FISTULOUS WOUNDS 435 



have antiseptic lotions applied at frequent intervals to ensure a cure. 

 When the wound has healed, two or three weeks should be allowed to pass 

 over before the animal is again put to work, so that the injured part 

 may becouie thoroughly restored. 



Prevention. — Always have well-padded and properly-fitting harness 

 and clotliiiig, and as soon as any sign of chafing occurs, at once remove the 

 offending agent. In this way many tedious and painful wounds may be 

 avoided. 



FISTULOUS CORONET 



This is treated of under the heading of " Quittor " on p. 378. 



SORE SHOULDERS AND SHOULDER ABSCESSES 



" Sore shoulders " is an expression which is applied to a variety of 

 pathological conditions, from the most superficial abrasion to infiammation 

 and abscess deeply seated in the structure of the part. It is almost exclu- 

 sively confined to harness horses and others engaged in heavy draught, and 

 for the reason, no doubt, that the collar they wear is the exciting cause of 

 the malady. Young horses which are collared for the first time, horses with 

 thin, delicate, and sensitive skin, and others on whose shoulders small 

 fibrous tumours or eczematous eruptions appear, are most frequently the 

 victims of sore shoulders. 



Now and again animals with none of these predisposing conditions are 

 made to suffer by violent irritation to the surface and contusion of the 

 deep-seated tissues. 



Collars that are ill-fitted, badly-formed, and imperfectly-stuffed, are the 

 actual or inducing causes, and their mischievous eflTects are intensified by 

 cold, wet weather, when the skin is chafed and chapped. 



The more numerous and simple forms of the affection are mere abra- 

 sions. The cuticle is rubbed off", the sensitive skin is exposed and thickened 

 by inffammatory swelling, and maybe the hair leaves its follicles. It is, 

 besides, hot and sore, and when seen on a white horse there is more or less 

 redness of the surface. 



In this condition the application of the collar provokes pain, and the 

 animal obstinately refuses to throw himself into it, and attempts to remove 

 the pressure by backing. Young horses are frequently ill-used by ignorant 

 grooms on account of this resistance to suff"ering, and from quiet, willing 

 workers are converted into unmanageable and useless brutes. 



The continuance of work after this primary chafing results in sores of 

 greater or less extent and depth, with, in some cases, sloughing of the skin 

 or the formation of superficial abscesses. 



