238 TirE HoK'SK Industry in New Yo];k State 



The foregoing treatment will apply to the elbow joint, but 

 occasionally we have, in addition, the formation of cysts at the 

 point of the elbow, which is known as "• capped elbow " or " shoe 

 boil.'' This condition is caused either by the animal lying on its 

 heel calk en- by biiiiipiiig the har(l floor with its elbow when 

 about to rise. The first thing to do is to remove the cause. If 

 we cannot remove the calk or the hard floor, then the shoe boil 

 should be covered with a thick covering. If it does not subside 

 rapidly with hot applications in three or four days it should be 

 opened and properly treated by a competent veterinarian to avoid 

 the formation of a fibrous tumor. When allowed to go on to a 

 fibrous formation the growth may be enucleated by surgical in- 

 terference. 



TROUBLES WITH THE LEGS AND FEET 



The forearm is not so commonly predisposed to injuries as are 

 the parts below the knee ; but in the thoroughbred, the trotter and 

 the hunter we frequently have speedy-cuts affecting the lower ex- 

 tremities of the forearm and involving the knee. These injuries 

 are more generally found in a horse used for speed on circular 

 tracks. Soothing applications are of great value in these cases. 

 An effective way is to use the hot water applications in the day 

 and to cover the parts with a medicated poultice, such as anti- 

 phlogistine, during the night. 



Beginning with the knee and hock, the horse is more likely to 

 bony, tendonous and ligamentous trouble in the lower leg. We 

 will consider the bony ailments first. They are ordinarily class- 

 ified as splints, spavins, ringbones and sidebones. They are all 

 practically the same in structure — differing only in location — 

 being the result of an inflammatory process, and a deposit of lime 

 salts very similar in their pathology to what occurs in the healing 

 of a broken bone, with a primary callous and a permanent thick- 

 ening of the parts. 



Ringbones are by far the most serious, owing to the fact that they 

 are apt to involve articulations, and, where they do, ankylosis or 

 stiffening of the joint occurs, resulting in a more or less perma- 

 nent mechanical interference with locomotion. 



The same treatment is applicable to all these conditions in the 

 early stages, but we find that the splints yield more readily to 



