THE COMPLETE FARRIER. 49 



THE BONE-SPAVIN. 



Although this is a common disorder among horses, yet it is little 

 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 cm 

 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 polished 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 when it has come out is better for some time, and then grows 

 lamer again as the bone hardens. I would advise yon 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, every 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 degrees, 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 answer 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 any 

 thing 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 very thick on the affected part. It is proper to 

 make the application in the morning, and to keep the horse tied up to 

 the rack all day without any litter ; but at night he must be littered 

 in order that he may lie down ; and to prevent the blister from coming 

 off, put a white pitch plaster over it, and tie on with broad tape. 



When the blister has done running, and the scabs begin to dry and 

 peel off, it should be applied a second time in the same manner as be- 

 fore, and the second will have a much greater effect than the first. 



When the Spavin has continued long, the blister will have to be 

 often renewed, perhaps five or six times ; but it is necessary to observe 

 that after the second time you must not be less than three weeks be- 

 fore you lay on the third, or you will destroy the roots of the hair and 

 leave the place bald. By these means Bone-spavins may often be 

 cured ; but when they fail, recourse must be had to firing. 



Before you fire a horse for the Bone-spavin, be careful to take the 

 vein out of the way, for it generally lies over the Spavin, and you 

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