DISEASES OF HORSES 259 



tor. When the inflammation has subsided, a blister to the joint 

 should be applied. In some cases, especially in old horses long ac- 

 customed to fast work, the ligaments of the joints are ruptured, in 

 whole or in part, and the lameness may last a long time. In these 

 cases the joint should be kept completely at rest ; and this condition 

 is best secured by the application of the plaster of Paris bandages, 

 as in cases of fracture. As a rule, patients take kindly to this band- 

 age, and may be given the freedom of a roomy box or yard while 

 wearing it. If they are disposed to tear it off, or if sufficient rest 

 can not otherwise be secured, the patient must be kept in slings. 



In the majority of instances the plaster bandage should remain 

 on from two to four weeks. If the lameness returns when the band- 

 age is removed, a new one should be put on. The swelling, which 

 always remains after the other evidences of the disease have disap- 

 peared, mav be largely dissipated and the joint strengthened by the 

 use of the firing iron and blisters. A joint once injured by a severe 

 sprain never entirely regains its original strength, and is ever after 

 particularly liable to a repetition of the injury. 



OVERREACH. 



An overreach is where the shoe of the hind foot strikes and in- 

 jures the heel or quarter of the fore foot. It rarely happens except 

 when the animal is going fast, hence is most common in trotting 

 and running horses. In trotters the accident generally happens 

 when the animal breaks from a trot to a run. The outside heels and 

 quarters are most liable to the injury. 



Symptoms. The coronet at the heel or quarter is bruised or cut, 

 the injury in some instances involving the horn as well. Where the 

 hind foot strikes well back on the heel of the fore foot an accident 

 known among horsemen as grabbing the shoe may be torn from 

 the fore foot or the animal may fall to its knees. Horses accustomed 

 to overreaching are often bad breakers, for the reason that the 

 pain of the injury so excites them that they can not readily be 

 brought back to the trotting gait. 



Treatment. If the injury is but a slight bruise, cold-water 

 bandages applied for a few days will remove all of the soreness. If 

 the parts are deeply cut, more or less suppuration will follow, and, 

 as a rule, it is well to poultice the parts for a day or two, after which 

 cold baths may be used, or the wounds dressed with tincture of aloes, 

 oakum, and a roller bandage. When an animal is known to be sub- 

 ject to overreaching, he should never be driven fast without quarter 

 boots, which are specially made for the protection of the heels and 

 quarters. If there is a "disposition to grab the forward shoes, the 

 trouble may be remedied by having the heels of these shoes made as 

 short as possible, while the toe of the hind foot should project well 

 over the hind shoe. When circumstances will permit of their use, 

 the fore feet may be shod with the tips instead of the common shoe. 



CALK WOUNDS. 



Horses wearing shoes with sharp calks are liable to wounds of 

 the coronary region, either from trampling on themselves or on each 

 other. These injuries are most common in heavy draft horses, espe- 



