Shoe -boil 173 



flabby bag, which contains a little watery fluid. The 

 cause of shoe -boils is irritation due to lying on the 

 shoe, with the foot bent back ; hence, as soon as the 

 first signs of it appear, the source of the irritation 

 should be removed. This is not always easy. If the 

 heels of the shoe are long they should be shortened, so 

 that they will not protrude. The horse should be well 

 bedded and a thick protecting pad placed on the pas- 

 tern of the offending leg. Another excellent method 

 of preventing a horse from lying on the heel of the 

 shoe is to spike a piece of plank two by six inches 

 across the stall, about a foot back of where the front 

 feet usually stand. The corners of the two -by -six 

 should be rounded and the whole well covered with 

 bedding at night. This prevents the horse from doub- 

 ling the fore foot back on the elbow when lying down, 

 but does not inconvenience the animal. 



In the early stages of this disease, fomentations of 

 hot water twice daily followed with a stimulating lini- 

 ment well rubbed in will often bring relief. If the 

 shoe -boil is large and filled with fluid, it should be 

 opened at the most dependent part, the false membrane 

 lining the cavity destroyed by swabbing the cavity out 

 with butter of antimony, and the wound treated as 

 a fistula. 



Another form of capped elbow is a fibrous tumor, 

 which usually occurs where a soft shoe -boil breaks and 

 is neglected, or when the cause of the shoe -boil is 

 not entirely removed. The best treatment is to remove 

 the fibrous bunches with the knife and to treat after- 

 ward as a simple wound. 



