Other forms of suffering than those confined to the feet affect the progression of the horse; the "whirl-bone" or hip-joint is sometimes visited by ulceration. The symptoms then in a degree resemble those exhibited when occult spavin is present; the affected limb is, however, after touching the earth, caught up more sharply when the hip is diseased. The hoof, moreover, is presented more fully during motion in the last-mentioned affection. The best method, however, to ascertain the existence of the ulceration, is to hold some soft substance over the joint, then to strike it with a mallet; the shock will be communicated to the seat of lameness, and elicit an energetic response.
ACUTE LAMENESS CAUSED BY ULCERATION
WITHIN THE HIP-JOINT.
Nothing can be done for such a condition; certain barbarities are proposed as experiments by continental veterinarians; but man obviously has no right to run chances with cruelty practiced upon breathing life. Hip-joint disease is decidedly incurable, and renders every step a separate agony.
The shoulder is a very favorite seat of injury with those who pretend to a knowledge of equine ailments; with such simple folk, if a horse be lame behind, the cause is always traced to the whirl-bone; should an animal have partially lost the use of an anterior limb, the injury is invariably found in the shoulder. The proof of their correctness is always exhibited in the lessened bulk of the parts referred to; but throw a limb out of use, as lameness in the horse always does, and the absorption of the whole extremity, from want of exercise, naturally ensues.
DRAGGING THE LIMB, THE INDICATION OF
SHOULDER LAMENESS.
The shoulder-joint is occasionally ulcerated; but more often disease is found upon the tendon of the flexor brachii, a muscle which, arising from the shoulder-joint, is of service in flexing the radius. In both cases the seeming length of the arm is remarkable; so also is the fixedness of the shoulder, and the obstinate refusal to advance or to flex the arm. The consequence is, that a horse with disease of the shoulder drags the limb, and never lifts the toe from the ground.
Ulceration is sometimes, though rarely, witnessed within the elbow-joint; a case of this description is recorded by the late W. Percival. The chief symptom indicated subacute laminitis; the affection appeared gradually, and, without intermission, proceeded from simple bad to the very worst. The foot was, however, neither hot nor tender; by this sign the affection was distinguished from every form of fever in the feet, although the animal endeavored to bear only upon the heels of the fore extremities, and brought the hind legs as far under the body as was possible.