788 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



occur among animals, which from disease or injury are 

 kept in one position through their inability to lie down, we 

 have repeatedly satisfied ourselves by post-mortem examina- 

 tion* There is such a thing as the navicular disease of 

 rest, which is due to compression the result of long-con- 

 tinued enforced idleness; the only other factor required 

 being a weak navicular bone with very little compact 

 tissue. 



There is also, of course, the navicular disease of work, 

 especially if that work is sharp and irregular. The influ- 

 ence of long-continued rest in one position, in producing 

 nutritive changes in the limb, cannot be too strongly im- 

 pressed. We now refer particularly to the enforced rest 

 which has to follow injury or disease, when the sound 

 leg, as in a case of lameness, is frequently doing double 

 work in supporting the weight of the body. Both flexor 

 tendons and joints suffer, especially the fetlock joint and 

 the navicular bursa. The laminae of the feet also sufl^er, 

 so that even separation with descent of the pedal bone 

 may occur. 



Valuable as rest is in the treatment of lameness it should 

 not be abused ; if necessarily prolonged, the conditions we 

 have pointed out should if possible be neutralized by the 

 horse being placed in a box, so that he is at liberty to move 

 about. The chief danger to be apprehended from rest is 

 in those cases where it is taken in a fixed position, as for 

 example in a case of broken knees. The hygienic advan- 

 tage of slings is here demonstrated ; if owing to the nature 

 of the case it is impossible for a horse to be allowed to lie 

 down, slings are indicated as a means of rest, and to assist 

 in preventing permanent nutritive changes in the sound 

 limb. What is true of the fore leg is equally true of the 

 hind. 



Nor does it require disease to produce these nutritive 

 changes resulting from horses kept in one position ; there 

 is nothing commoner than laminitis from standing on 



*'Some Joint Diseases of the Horse': Journal of Comparative 

 Pathology and Therapeutics, vol. v., 1892. 



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