WINDGALLS OF THE FETLOCK. 293 



these windgalls with the flexor tendons and suspensory ligaments 

 of the limbs accounts for the opposite conditions in which they are 

 found, tense or flaccid, according as the sinews are braced or un- 

 braced. While the foot remains upon the ground and the muscles 

 continue in action, the windgalls are full and firm to the feel ; the 

 moment, however, the foot is raised, and a state of inaction suc- 

 ceeds, they become soft and compressible. 



Fetlock Windgalls undergo morbid Changes, however, 

 the same as windgalls of other parts do : indeed, from the amount 

 of irritation and aggravation they receive, they may be said to be 

 more obnoxious to such changes. In the course of time, under the 

 influence of work, they grow thicker and thicker in their sacs; 

 additional coatings are deposited upon them, to strengthen them, as 

 it were ; and these depositions, from being cellular, in time become 

 fibrous, callous, and even, as we have already seen in the case men- 

 tioned of Mr. King's, converted into bone; occasioning at first 

 stiff'ness, then lameness, and ending in partial or complete immo- 

 bility of joint. These changes, as they are brought about, account 

 for the less and less puffiness and fluctuating character the swell- 

 ings acquire by age ; as well as for the solid, even hard, feel they 

 possess in their chronic state in the aged and used-up horse. 



It is rare for Windgalls to require Treatment; ab- 

 stractedly, at least, from concomitant failings. Manifest disease or 

 derangement exists in the fetlock joints — we say " joints," because 

 they almost uniformly fail in pairs — and then, coupled with the 

 presence of prominent windgalls, ample cause is usually discovered 

 for either blistering or firing the affected joints, inclusive of the 

 windgalls. Not that we shall thereby altogether get entirely rid 

 of the windgalls ; but that we shall succeed by such remedies, 

 combined with ample repose, in reducing the swellings, and in 

 restoring soundness, and bracing and strengthening the relaxed and 

 knuckling-over joints as well. It is not often that we are called 

 to treat windgalls, and less frequent still is it that we feel ourselves 

 justified in such undertakings ; and when we do set about to treat 

 them, it is but with doubtful result, so far as their reduction is 

 concerned, unless we employ remedies — such as strong irritants 

 and blisters — that lay the horse up, and this is what is seldom 



