HORSE— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



61 



the name of a chill, and is generally 

 brought on by exposing the horse to a 

 draught of air after work, or by immers- 

 ing him in cold water up to his belly, 

 with a view either to refresh him, or when 

 the groom is lazy, to save him the trouble 

 of cleaning. The symptons are lameness 

 or inability to use the part, the horse, 

 when forced to do so, giving expressions 

 of severe pain. If the shoulder is affected, 

 the foot is not put to the ground, and 

 when the leg is moved backwards and 

 forwards by the hand, great pain is evi- 

 dently experienced. In severe cases there 

 is fever with accelerated pulse (70 to 80), 

 accompanied often by profuse sweating, 

 and heaving at the flanks, the legs remain- 

 ing warm. After a short time the part 

 swells, and is excessively tender. The 

 treatment should be by a copious bleed- 

 ing, if the horse is of a moderately strong 

 constitution; indeed, in severe cases it 

 should be carried on until the pulse is 

 greatly reduced, and repeated the next 

 day, if it returns to its original hardness 

 and fulness. The bowels should be acted 

 on as soon as it is safe to do so, and if 

 the dung is very hard, backracking and 

 clysters should be used, to accelerate the 

 action of the medicine. The best aperient 

 is castor oil, of which a pint may be given 

 with an ounce of sweet spirits of nitre. 

 When this has acted, if the kidneys are 

 not doing their duty, a quarter of an 

 ounce of nitre and a drachm of camphor 

 may be made into a ball and given twice 

 a day. 



HORSE. — Chronic Rheumatism of the 

 muscles is similar in its nature to the 

 acute form, but, as its name implies, it is 

 more lasting, and of less severity. It 

 often flies from one part to another, at- 

 tacking the ligaments and tendons, as well 

 as the muscular fibres. It is seldom much 

 under control, and attention should be paid 

 rather to improve the general health than 

 to subdue the local affection. 



Small Tumors, of about the size of a 

 pea, often form upon the tendons, espe- 

 cially the " back sinews " of the fore legs. 

 They may or may not occasion lameness, 

 but they are always to be regarded with 

 suspicion. As long as they remain indo- 

 lent, they are better left alone; but when 

 they produce inflammation and pain, the 

 best remedy is the biniodide of mercury 

 ointment (see Horse, Splints). 



HORSE, Cartilage and Synovial Mem- 

 brane, Diseases of. — Cartilage is subject 

 chiefly to ulceration. When this occurs,, 

 its cells become enlarged and crowded 

 with corpuscles, which burst and dis- 

 charge their contents; the intercellular 

 structure at the same time splits into bands, 

 which, together with corpuscles, form a 

 fibro-nucleated membrane on the face of 

 the cartilage. In old horses, the ulcer- 

 ated cartilage covering the tibial surface 

 of the astragalus is sometimes converted 

 into a soft, fibrous substance, which ulti- 

 mately assumes the appearance of hard 

 and dense bone, commonly known as 

 " porcellaneous or ivory deposit." It is 

 accompanied by no symptoms of inflam- 

 mation ; the sole evidence of disease, 

 during life being a stiffness of the joint, 

 and a peculiar grating or crackling noise 

 during all attempts at movement. When 

 caries of the head of a bone has caused 

 a loss of substance, the cartilage dies, and 

 is gradually broken down by decomposi- 

 tion ; but this cannot be said to be a dis- 

 ease of the cartilage itself. With the ex- 

 ception of the navicular disease (which 

 will be included under the diseases of the 

 foot), ulceration of the cartilage is not 

 very common in the horse. 



Acute Inflammation of the Synovial 

 Membrane is seldom met with; but a 

 chronic state, including an excessive se- 

 cretion of synovia, is extremely common. 

 The most usual situation is at the hock, 

 where the swelling has received the name 

 of bog-spavin and thoroughpin ; but they 

 also occur at the fetlock and knee-joints; 

 in the former case being sometimes con- 

 founded with windgalls, which are inflam- 

 ed bursae mucosae. (See Windgalls.) 



Bog-Spavin is very apt to attack young 

 horses, when they are over- worked, before 

 being fully seasoned ; but it may occur at 

 all ages. It shows itself at the inner side 

 of the joint, because here the ligaments 

 are wider apart, and there is more room 

 for distension. Its seat is the capsule be- 

 tween the tibia and astragalus, which is 

 here unprotected by any strong fibrous 

 covering, and readily yields to the grad- 

 ual pressure of the secretion from its in- 

 ternal surface. 



Thoroughpin may be either an increased 

 secretion of the synovial capsule, between 

 the astragalus and os calcis, or between 

 the scaphoid and cuneiform bones, or of 



