310 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



Treatment. — \^lien, by careful scrutin}', the ailment has been 

 located, a resort to treatment must be had at once, in order to pre- 

 vent, if possible, any further deposit of the calcareous structuie and 

 increase of the exostotic growth. With tliis view the application of 

 water, either warm or cold, rendered astringent by the addition of 

 alum or sugar of lead, will be beneficial. The tendency to the forma- 

 tion of the bony growth, and the increase of its development after 

 its actual formation, may oft^n be checked by the application of a 

 severe blister of Spanish fly. The failure of these means and the 

 establishment of the diseased process in the form of chronic perios- 

 titis cause ^'arious changes in the bone covered by the disordered 

 membrane, and the result may be softening, degeneration, or necro- 

 sis, but more usually it is followed by the formation of the bony 

 growths referred to. on the cannon bone, the coronet, the hock, etc. 



SPLINTS. 



We first turn our attention to the splint, as certain bony enlarge- 

 ments that are developed on the cannon bone, between the knee or 

 the hock and the fetlock joint, are called. (See Plate XXY.) Thej'^ 

 are found on the inside of the leg. from the knee, near which they are 

 frequently found, downward to about the lower third of the principal 

 cannon bone. They are of various dimensions, and are readily per- 

 ceptible both to the eye and to the touch. They vary considerably in 

 size, ranging from that of a large nut downward to verj' small pro- 

 portions. In searching for them they may be readily detected by the 

 hand if they have attained sufficient development in their usual situ- 

 ation, but must be distinguished from a small, bony enlargement that 

 may be felt at the lower third of the cannon bone, which is neither a 

 splint nor a pathological formation of any kind, but merely the but- 

 tonlike enlargement at the lower extremity of the small metacarpal 

 or splint bone. 



We have said that splints are to be found on the inside of the leg. 

 This is true as a general statement, but it is not invariably so, for 

 they occasionally appear on the outside. It is also true that they 

 appear most commonly on the fore legs, but this is not exclusively the 

 case, because they may at times be found on both the inside and out- 

 side of the hind leg. Usually a splint forms only a true exostosis, or 

 a single bony growth, with a somewhat diffuse base, but neither is this 

 invariably the case. In some instances they assume more important 

 dimensions, and pass from the inside to the outside of the bone, on 

 its posterior face, between that and the suspensory ligament. This 

 form is termed the pegged splint, and constitutes a serious and per- 

 manent deformity, in consequence of its interference with the play- 

 of the fibrous cord which passes behind it. becoming thus a source of 

 continual irritation and consequently of permanent lameness. 



