WOUNDS AND ACUTE INFLAMMATION OF THE HOCK-JOINT. 7L5 
strangles and pyaemia. Inflammation of the hock-joint, probably of 
metastatic origin, has been observed in cows soon after calving, some¬ 
times in both limbs at once. The cases usually followed retention of the 
after-birth, post-partum paralysis, agalactia, mastitis, and septic metritis. 
Calves and lambs often show inflammation of the hock-joint after 
omphalo-plilebitis (“navel-ill ”). Here it is probably due to metastasis. 
Morot and others have seen tuberculosis of the bock-joint in cattle. 
Dieckerhoff describes several instances of spontaneous inflammation of 
the bock-joint, which proved on post-mortem examination to be of a 
purulent character. Whether the cases of rheumatic inflammation so 
often described are caused by 
catching cold is uncertain. 
(For injuries to the point of the 
os calcis, compare with “ Capped 
Hock.”) 
Symptoms. The local injury 
generally dispels any doubt as to 
the character of the disease, 
especially if synovia is being dis¬ 
charged. There is always more 
or less swelling, which extends 
round the joint, and both upwards 
and downwards; though soft at 
first, it later becomes hard and 
resistant. The distension of the 
tibio - tarsal capsule is often 
masked by the periarticular.swell¬ 
ing. From the first lameness is 
severe, and is exhibited both when 
the limb is being advanced and 
when weight is placed on it (mixed Fl °' 264.-Exuberan^grantllation in front of 
lameness). Fever is present in 
the purulent or septic variety of disease, and periarticular abscesses 
always form. 
The disease can only be mistaken for severe subfascial cellulitis (see 
“ Wounds and Injuries of the Lower Thigh and Leg ”), but as this exhibits 
all the above-described symptoms, some time may elapse before the 
diagnosis becomes assured. If the condition improves after the abscesses 
break, and especially if lameness decreases, the joint may still prove 
intact, but improvement is sometimes only apparent, and due to 
laminitis in the other foot, from the animal continually standing. 
Increased pulsation in the metatarsal arteries points to the occurrence 
of laminitis and displacement of the os pedis. 
