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GREASE. 



The physic, or the diuretic ball, may occasionally be used, but very spa- 

 ringly ; and only when they are absolutely required. In the hands of the 

 owner of the horse, or of the veterinary surgeon, they may be employed with 

 benefit ; but in those of the carter or the groom they will do far more harm 

 than good. The frequent and undue stimulus of the urinary organs by the 

 diuretic ball, will be too often followed by speedy and incurable debility. If 

 the swelling bids defiance to exercise and friction and bandage, the aid of the 

 diuretic may be resorted to, but never until these have failed, unless there is an 

 evident tendency to humour or grease. 



Swelled legs, although distinct from grease, is a disease that is apt to degene- 

 rate into it. Grease is a specific inflammation of the skin of the heels, some- 

 times of the fore-feet, but of tener of the hinder ones. It is not a contagious 

 disease, as some have asserted, although when it once appears in a stable it 

 frequently attacks almost every horse hi it. Bad stable management is the true 

 cause of it. 



There is a peculiarity about the skin of the heel of the horse. In its healthy 

 state there is a secretion of greasy matter from it, in order to prevent excoriation 

 and chapping, and the skin is soft and pliable. Too often, however, from bad 

 management, the secretion of this greasy matter is stopped, and the skin of the 

 heel becomes red, and dry, and scurfy. The joint still continuing to be extended 

 and flexed, cracks of the skin begin to appear, and these, if neglected, rapidly 

 extend, and the heel becomes a mass of soreness, ulceration, and fungus. 



The distance of the heel from the centre of circulation, and the position of 

 the hind limbs, render the return of blood slow and difficult. There is also 

 more variation of temperature here than in any other part of the frame. As 

 the horse stands in the closed stable, the heat of this part is too often increased 

 by its being embedded in straw. When the stable door is open the heels are 

 nearest to it, and receive first, and most powerfully, the cold current of air. 

 When he is taken from his stable to work the heels are frequently covered with 

 mire and wet, and they are oftenest and most intensely chilled by the long and 

 slow process of evaporation which is taking place from them. No one, then, can 

 wonder at the frequency with which the heels are attacked by inflammation, 

 and the difficulty there is in subduing it. 



Much error has prevailed, and it has led to considerable bad practice, from 

 the notion of humours flying about the horse, and which, it is said, must have 

 vent somewhere, and attack the heels as the weakest part of the frame. Thence 

 arise the physicking, and the long course of diuretics, which truly weaken the 

 animal, and often do irreparable mischief. 



Grease is a local complaint. It is produced principally by causes that act 

 locally, and it is most successfully treated by local applications. Diuretics and 

 purgatives may be useful in abating inflammation ; but the grand object is to get 

 rid of the inflammatory action which exists in the skin of the heel, and to heal 

 the wounds, and remedy the mischief which it has occasioned. 



The first appearance of grease is usually a dry and scurfy state of the skin 

 of the heel, with redness, heat, and itchiness. The heel should be well but 

 gently washed with soap and water, and as much of the scurf detached as is 

 easily removable. An ointment, composed of one part plumb, diacct. and seven 

 of adeps suillae, will usually supple, and cool, and heal the part. 



When cracks appear, the mode of treatment will depend on their extent and 

 depth. If they are but slight, a lotion, composed plumbi sulph. 5'j- e ^ 

 aluminis 5iiij., dissolved in a pint of water, will often speedily dry them up, 

 and close them. There is sometimes considerable caprice in the application of this 



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