286 MALLENDERS AND SALLENDERS. 



what serious business, for it is usually produced by blows and 

 mostly by the injuries which the horse inflicts upon himself in the 

 act of kicking : therefore it is that a horse with a capped hock is 

 very properly regarded with a suspicious eye. The whole of the 

 hock should be carefully examined, in order to discover whether 

 there are other marks of violence, and the previous iiistory of the 

 animal should be carefully inquired into. Does he kick in har- 

 ness or in the stall, or has he been lying on a thin bed, or on no 

 bed at all ; and thus may the hock have been bruised, and the 

 swelling produced ? 



It is exceedingly difficult to apply a bandage over a capped 

 hock ; and puncturing the tumor, or passing a seton through it, 

 would be a most injudicious practice. Blisters, or iodine, repeated 

 as often as may be necessary, are the best means to be employed. 

 Occasionally the tumor will spontaneously disappear ; but at other 

 times it will attain a large size, or assume a callous structure, that 

 will bid defiance to all the means that can be employed.^ 



MALLENDERS AND SALLENDERS. 



On the inside of the hock, or a little below it, as well as at the 

 oend of the knee {h, Fig. 41), there is occasionally a surfy erup- 

 tion, called mallenders in the fore-leg, and saUenders in the hind- 

 leg. They seldom produce lameness ; but if no means are taken 

 to get rid of them, a discharge proceeds from them which it is af- 

 terwards difficult to stop. They usually indicate bad stable man- 

 agement. 



A diuretic ball should be occasionally given, and an ointment 

 of sugar-of-lead and tar, with treble the quantity of lard, rubbed 

 over the part. Should this fail, a weak mercurial ointment may 

 be used. Iodine has here also been useful. 



* Note hy Mr. Spooner. — The actual seat of this injuiy is between the 

 skin and the tendons inserted in, and passing over, the point of the hock. 

 The skiu is very loose at this part, and, to facilitate the motions of the hock, 

 there is much cellular membrane. A capped hock is a serous tumor or ab- 

 scess ; that is, the parts are inflamed and irritated from blows, and serum is- 

 thrown out between the skin and the cellular membrane, and the tumor is 

 circumscribed. The vice of kicking against the stall-post is, in nearly every 

 case, the cause of this disease. We sliould endeavor to remove the swelling 

 by cooling measures, followed by a blister, or the application of iodine oint- 

 ment : but if these means fail, and the tumor is large, we may pass a seton 

 through it with impunity, for there is no joint or tendinous sheath opened 

 The seton should be kept in until the discharge becomes slightly purulent, 

 or otherwise the tumnr will soon fill again with. serum. 



