700 
OTTO G. NOACK. 
walk at all. Upon examination I found excessive volar flexion 
of the left front hoof in the crown joint caused by contraction of 
the flexor perforans, in the region between the first and second 
third of the metacarpus; there could be noticed a thickening in 
form of a hard and sharp defined swelling. My diagnosis was 
chronic tendinitis. 
I informed the owner that the prognosis was not very favor¬ 
able and the only treatment to be applied was tenotomy and 
explained to him how it had to be done. At ^first he was 
doubtful, but as the horse'in the condition he was in was worth¬ 
less to him, he consented. As the general practitioner has not 
much time to lose and the operations have to be made with 
little assistance, it is an impossibility to go according to rules 
and one has to be guided by circumstances. I disinfected at 
first the leg as well as was possible under the circumstances> 
injected right above the thickening 5 grammes of a 10 per cent, 
solution of cocaine, and putting the twitch to the horse’s upper 
lip I made an incision through the skin with a pointed bis¬ 
toury right at the swelling on the outside. After this I 
inserted a blunt tenotome with its surface lying close to the 
tendon till I felt it on the inside and turned the knife against 
the tendon and cutting it slowly, the hoof came down 
suddenly with a loud noise before the tendon was completely 
cut through and the horse could stand on his foot. Profuse 
bleeding showed that blood vessels had permeated already the 
thickening. After cleansing with a solution of creolin I 
applied an aseptic bandage. Two days afterwards I opened the 
bandage and found that suppuration had set in, perhaps by 
some hair or another foreign body that had gained access dur¬ 
ing the operation. The wound was cleaned every other day , 
with creolin. After the third day of operation the horse got , 
daily exercise for about ten minutes for three weeks. In this 
time the wound had healed and the horse showed by walking ; 
on the old shoes a very bad plantar flexion. To avoid this I : 
o-ave the horse a* shoe withoiit calkins, but thickened heels, the 
& . 
toe cut very short with rolling motion, and by this I overcame | 
