70 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



if kept on. If, however, the wound is deep, after it has 

 been carefully washed, and you are satisfied there 

 is no dirt or other substance in the wound, get some 

 carbolic oil made with one part pure carbolic acid, and 

 five parts finest Lucca or salad oil, pour some into the 

 wound, then press the lips of the wound as close together 

 as possible, and if you can put a stitch into it with a 

 curved needle to hold the lips together, it will greatly 

 facilitate the healing process. 



Having got the lips together, saturate a pellet of tow 

 with the oil, bandage it firmly over the w T ound, and do 

 not remove the bandage again for three or four days, by 

 which time the wound will have become consolidated. 

 Sometimes the leg will swell very much, and masters and 

 grooms fear that the leg is too tightly bandaged and undo 

 it too soon, causing the wound to slough, and leave an 

 ugly scar for their pains. When legs swell from the 

 inflammation set up by the wound, it can easily be pre- 

 vented from rising up the leg to the body by puncturing 

 the swollen mass with the lancet in three or four places ; 

 this will let out the inflammatory fluid and arrest the 

 swelling. The limb should be bathed with arnica lotion 

 composed of arnica b.p. one part, and cold spring water 

 ten parts. Keep the limb moist with linen bandages 

 soaked with the lotion ; never let them get dry, or you 

 will do much more harm than good. It is better to have 

 the legs washed with the lotion and no bandages put on 

 than to let the bandage get dry. Short-legged horses 

 very seldom overreach, but long-legged ones often do — to 

 their owner's cost, and risk of neck and collar-bone, &c, 



