602 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



seat of the sudden or acute lameness, while "cold swelling," or thicken- 

 ing of parts may as surely indicate the location of chronic troubles 

 affecting the tendons or muscles, and pronounced enlargements, hot or 

 cold, or bony growths, tell the story of the cause of lameness Implicating 

 joints. 



SEEKING THE CAUSE. 



When Dobbin is seen to be lame there are two ways of acting under 

 the circumstances, viz.: the cruel way and the humane way, and, needless 

 to say, the latter is the right way. The cruel man sees that his horse 

 is lame, but takes a keen interest in the scenery or pays not the slightest 

 attention and goes on calculating how to increase his pile of "filthr 

 lucre" until the officer of the humane society stops him and takes him 

 before the magistrate. The right-acting owner instantly shares in the 

 suffering of his limping horse and is not satisfied until he has taken 

 him out of harness and instituted measures for relief of the pain. 



Having unhitched and removed the harness, let the horse stand on' 

 the board floor without resitraint, other than the halter, and make the' 

 necessary examination. Bearing in mind what we have said about 

 the things indicative of lameness locations, the horse in a moment or 

 two may show plainly by his manner of standing and acting, which leg 

 is affected and then what part of the limb is causing the pain. This 

 much learned, the next step — no matter what is evident to the eye — 

 should be to pick up the foot of the affected leg and make a careful, 

 examination of the nail-prick or other injury. This is done by remov- 

 ing the shoe, then by tapping with a hammer over each nail hole and 

 at the spots where the nails have been clinched; then by squeezing 

 with a large pair of pinchers lightly over every bit of the sole. Instantly 

 when the sore spot is touched in this way the horse will flinch by pulling 

 or jerking the foot, and that is enough to indicate the necessity of 

 attention being given to the hoof. If the foot shows no sign of trouble, 

 after the most thorough search imaginable, then, and then only, should 

 one commence an examination of other parts of the limb, unless, of 

 course, there is a fresh, bleeding or bruised wound known to have been 

 caused by accident. 



Apart from a nail-prick, crack, stone-bruise or other injury of the 

 foot, or sudden attack of founder (which is indicated by the symptoms 

 we have described together with high fever and lack of appetite), sudden 

 lameness is most likely to have arisen from a sprain, wrench or injury 

 of a muscle or tendon or joint, and these, in turn, have each to be 

 thoroughly examined for heat, soreness, swelling sensitiveness, thicken- 

 ing, softening, tightening, relaxing, presence of cuts, abrasures, abscesses, 

 collections of serum, etc. In a majority of lameness cases the cause is 

 located below the knee or hock. Shoulder or hip are less often af- 

 fected and often most difficult to determine as the true seat of the 

 trouble. When there is no history of injury sudden lameness may be at- 

 tributed to rheumatism, and in that case tends to shift from one joint 

 or muscle to another place ,in the body and often causes "cracking" of 

 the joints when the animal is made to move about. The latter symptom 

 is mostly seen in old horses and in chronic cases of rheumatism. In 



