INJURIES AND ACUTE INFLAMMATION OF THE STIFLE-JOINT. 69-5 
slinging, and in small ones a dressing should be applied, the limb being 
as much as possible extended. 
Y.—INJURIES AND ACUTE INFLAMMATION OF THE 
STIFLE-JOINT. GONITIS. 
The larger domesticated animals, and horses in particular, often suffer 
injuries of the patella and stifle from treads, kicks, stabs with stable- 
forks, thrusts with lances, sabre cuts, &c., which give rise to suppuration 
in the joint. Inflammation may also extend to the joint from the tendon 
sheaths of the flexor metatarsi and extensor pedis ; and as both portions 
of the femoro-tibial joint communicate, suppuration extends from one to 
the other, and eventually to the patellar joint. Acute aseptic inflamma¬ 
tion of the stifle-joint is less frequent, but may follow violent bruises or 
dislocations, and lead to extravasation into the joint, or to gonitis acuta 
serosa (hydrops genu). Cadiot described a case of tuberculous gonitis in 
a dog. In oxen, and less frequently in horses, rheumatic inflammation 
of the stifle-joint has been seen. 
The symptoms are : severe lameness ; the animal carefully avoids 
placing weight on or moving the limb; all the joints of the limb are 
held stiffly in a position of flexion (fig. 257) ; there is diffuse swelling, 
and, when the joint is wounded, discharge of purulent synovia. The 
animal shows fever and loss of appetite, lies continuously, and, if not 
killed, dies from decubitus, and with symptoms of septicaemia. The 
aseptic disease takes a longer course and exhibits less severe symptoms. 
Cases of moderate inflammation display a considerable likeness to gonitis 
chronica. 
The prognosis of septic or purulent gonitis acuta is almost hopeless, 
and in most cases slaughter is to be advised. Fat oxen should at once 
be killed, to avoid the loss of condition which results when disease 
becomes general. The aseptic form may be treated, particularly in 
valuable animals. The prognosis should be reserved if severe pain 
exist, because the continuous weight thrown on the other foot may 
produce acute laminitis, or the animal, unable to stand, may die from 
decubitus. Severe complications, nevertheless, may render even this 
form incurable; thus, a horse which had been struck by a carriage- 
pole suddenly became lame ; the animal died, apparently in consequence 
of pain, and on post-mortem, two fragments of bone as large as chest¬ 
nuts were found to have been detached from the outer condyle of the 
femur; they lay within the joint capsule. On the other hand, a seem¬ 
ingly severe injury exposing the patella healed in a month. In this 
case the joint was probably uninjured. Sherman saw a horse die from 
division of the femoral artery produced by a lance-thrust in the flank. 
