362 BUKEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



by pressure from without. A strap or strong linen bandage is placed 

 about the hock pressing on the bursa while the affected leg is on the 

 ground, the other hind foot being lifted up. When the bandage is in 

 place release the leg and the horse will violently flex the bandaged 

 limb and produce pressure on the bur.^a with consequent bursting and 

 discharging of its contents. 



Whatever treatment may be adopted for capped hock, patience must 

 be one of the ingredients. In these parts absorption is slow and the 

 skin is very thick, and its return to a soft, pliable, natural condition, 

 if effected at all, will only take place after weeks added to other weeks 

 of medical treatment and patient waiting. 



IXTERFEraXG AXB SPEEDY CUTS. 



These designations belong to certain special injuries of the extremi-. 

 ties, produced by similar causes, giving rise to kindred pathological 

 lesions with allied phenomena, requiring about the same treatment 

 and often followed by the same results, to wit, a blemish which may 

 not only subject the animal to a suspicion of unsoundness, but in some 

 special circumstances interfere with his abilit}'^ to labor. It is known 

 as "interfering" when the location of the trouble is the inside of the 

 fetlock of either the fore or hind leg. It is called " speedy cut" when 

 it occurs on the inside of the fore leg, a little below the knee, at the 

 point of contact of that joint with the cannon. It is always the result 

 of a blow, self-inflicted, of varying severity, and giving rise to various 

 lesions. 



Symptoms. — At times the injury is too slight to be seriously noticed, 

 the hair being scarcely cut and the skin unmarked. At other times 

 the skin will be cut through, partly or wholl}-, and it ma}' for the time 

 cause a sufficient amount of pain to check the motion of the animal 

 and induce him to suspend his labor through his inability to use the 

 wounded limb, traveling meanwhile for a short space on three legs only. 

 Sometimes a single blow will suffice, or again there will be a repetition 

 of lighter strokes. In the latter case the parts will become much swol- 

 len, hot, and so painful to the touch that the motion of the knee or the 

 fetlock will be suflicicntly disturbed to cause lameness of a degree of 

 severity corresponding with that of the lesion. Following the subsid- 

 ence of this diff'used and edematous swelling is sometimes the forma- 

 tion of a tumor, either at the knee or the fetlock. This may be soft 

 at first or become so by degrees, with ffuctuation, its contents being at 

 first extravasated blood, and later a serosity; or, if there has been a 

 sufficient degree of inflammation, it may become suppurative. The 

 result of the fault of interfering may thus be exhibited, whether at 

 the knee or at the fetlock', as characterized by all the pathological con- 

 ditions which have appeared as accompaniments of capped knee or 

 capped hock. If, in consequence of the force of the blow or blows, 



