170 VETERINARY DENTAL SURGERT. 



inability to bear the introduction of the bit; difficulty 

 in masticating the food; perhaps hemorrhage from 

 the mouth, or saliva streaked with blood. Upon 

 examination the buccal membrane will be found 

 bruised, inflamed and swollen with perhaps a piece 

 of bone sticking through it. 



TREATMENT. 



Remove the small fragments. As the frac- 

 ture is superficial no bandaging is required, but 

 the animal must not be bitted .until the parts are 

 completely healed and hardened, or he will have 

 a bad or weak mouth ever afterwards ; indeed some 

 horses that I have seen never allow a bit to be put 

 in their mouths again without great struggling 

 and resistance. The animal should be fed upon soft 

 diet for some days after the injury and the wound 

 examined occasionally, or portions of bran, hay or 

 corn are apt to lodge in it, causing irritation and 

 retarding the healing process. If the wound dis- 

 charge a fetid material it should be syringed with a 

 weak solution of carbolic acid; in any case the mouth 

 may be washed with this two or three times a day. 

 SYMPTOMS FROM FRACTURE BY THE CURB. 

 Swelling and tenderness of ramus immediately in 

 front of the curb; sinuses shortly form, and within 

 them loose pieces of necrosed bone may be detected 

 by the probe. The discharge is curdled, fetid, but 

 not very profuse. In some of these cases there is no 



