[Footnote A:  S.W.  Wilson, M.R.C.V.S., A.V.D., Veterinary Journal, vol. xv., p. 12.]

Treatment of Fractures of the Bones of the Foot.—­It will be seen at once that in most cases anything in the way of bandaging is well-nigh useless.  When the os coronae is fractured, however, a little more may be added to the natural rigidity of the parts by enclosing the region of the pastern and the foot in a plaster-of-Paris bandage.  The main treatment, however, in every case, will be a continual use of the slings for at least seven to eight weeks, by that means compelling the animal to give to the injured parts the necessary amount of rest.

With fracture of the os pedis, when such is caused by pricks and complicated by a flow of pus, then attention must be given to removal of the displaced piece of bone.  The pus track is to be followed up with the searcher, sufficient horn removed with the knife, and the broken piece of bone removed with a scalpel and a pair of strong forceps, the operation to be afterwards followed up by antiseptic dressings to the opening.  Until this is done the wound refuses to heal.

Fracture of the navicular bone, if in any way diagnosed with certainty, offers us an almost hopeless case, for it appears to be a commonly reported fact that attempts at reunion are rare.  This, in all probability, is due to the pressure put upon it every now and again, when the animal’s weight presses the bone between the os coronae and the os pedis above and the perforans tendon below.  Even should reunion take place, the resulting callus, interfering as it does with the movements of the perforans, leaves us a case of incurable lameness.  When the fracture is complicated by the formation of pus, as in the case of prick, then the case, with the attendant purulent synovitis and arthritis, is even more hopeless still.

Diagnosis of fracture of either of the bones of the foot is, as we have said before, extremely difficult.  It so happens, therefore, in those cases caused by violent blows, that anything approaching an accurate opinion cannot be given until some months after the injury.  After some time we are met with unmistakable changes in the form of the foot, and are able to assume that the persisting lameness is due to pressure of a reparative callus within the hoof.  In such cases the only treatment of any use is that of neurectomy.

CHAPTER XII

DISEASES OF THE JOINTS[A]

[Footnote A:  Properly speaking, we have in the foot of the horse but one joint—­namely, the corono-pedal articulation.

Although not a joint in the strict sense of the word, we, nevertheless, intend here to consider the navicular bursa as such.  In this apparatus, although we have no articular cartilage proper, and no apposition of bone to bone, we still have a large synovial cavity, and in close proximity to it bone.  We may, in fact, and do get in it exactly similar changes to those termed ‘synovitis’ and ‘arthritis’ elsewhere.  Therefore, we include the changes occurring in it in this chapter, and hence the plural use of the word to which this note refers.]