MOUNTED INSTRUCTION 23 



or structural diseases of the heart, liver or kidneys. These last induce 

 dropsical swelling- of the limbs (stocking), weaken the parts, and in- 

 duce cracking. Finally, the scar of a preexisting crack, weak, rigid and 

 unyielding, is liable to reopen under any severe exertion ; hence rapid 

 paces and heavy draft are active causes. 



Warts: These are essentially an overgrowth of the superficial layer 

 of the skin. They are mostly seen in young horses about the lips, eye- 

 lids, cheeks, ears, beneath the belly and on the sheath, but may develop 

 anywhere. The smaller ones may be clipped ofif with scissors and 

 the raw surface cauterized with bluestone.- The larger may be sliced 

 ofT with a sharp knife, or if with a narrow neck they may be twisted 

 ofT and then cauterized. If very vascular they may be strangled by a 

 wax thread or cord tied around their necks, at least three turns being 

 made around and the ends being fixed by passing them beneath the 

 last preceding turn of the cord, so that they can be tightened day by 

 day as they slacken by shrinkage of the tissue. Very broad warts that 

 cannot be treated in this way may be burned down with a soldering 

 bolt at a red heat to beneath the surface of the skin, and any subse- 

 quent tendency to overgrowth kept down by bluestone. 



Vegetable Parasites of the Skin: Ringworm. This is especially 

 common in young horses coming into training and work. In the horse 

 the symptoms are the formation of circular, scurfy patch where the 

 fungus has established itself, the hairs of the affected spot being erect, 

 bristly, twisted, broken, or split up and dropping ofif. Later the spot 

 first afifected has become entirely bald, and a circular row of hairs 

 around this are erect, bristly, broken and split. These in turn are shed 

 and a new row outside passes through the same process, so that the 

 extension is made in more or less circular outline. The central bald 

 spot, covered with a grayish scurf and surrounded by a circle of broken 

 and split hairs is characteristic. The eruption usually appears on 

 the back, loins, croup, chest and head. 



The most efifective way of reaching the parasite in the hair follicles 

 is to extract the hairs individually, but in the horse the mere shaving 

 of the aiTected part is usually enough. It may then be painted with 

 tincture of iodine twice a day for two weeks. Germs about the stable 

 may be covered up or destroyed by a whitewash of freely burned 

 quicklime, the harness, brushes, etc., may be washed with caustic 

 soda and then smeared with a solution of corrosive sublimate one 

 half dram and water one pint. 



Another parasite which attacks the horse's head where the harness 

 presses, leads to the dropping of the hair, leaving bald patches cov- 

 ered with a branlike scurf, without any eruption, heat, tenderness, 

 swelling, or rigidity of the skin. A lotion of carbolic acid one dram 

 and water 2^^ ounces is usually applied to effect a cure. 



Animal Parasites of the Skin: Mange. The mite is nearly micro- 

 scopical, but may be detected with a magnifying lens among moving 

 scurf taken from the infected skin. It burrows little galleries in and 

 beneath the scurf skin, where it hides and lays its eggs and where its 



