Common Diseases of the Horse 193 



certain in its action. Swelling will occur, but in a few days cold- 

 water bandages may be used, and finally the horse will be sound 

 with very little or no blemish. 



Other methods used with varying success are shaving the hair 

 from the limb over the splint and frequently painting with strong 

 iodine liniment; the application of setons; by passing a knife 

 in underneath the skin and cutting the covering of the bone 

 over the splint. These operations, however, are not generally 

 adopted, and it is not necessary to go into further details regard- 

 ing them. 



A word of warning should be given regarding the use of 

 liniments and other liquids of a like character. The application 

 of these does a great amount of harm, by causing irritation and 

 increased inflammation to acutely-inflamed parts, and their use 

 cannot be too strongly discouraged save when under veterinary 

 direction. 



Spavin 



Spavin is a deposition of bone on the lower anterior and inner 

 aspect of the hock; the joint itself is composed of six bones, but 

 in addition to these, the large bone, known as the tibia, which 

 runs from the stifle, forms its upper boundary, and the cannon, 

 or metatarsal bone, with which we may include the two splint 

 bones, forms the lower part of the joint. Flexion of the hock is 

 carried out by the tibia and the upper bone of the hock. This 

 joint seldom or never becomes affected with the disease. 



The deposit of bone takes place on or between the lower small 

 bones where only a little gliding movement takes place. In reality 

 spavin is an inflammation of the bone or its covering, and this 

 causes the bony deposit to be thrown out; and eventually leads 

 to fusion or welding together of two, or even all, of the small 

 bones. Sometimes the inflammation occurs on the articular sur- 

 face of the bones without any bony deposit being discernible. 

 The term " occult spavin " is applied to this condition. It is 

 most difficult to diagnose, and is often only suspected when the 

 observer has failed to find any other cause for lameness in the 

 limb. Conformation is undoubtedly a predisposing cause, and the 

 horse with a strong, well-formed hock is much less liable to the 

 disease. A coarse hock, i.e. where all the prominences are large 

 and well developed, is far less susceptible than the clean, fine 

 one. The best hock is broad and long, and when the hand is 

 passed over it, it should glide without perceptible obstruction to 

 the cannon bone. This condition is usually met with in a fine, 



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