DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 21 



very serious affection and a great source of loss to horse 

 owners, it would seem to be the height of folly to breed 

 from animals already diseased, and which are almost 

 certain to reproduce in their progeny the tendency to 

 take on the same abnormal character. 



While visiting in the country some years ago, a pa- 

 tron of mine called my attention to a foal about three 

 weeks old that had an enlargement on the inside of the 

 hock which I quickly found to be a true bone spavin. 

 I inquired carefully about the sire and dam. I could 

 not find out anything about the sire that could be of 

 value in coming to a correct conclusion regarding the 

 condition of his hocks, but the owner of the colt still 

 owned the dam. On examination I found that she was 

 a plucky cob that had been worked hard to a butcher's 

 cart for years; that she had two well developed spavins 

 on the hocks, which even then were a cause of the stiff 

 and stilty action so characteristic of horses with fully 

 developed spavins, and in which the inflammation 

 which is always present during the period of develop- 

 ment of spavin had previously disappeared. The owner 

 informed me that he had noticed the peculiarity at the 

 time the colt was foaled. I have never seen any but this 

 case where a foal was born with a well developed spavin, 

 but spavins frequently develop at a very young age, 

 and in many cases it will be found that the progenitors 

 were the subjects of the same disease. Therefore, in 

 breeding horses of every class care should be taken that 

 horses with bone-spavin should be excluded from the 

 farm. 



STAGGERS. This is a very serious disease and no 

 animal should be bred from that has at any time shown 

 any symptom of it. 



