22 



HORSE— DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



amination for enlargements, which are 

 best ascertained by carefully comparing 

 them with each other, as any difference 

 in size is indicative of strained or even 

 ruptured ligaments, and consequently 

 permanent weakness of that important 

 part. 



If the injury is recent, there probably 

 will be heat, and pain on pressure; and 

 any signs of blistering or other treatment, 

 though no enlargement or lameness is 

 apparent, should induce the buyer to view 

 the animal with the utmost suspicion. 



If there are any sore or callous places 

 about the fetlocks or pasterns, he is a cut- 

 ter, and possibly the marks of the foot 

 may be visible. If there is no malforma- 

 tion to account for it, it may have been 

 done when fatigued, or it may have arisen 

 from improper shoeing ; his feet should 

 then be examined. 



If an old offence, he may probably 

 have a peculiar shoe, rather thicker and 

 narrower in the web on the inside than 

 the outside, and nailed only on the out- 

 side of the foot, and round the toe ; or the 

 opposite shoe is found filed away or bevel- 

 ed off, with the hoof projecting a little 

 over the shoe. Where the feet, though 

 well formed, are placed closer than de- 

 sirable in narrow-chested horses, and 

 therefore apt to cut, particularly when 

 tired, we sometimes find a shoe is adopt- 

 ed thinner on the inside than the out- 

 side. 



At other times various ingenious de- 

 vices, calculated rather to increase than 

 remedy the evil, have been resorted to, 

 such as putting on shoes narrower on the 

 inside, and set within the crust, and the 

 wall of the quarters reduced in thickness 

 by the rasp. If none of these schemes 

 have been resorted to, to obviate the de- 

 fect, the horn of the opposite foot will 

 sometimes be found polished by the attri- 

 tion, for it is not the shoe that cuts once 

 in a hundred times, but the hoof. In 

 horses that interfere, we generally find 

 the inside quarter lower than the outer, 

 or the toes turned outwards — the fault 

 being in the leg that receives the mischief 

 while sustaining the weight, not in the 

 foot that gives the blow. The tired horse 

 throws his legs about, and frequently cuts 

 himself; and it is the fault of most young, 

 uneducated horses, especially if they have 



been backed or inconsiderately worked 

 too early. 



If there are any symptoms of knuckling 

 or inclination of the fetlocks forward,, 

 serious injury -has happened. 



The hair above and below the fetlock 

 joint should be carefully searched for the 

 scars left by the operation of neurotomy 

 (the division of the nerves that supply the 

 foot with sensation) ; pricking the fetlock 

 with a pin if you have reason to suspect 

 it has been destroyed. About the fetlocks 

 are frequently found little puffy tumors, 

 absurdly denominated wind-galls, from a 

 supposition of the farrier that they con- 

 tained wind. 



Whenever parts move and press on 

 each other, and between tendons, par- 

 ticularly about the extremities, there are 

 placed little vesicles, or shut socks, techni- 

 cally termed bursas mucosae, containing 

 synovia, or joint-oil, a lubricating fluid to 

 prevent friction, in sufficient quantity for 

 all ordinary purposes of the animal. But 

 when the horse has been compelled to 

 undergo exertion beyond that which is 

 natural and beneficial, an increased supply 

 of synovia is secreted, which distends the 

 capsule : a repetition sets up chronic in- 

 flammation of the synovial membrane — 

 morbid secretion and visible enlargement 

 is the result. There are very few horses 

 that have done much work that are with- 

 out them. 



Though rest and pressure will diminish 

 them, when once enlarged, labor will be 

 sure to reproduce them; they seldom 

 occasion any local disturbance, and are 

 of no consequence beyond the blemish, 

 unless they are very large, and in most 

 cases may be regarded as mere indica- 

 tions of hard work. 



The pastern is the seat of a bony tu- 

 mor termed ring-bone. It is the result 

 of inflammation and partial conversion 

 into bone of that portion of the cartilages 

 of the foot which rise above and nearly 

 encircle the coronet, These cartilages,, 

 extending backward considerably beyond 

 the coffin bone, form the elastic frame of 

 the posterior parts of the foot; they here 

 take on the name of the lateral cartilages. 

 When once ossified, inflammation is set 

 up in this part; from its tendency to spread 

 around the pastern joint, it has taken its 

 name of ring-bone. When, however, the 

 ossification appears only at the quarters, 



