INFLAMMATION OF THE FLEXOR TENDONS. 
573 
the suspensory ligament, lameness is slight. When only one division of 
the ligament is affected, lameness may be absent. Lameness is usually 
deferred until some hours after the strain. 
Lameness is only shown when weight is placed on the limb. Attempts 
are made to shorten that phase of movement during which the phalanx 
is in a position of volar flexion, i.e., is upright and under the body. 
Neither passive extension nor rotation appear very painful, a fact which 
distinguishes the disease in question from disease of the joint. The 
symptoms are then, supporting leg lameness; shortening of the period 
when the limb is upright, volar flexion of the phalanx, and absence of 
pain when the limb is rotated. Sometimes animals try to relieve the 
weight on the diseased limb by setting the heels on an eminence, e.g., on 
a stone, and, by thus bringing the fetlock into an upright position, 
minimise the tension on the tendons. This is well seen in the hind 
limbs during disease of the flexor perforans. When lameness is severe, 
the animal never stands so completely on the foot, even when at rest, as 
it occasionally does in disease of the joint. 
(2) Local examination detects pain, swelling, and increased warmth, 
which latter, however, is only seen early in the disease, and even then 
indistinctly. It is difficult to distinguish pain in the reinforcing band of 
the flexor perforatus (superior carpal ligament), though it also occa¬ 
sionally suffers. In applying pressure to the tendons, it is important 
not to be deceived by mere general sensitiveness. 
The swelling varies in degree and extent, that accompanying strain of 
the flexor perforatus or sub-carpal ligament being, in “clean” legs, some¬ 
times visible from a distance, and in other cases only to be detected by 
palpation. At first it is soft and diffuse; later it becomes harder and 
sometimes sharply defined. In examining for pain and swelling, the 
foot is lifted; the reinforcing bands can only be properly examined in 
this position. 
(3) The symptoms enumerated are afterwards followed by shortening 
of the diseased tendon, continuous volar flexion and upright position of 
the hoof. This is differentiated from the volar flexion produced by 
placing weight on the leg, by the fact that it continues even when the 
animal stands fairly on the limb; the point is at once settled by lifting 
the other foot. Whilst contraction of the flexor perforans produces 
volar flexion in all the lower joints, contraction in the flexor perforatus 
and suspensory ligament only affects the obliquity of the pastern ; the 
hoof remains in its normal position. 
In race-horses a large number of fasciculi of the flexor perforans may 
be ruptured, producing abnormal dorsal flexion of the phalanges and 
so-called “break-down.” This is oftenest seen when both limbs suffer, 
or when the animal is forced to stand continuously on the diseased limb. 
