STIFF JOINTS. 273 



changes be3'ond the formation of adhesions. In this case, the 

 doctor may proceed to forcibly extend tlie joint, so as to breali. 

 down the adhesions tlion and there, or may get his patient, by 

 working dumb bells or Indian clubs or by other exercises, to 

 gradually straighten out the fibrous bands that form the adhesions, 

 and to lengthen the- contracted ligaments. In slight cases, and 

 especially with foals, I would follow !Moller's advice to obtain the 

 necessary obliquity of pastern by lowering the heels, and if that 

 did not do, by using a long-toed shoe (Fig. 101), whicli wovdd 

 naturally increase the leverage. In bad oases, calkins of the form 

 shown in Fig. i, should be used with the long-toed shoe, and 

 lowered from time to time in accordance with the descent of the 



Fig. 104. — Long-toed shoe. 



fetlock. The effect of lowering the heels would be increased liy 

 using tips, or by emplo)nng shoes which are thick at the toes and 

 thin at the heels. Mciller, in his work on veterinary surgerj^, 

 describes the treatment of foals which knuckle over, as entirely 

 successful by forcible extension, after the animal has been cast, and 

 then keeping the pastern in proper position by carefully padded 

 splints, or by a special apparatus, sucli as that of Friebel or 

 Brunet, either of which could be obtained from a veterinary instru- 

 ment maker. Major Blenkinsop and Colonel Nunn, A.V.D., have 

 performed many experiments in restoring mobility to stiif fetlock 

 joints by forcible extension while the patient has been under the 

 influence of chloroform, the employment of which, or of ether, is a 

 necessity for overcoming the natural resistance of a grown-up horse. 

 For this object, the action of the drug should be pushed so as to 

 obtain complete muscular relaxation. The after-treatment con- 

 sists of bandaging with cotton wadding (p 44) and in massage 



18 



