The pelvic limb of the ostrich is innervated by the lumbar and sacral plexuses. The lumbar plexus gave rise to several nerves (N.s) including, N. coxalis cranialis, lateral and cranial femoral cutaneous N.s, N. femoralis, cranial, caudal and medial crural cutaneous N.s, and N. obturatorius. The remaining nerves emanated from the sacral plexus. The N. iliotibial, N. ischiofemoralis, N. iliofibularis, and N. coxae caudalis were distributed in the thigh, while the N. ischiadica, which terminated as the tibial and fibular N.s that innervated the leg and foot. The tibial N. gave rise to the parafibular N. then divided to form the Nn. suralis medialis and lateralis. The N. suralis medialis continued as the N. metatarsalis plantaris medialis. The parafibular N. continued as the N. plantaris lateralis, which terminated as the R. digitalis of the fourth digit. The fibular N. terminated as the superficial and deep fibular N.s. The superficial fibular N. continued as the N. metatarsalis dorsalis lateralis and divided into two digital N.s to the third and fourth digits. The deep fibular N. crossed the ankle joint and continued as the N. metatarsalis dorsalis medialis that continued as the R. digitalis of the third digit. In general, the innervation of the pelvic limb of the ostrich was similar to the pelvic limbs of several different species of domesticated birds, including the chicken. We discuss the few differences as well as appropriate sites to perform nerve blocks for the lateral and medial dorsal and the lateral plantar N.s.

Blood to the pelvic limb of the ostrich is provided by the external iliac and ischiatic arteries that arise from the descending aorta. The external iliac artery (a.) gave rise to the pubic a. that supplied the obturator muscles and continued as the femoral a. The femoral a. gave off three branches: (1) cranial coxal a. to muscles above the pre-acetabular ilium; (2) cranial femoral a. to muscles cranial to the femur, the gastrocnemius muscle, hip and stifle joints and (3) medial femoral a. to muscles caudal and medial to the femur. The ischiatic a. gave rise to the caudal coxal a. that supplied muscles caudal to the femur, muscular branches to the iliotibialis lateralis muscle and to the deep femoral a. that supplied the iliofibularis muscle, cutanea femoralis caudalis and lateralis aa., and branches to the flexors of the leg and knee joint, then terminated as the sural and popliteal arteries. The sural a. supplied most of the flexors of the foot. The popliteal a. supplied the knee joint and flexors of the leg, and then terminated as the cranial and caudal tibial arteries. The caudal tibial a. supplied flexors of the foot. The cranial tibial a. provided four branches to the knee and ankle joints and to the leg. The cranial tibial a. continued into the foot as the common dorsal metatarsal a., which gave off seven different branches to the ankle and foot. With few exceptions, the arteries of the ostrich pelvic limb are similar to those of domestic fowl.

The influence of activity upon the structure and properties of articular cartilage has been examined in two populations of fur-bearing animals. Morphological changes in cartilage of the caged animals were noted. Friction was mentioned in a vibrotribometer and it was noted that the caged animals exhibited a lower friction coefficient than the free-moving animals. In both cases the friction initially increased with age, reaching a maximum after about three years. It is concluded that prolonged hypokinesis associated with a cage-breeding regime acts like a mechanical stress factor which stimulates the development of degenerative changes in cartilage.

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