438 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



a steady progress without inclining to recovery — ^the remission of 

 symptoms in the earlier stages should not be interpreted as evidence 

 that the process has terminated. The complications usually seen are 

 ringbones, sidebones, thrush, contracted heels, quartercracks, and 

 fractures of the navicular, coronet, and pastern bones. 



Treatment. — But few cases of navicular disease recover. In the 

 early stages the wall of the heels should be rasped away, as directed 

 in the treatment for contracted heels, until the horn is quite thin; 

 the coronet should be well blistered with Spanish-fly ointment, and 

 the patient turned to grass in a damp field or meadow. After three 

 or four weeks the blister should be repeated. This treatment is to 

 be continued for two or three months. Plane shoes are to be put on 

 when the patient is returned to work. In chronic cases the animal 

 should be put to slow, easy work. To relieve the pain, neurotomy 

 may be performed — an operation in which the sense of feeling is 

 destroyed in the foot by cutting out pieces of the nerve at the fetlock. 

 This operation in nowise cures the disease, and, since it may be 

 attended with serious results, can be advised only in certain favorable 

 cases, to be determined by the veterinarian. 



SIDEBONES. 



A sidebone consists in a transformation of the lateral cartilages 

 found on the wings of the coffin bone into bony matter by the depo- 

 sition of lime salts. The disease is a common one, especially in 

 heavy horses used for draft, in cavalry horses, cow ponies, and other 

 saddle horses, and in runners and trotters. 



Sidebones are peculiar to the fore feet, yet they occasionally de- 

 velop in the hind feet, where they are of little importance since they 

 cause no lameness. In many instances sidebones are of slow growth 

 and, being unaccompanied with acute inflammation, they cause no 

 lameness until such time as, by reason of their size, they interfere 

 with the action of the joint. (Plate XXXIV, fig. 4.) 



Causes. — Sidebones often grow in heavy horses without any appar- 

 ent injury, and their development has been attributed to the over- 

 expansion of the cartilages caused by the great weight of the animal. 

 Blows and other injuries to the cartilages may set up an inflammatory 

 process which ends in the formation of these bony growths. High- 

 heeled shoes, high calks, and long feet are always classed among the 

 conditions which may excite the growth of sidebones. They are often 

 seen in connection with contracted heels, ringbones, navicular dis- 

 ease, punctured wounds of the foot, quarter cracks, and occasionally 

 as a sequel to founder. 



Symptoms. — In the earlier stages of the disease, if inflammation is 

 present, the only evidence of the trouble to be detected is a little fever 

 over the seat of the affected cartilage and a slight lameness. In the 



