METHODS OF FIRING AND OPERATING FOR SPAVIN. 



1005 



with spavin. Dollar disinfects the parts and uses the platinum- 

 pointed cautery, applying a surgical dressing immediately after- 

 wards, instead of blistering ; or, preferably, saturating the parts 

 several times daily with 5 per cent, creolin solution. Hoffmann 

 uses knitting-needles held in a pair of forceps, and introduced glowing 

 hot. The animal is cast, the point of operation disinfected and 

 rubbed with an antiseptic powder. The necessary number of 

 knitting-needles (which can be broken in two) are placed in a basket- 

 ful of burning charcoal, and, as required, are grasped with forceps 

 and introduced into the bone. From fifteen to twenty perforations 

 are made over a surface as large as 

 a small lemon. They enter the bone 

 deeply enough to reach the cancellous 

 tissue. If want of resistance to the 

 introduction of the needle shows 

 that the joint has been entered, the 

 needle must then at once be with- 

 drawn. 



After firing, Hoffmann applies a 

 thick coating of iodoform, lays the 

 hand flat on the parts, and moves 

 the skin backward and forward so as 

 to displace the openings in the skin 

 from those in the deeper-seated 

 structures. The surfaces are then 

 once more strewed with iodoform. 

 After some days a slight swelling 

 occurs, an eschar forms, and in 

 fourteen days all symptoms are stated to disappear. 



Batazzi recently recommended the treatment of spavin by 

 subcutaneous firing, formerly introduced by Nanzio. After making 

 an incision Ih to 2 inches in length over the exostosis, the edges of 

 the wound are drawn back and a few punctures made in the form 

 of a triangle, with the base directed upwards. The same effect is 

 more simply produced by firing through the skin, which has the 

 advantage of producing smaller cicatrices. 



(3) Operation for spavin. Since the times of Abildgaard and 

 Lafosse many operations have been proposed for the cure of spavin. 

 Abildgaard first described section of the cunean tendon of the flexor 

 metatarsi, afterwards extensively practised by Lafosse. Dieckerhoff 

 suggested opening the bursa of this tendon. No doubt these operative 

 measures may assist in removing lameness, but their usefulness 



Fig. 536. — Operation for division of 

 the cunean tendon of the flexor 

 metatarsi muscle. A, The tendon. 



