292 DISEASES OF THE BONES AND ARTICULATIONS. 



young dogs have a predisposition to fractures and rickets, or a 

 tendency that way may also produce fractures from a weakened or 

 softened condition of the bone. 



General Classification of Fractures. We separate fractures 

 under different names according to their position, severity, and the 

 complications accompanying them. 



General Classification of Complete and Incomplete Frac- 

 tures. In the first class belong infractions, splits or cracks, 

 impressions or depressions. 



In the second class belong oblique, transverse, longitudinal, and 

 fissure fractures; in pups where the epiphysis and diaphysis would 

 sometimes have fractured through the symphysis due to traumatic 

 influences. This fracture, which is rather common, especially in 

 the humerus and radius, is always confined to the immediate neigh- 

 borhood of the symphysis. The general course of these fractures 

 is the same as ordinary fractures, and no special mention is neces- 

 sary regarding fractures of the soft parts. 



The condition of the soft tissues in the neighborhood of the frac- 

 tures and the amount of injury that they have had are of great 

 importance in the prognosis. All fractures in which the soft 

 tissues are not very much injured, and where the skin has not been 

 torn, heal very much quicker than those where there is an open 

 wound extending iuto the fractured end of the bone. The first 

 are termed simple fractures, and the latter compound fractures. 

 "Where the fracture has involved a joint, it is called an intra-articular 

 fracture. They are very slow and difficult to treat, and present 

 such symptoms as synovitis, either with or without serous or puru- 

 lent inflammations. In such fractures, even when we have union 

 of the broken ends of the bone, we may have either a stiff joint or 

 ankylosis from complications in the joint. 



Clinical Symptoms. The symptoms of fracture are generally 

 indicated by partial or complete loss of the use of the whole or 

 part of a limb. There is pain on pressure, deformity in the sym- 

 metry of the broken bones of that part of the body, and on moving 

 the fractured ends there is a rubbing sound (crepitation) similar to 

 rubbing two hard, rough surfaces against each other. The amount 

 of loss of power in a broken bone depends to a great extent on the 

 amount and severity of the fracture. This is very marked in frac- 

 tures of the extremities; great pain on pressure, especially on the 



