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young horses of an irritable temperament. It is often mistaken 

 for dislocation of the patella, sometimes called luxation of the 

 petella (which see). 



Symptoms. The horse will persistentl}'' refuse to move the leg 

 from the position in which it is placed. Quivering or excitement 

 of the muscles of the thigh, accompanied with irritation and fever. 

 The liorse cannot be moved, as he refuses to do so. 



Causes. Irregularity of the nervous system. 



Treatment. Move tlie animal, if it be possible, and the cramp 

 will give way. Dashing cold water against the thigh will often 

 remove it. The horse will get well, if time be only given him. 

 Thus, if a person leave the stable to tell some one of the matter, 

 he will he surprised, on coming back, to find the horse well. 



Crib-Biting. — This is not a disease, but a vice — a bad habit, 

 which the horse has learned, of sucking wind into the stomach by 

 placing his lips against tiie manger. The habit has been so strong 

 in some horses, that when they could get no place to press the lips 

 against, they have stooped down and placed the lips against the 

 arm of their own front leg. This vice is sometimes called wind- 

 sucking. 



Causes. Idleness, indigestion, and learning it from other animals 

 in the same stable. 



Prevention. Keep horses in loose boxes, or other places where 

 there are no fixtures but the walls ; regular feed and regular work. 



Treatment. Do not let the horse stand in the stable twenty 

 hours out of the twenty -four. Feed him regularly, and work him 

 as regularly. Turn the animal to pasture, and when he is brought 

 home in the fall of the year, have a loose box prepared for him 

 without any fixtures, as manger, trough, or rack. Place his hay 

 upon the floor, and his oats or corn in a small trough, and remove 

 it as soon as the feed is eaten. 



Curb. — Oneof tlie many diseases of the hock -joint, and consists 

 in a swelling immediately below the point of the hock-joint, and 

 is the result of sprain of the posterior straight ligament; is more 

 frequent in horses with the hocks inclining forward (cow hoclv). 

 The treatment best adapted is the ointment of the red iodide of 

 mercur}^ (see Ointments), which is not onl}^ a counter-irritant, but 

 a sorbefacient. Apply about the size of a hickory-nut in quantity 



