262 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



While this disease attacks any and all classes of horses, it is the 

 large, common breeds, with thick skins, heavy coats, and coarse legs 

 that are most often affected. Horses well groomed and cared for in 

 stables seem to be less liable to the disease than those running at large 

 or than those which are kept and worked under adverse circum- 

 stances. , 



Symptoms. Lameness, lasting from one to three or four days, 

 nearly always precedes the development of the strictly local evidences 

 of quittor. The next sign is the appearance of a small, tense, hot, 

 and painful tumor in the skin of the coronary region. If the skin of 

 the affected foot is white, the inflamed portion will present a dark-red 

 or even a purplish appearance near the center. Within a few hours 

 the ankle, or even the whole leg as high as the knee or hock, be- 

 comes much swollen. The lameness is now so great that the patient 

 refuses to use the foot at all, but carries it in the air if compelled to 

 move. As a consequence, the opposite leg is required to do the 

 work of both, and if the animal persists in standing a greater part of 

 the time it, too, becomes swollen. In many of these cases the suffer- 

 ing is so intense during the first few days as to cause general fever, 

 dullness, loss of appetite, and increased thirst. Generally the tumor 

 shows signs of suppuration within forty-eight to seventy-two hours 

 after its first appearance; the summit softens, a fluctuating fluid is 

 felt beneath the skin, which soon ulcerates completely through, caus- 

 ing the discharge of a thick, yellow, bloody pus, containing shreds 

 of dead tissue which have sloughed away. The sore is now converted 

 into an open ulcer, generally deep, nearly or quite circular in out- 

 line, and with hardened base and edges. In exceptional cases large 

 patches of skin, varying from 1 to 2% inches in diameter, slough 

 away at once, leaving an ugly superficial ulcer. These sores, espe- 

 cially when deep, suppurate freely, and if there are no complications 

 they tend to heal rapidly as soon as the degenerated tissue has soft- 

 ened and is entirely removed. When suppuration is fully estab- 

 lished, the lameness and general symptoms subside. Where but a 

 single tumor and abscess form, the disease progresses rapidly, and 

 recovery, under proper treatment, may be affected in from two to 

 three weeks; but when two or more tumors are developed at once, or 

 where the formation of one tumor is rapidly succeeded by another 

 for an indefinite time, the sufferings of the patient are greatly in- 

 creased, the case is more difficult to treat, and recovery is more 

 slow and less certain. This form of quittor is often complicated 

 with the tendinous and subhorny quittors by an extension of the 

 sloughing process. 



Treatment. The first step in the treatment of an outbreak of 

 quittor should be the removal of all exciting causes. Crowding ani- 

 mals into small corrals and stables, where injuries to the coronet 

 are likely to happen from trampling, especially among unbroken 

 range horses, must be avoided as much as possible. Watering places 

 accessible without having to wade through mud are to be supplied. 

 In towns, where the mud or dust is largely impregnated with min- 

 eral products, it is not possible to adopt complete preventive meas- 



