TK£ MOUSE. 110 



THE BONE-SPAVIN. 



A-lthougla this is a common disorder among horses, yet it 

 is Httle understood by either breeders or farriers. The 

 Bone-Spavin is a bony excrescence, or hard swelling on the 

 inside of the hock in a horse's leg, and sometimes owes its 

 origin to kicks and blows, and sometimes to natural causes ; 

 but in the former case it is much more easily cured than in 

 the latter ; and those that grow spontaneously on colts, or 

 young horses, are not so bad as those that appear in horses 

 that have arrived at their full strength and maturity. In 

 old horses, they are generally incurable. 



Our horse-dealers and jobbers make a second kind of 

 Bone-Spavin, which they call a Jack, but this is only a pol- 

 ished name for a Bone-Spavin, as there is no difference 

 between the two. Some call it a Dry Knot, but still it is a 

 Bone-Spavin. 



Sometimes the horse is very lame when the Spavin is 

 first coming out, and wken it has come out, is better for 

 some time, and then grows lamer as the bone hardens. I 

 would advise you to apply a blister as soon as you have any 

 suspicion that a horse is likely to put out a Spavin, and to 

 continue blistering eveiy fortnight, for some time ; by which 

 means you may stop a Spavin in a young horse. 



Cure. Mild medicines should be used if the horse is 

 young, as they will in a short time wear the tumor down 

 by degi'ees, which is much better than trying to remove it 

 at once by severer methods, which often have a very bad 

 effect, and produce worse consequences than those they 

 were intended to remove. But in full-grown horses they 

 are absolutely necessary, and accordingly, various authors 

 have given prescriptions for compounding medicines to an- 

 swer the intention ; but I will not enumerate them here, 

 as the blistering ointment given in the last chapter, will be 

 found to answer better for young horses than anything yet 

 found out ; and for an old horse, or one that has come to 

 his full strength, you may add a dram of sublimate, finely 

 powdered, to two ounces of the blistering ointment, and 

 stir it well up. 



Before these are applied, the hair must be cut off very 

 close, and then the ointment laid on very thick on the affect 

 ed part. It is proper to make the application in the morn- 



