
Sidebones.—A rapid development of.sidebones is one of the com- 
plications, or, perhaps better, a sequel of laminitis not often met with 
in practice. Here the inflammatory process extends to the lateral 
cartilages, with a strong tendency to calcification. The deposition 
of the lime salts is sometimes most rapid, so that the “bones” are 
developed in a few weeks; in other instances they are deposited 
clowly and their growth is not noted until long after the subsidence 
of the laminitis, so that the exciting cause is not suspected. This 
change in the cartilagés may commence as early as the first of the 
laminitis; and although the trouble in the lamin ig removed in the 
course of a fortnight the symptoms do not entirely subside, the 
animal retains the shuffling gait, the sidebones continue to grow, and 
the patient usually remains quite lame. This alteration of the 
cartilages generally prevents the patient from recovering his natural 
gait, and the practitioner receives unjust censure for a condition of 
affairs he could neither foresee nor prevent. 
The laminitic process occasionally extends to the covering of the 
coronet bone, or at least concurrent with and subsequent to iaminitis 
the development of “low ringbone” is seen, and it is apparently 
dependent upon the disease of the lamine for its exciting cause. The 
impairment of function and consequent symptoms are much less 
marked here than in sidebones. The coronet remains hot and sensi- 
36444°—16——29 
