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458 TWENTY-SEYENTH ANNUAL MEETING 
Even with extensive contraction the animal is not always lame; hut it 
usually at first “ points,” that is, stands with the leg forwards and outwards, 
resting on the toe. The animal paws the litter from under the affected feet; it 
is lame on exit from the stable, but frequently warms out of its stilted gait and 
travels sound, when the enforced functional activity has brought the blood back 
to the compressed vessels under the heels to lubricate the dried walls. Later, 
the muscles of the shoulders become atrophied. (Sweeny.) 
Morbid Anatomy. —In addition to the external alterations which are visible, 
and which have just been described as symptoms, there is found an atrophy of 
the internal structures of the foot. The fog is diminished in size, the wall is 
compact, thickened, and shows a discoloration of the cement; the elastic cushion 
is atrophied, and shows strata of fibrous tissue and yellow elastic tissue; the 
podophyllous laminae are diminished in size ; the third phalanx and navicular 
bones may be atrophied. 
In “ false contraction,” or localized contraction of the heels, there is diminu¬ 
tion of the transverse diameter of the heels; no increase in the height, and no in¬ 
crease in the thickness of their walls; this form is always acquired, is accom¬ 
panied by acute lameness and fever in the heel, and is almost always due to bad 
shoeing. 
COMPLICATIONS. 
The complications of contraction are produced by pressure, defective nutri¬ 
tion, unstable support, aud want of functional activity, and may implicate any 
portion of the entire leg. Navicular disease, with atrophy or ulceration of the 
bone and interference with the synovial secretion, is the result of long-continued 
pressure ; corns and ecchymoses of the podophyllous laminae are the result of 
lateral pressure; quittors are predisposed to by the defective nutrition of the 
quarters ; greasy heels find origin from the same cause ; ringbones and windgalls 
are produced by the strains to which the bones and tendons above are subjected 
in the animal’s attempt to alleviate the pain in the foot by false positions ; con¬ 
tractions and degenerations of the flexor tendons occur from want of function ; 
want of use of the leg causes atrophy of the muscles of the shoulders; uneven 
support of the leg causes interfering; and last but not least, if the case has been 
going on for some time, scars of blisters and of the hot iron and setons may be 
found from the fetlocks to the upper end of the scapula, which have been in¬ 
tended to accomplish what could have been done with a paring knife and a proper 
shoe. 
PROGNOSIS. 
In general, the prognosis of contraction depends, to a great extent, upon the 
duration of the disease and the amount of atrophy of the bones and plantar 
cushion which has been produced. A foot which has entirely diminished in size 
will rarely return to its normal condition, while considerable contraction of the 
heels may entirely disappear, but it is wonderful what a resisting and recupera¬ 
tive power the foot possesses, and unexpected results are often obtained. There 
is no disease in which tentative treatment is so necessary before giving a defiuite 
prognosis. Trivial contraction will at times prove obstinate and become com¬ 
plicated with other troubles, while an excessively deformed foot and a seemingly 
hopeless lameness will make a rapid journey to recovery from the day of the 
first treatment. 
