670 OPERATIONS ON THE FOOT. 



serious. It has also been seen in sheep, in goats and in swine. 

 It may, in fact, occur in all ungulated animals. Dogs, even, are 

 not exempt from its attacks. 



The simple bloody congestion, more or less inflammatory, of 

 the keratogenous apparatus of the horse, is sometimes caUed acute 

 laminitis and acute founder. The disease may pass off by reso- 

 lution, leaving no traces of its occurrence, but more commonly 

 it becomes complicated with some lesion of more important and 

 serious a character, as hemorrhage, suppuration, inflammatory 

 exudation, and especially of a hypersecretion of the horny sub- 

 stances, in which case it becomes chronic laminitis or founder; 

 an affection which gives rise to alterations of a peculiar nature, 

 and leads to certaia changes in the form and character of the 

 hoof. We do not agree to the divisions admitted by several 

 authors, into traumatic laminitis, rheumatismal laminitis, and 

 •metastatic laminitis. 



I. Sym2:)toms. — Laminitis, in most instances, is preceded by 

 certain general symptoms, such as are premonitory of the inva- 

 sions of ordinary inflammatory diseases, but of an uncertain sig- 

 nificance. There is dullness, general insensibility, muscular 

 tremblings, and stiffness of the loins. The respiration is accel- 

 erated, the pulse febrile, the mucous membranes injected, the 

 mouth dry, the f cecal discharges dry and coated, the urine scanty; 

 and perhaps anorexia is present. Kodet, who held that laminitis 

 is more a secondary than primitive affection, and that it is simply 

 an inflammatory angeiothenioal fever which had localized itself, 

 was obliged to acknowledge that this fever has nothing character- 

 istic, and that it is always followed by laminitis. 



It is certain, however, that but a short time elapses — from 

 several hours to one or two days — ^after the originating cause has 

 become active, before the bloody congestion of the reticular 

 tissues and the peculiar phenomena belonging to the disease 

 become manifest. It is only when the capillary circulation of 

 the foot has considerably increased, and when the rigidity of the 

 structure prevents the swelling of the podophyUous tissue, that 

 laminitis truly exists. 



Laminitis in the horse has the following principal symptoms : 

 Considerable heat of the entire foot, extreme sensibility with 

 intense pain, increasing rapidly, and obliging the animal to rest 

 upon the sound legs, in order to relieve the affected ones; diffi- 



