314 THE HORSE. 



thougL in itself it is not dangerous, yet it marks the existence of 

 constitutional weakness which is likely to occasion some more fatal 

 malady. The treatment should consist in attending to the general 

 health by strengthening the mare, which is best done by giving 

 her a drachm of the sulphate of iron in her corn twice a day. 

 The joints of the foal should be rubbed with equal parts of soap 

 liniment and spirit of turpentine, and it should be assisted to stand 

 for the purpose of sucking at regular short intervals if unable to 

 help itself. In aggravated cases, however, the foal is not likely 

 to recover its general strength, and it may be better to destroy it, 

 but so long as it can stand and feeds well hopes may be enter- 

 tained of the joints recovering. 



INFLAMED TENDINOUS SHEATHS. 



EVERY PRACTICAL HORSEMAN is aware that the sheaths in 

 which the back sinews and other tendons are lodged are liable to 

 inflammation and thickening, without the tendon itself being 

 involved. By passing the hand down the leg, an irregular network 

 may be felt surrounding the tendons, which move up and down 

 without disturbing it ; and the surrounding cellular membrane is 

 also thickened, and becomes hard and unyielding. There may be 

 considerable heat about the part, but often it is quite cool ; and 

 the disease may continue for months without any great lameness, 

 and with nothing to draw attention to it (excepting a slight 

 stiffness on leaving the stable) but the sensation communicated to 

 the hand. At length, an unusually severe day's work sets up 

 active inflammation, the leg rapidly fills, and there is so much 

 lameness as to cause the horse to be thrown by. The treatment in 

 the early stage, should be the use of bandages, constantly kept 

 wet with arnica and water, and nothing but walking exercise. 

 After the thickening is fully established, no remedy short of 

 blistering, or a charge, will be of the slightest avail, with a rest of 

 two or three months. 



INFLAMED BURS^E MUCOS^. 



THESE SYNOVIAL BAGS are liable to inflammation, either from 

 hard work, as in windgalls and thoroughpin, or from blows, as in 

 capped hock and elbow. The latter are said by some veterina- 

 rians to be serous abcesses , but there is no doubt that in all 

 horses a subcutaneous bursa exists on the cap of the elbow and 

 hock j and these become inflamed and filled with a very thin 

 synovia, when they are bruised. They never extend beyond a 

 certain size, and have no tendency to burst; nor are they inclined 

 to a healthy termination of their own accord, but go on in the 

 same condition from year to year. 



WINDGALLS, OR p< ^FS, are the most usual forms of these en- 



