986 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



or the horse is swam for it to his torture, and the increase of the foot's contraction by the confinement. 

 In real shoulder strains, the toe is dragged along the ground while in motion ; at rest it is planted forward, 

 but resting on the point of the toe. When the lameness is in the foot, the horse points his foot forward 

 also, but he does so with the whole limb unbent, and the foot flat These differences are highly necessary 

 to attend to, as well as the peculiar difficulty which is always apparent in moving down hill, which he 

 does with reluctance, and by swingins; his leg round to avoid flexing it This lameness may be farther 

 brought to the test by lifting up the fore leg considerably, which, if the evil be in the shoulder, will give 

 great pain. The muscles between the fore legs are likewise tumefied and tender in these cases. 



6498. The treatment consists, when it is recent, in bleeding in the plate vein, rowelling in the chest, and 

 fomenting with hot water two or three times a day. When the heat and tenderness have subsided, first 

 bathe daily with the astringent wash for strains {Vet. Pharm. ()555. No. 1.) for a week; and afterwards, 

 if necessary, proceed to blister in the usual manner. 



6499. Strain in the whirl bone. (6324.) This important joint is sometimes strained, or its ligaments and 

 muscles unnaturally extended, from a greater force being applied to them than their structure is able to 

 bear, or their powers to resist : a lesion takes place of some of their fibrillse, or in lesser injuries their 

 elasticity is injured by being put on the stretch beyond their power of overcoming again. In all such 

 cases, the parts react, and inflammation follows ; by which heat, tenderness, and swelling ensue. 



6500. Treatment. The first indication is the same in this as in all ligamentary strains, which is to 

 moderate the inflammation by fomentations, &c. &c., and when that has subsided, to endeavour by 

 astringents and bracers to restore the tone of the parts : after which, if any swelling remains, from the 

 extravasated blood becoming organised, to promote its absorption by mercurial frictions, and blistering. 

 This applies to all strains, and will direct the treatment therefore of that of strain in the articulation of 

 the thigh with the body also. 



6501. Strain in the stifle, is treated in the same manner. 



6502. Strain or clap in the back sinews. This is generally an injury done to the sheaths of the tendons, 

 or of the ligaments which bind them down. In very aggravated cases, it sometimes occurs that even the 

 tendons themselves are extended beyond their capacity. The heat, swelling, and tenderness are first to 

 be combated by fomentations, and if these be extreme, bleed also, and give a dose of physic. Next 

 proceed to poultice with saturnine applications, until the heat and swelling are reduced : then use tonics, 

 astringent wash {Vet. Pharm. 6555. No. 1. or 2.): bandage and exercise very carefully. If swelling 

 remain after lieat, pain, and lameness are past; or when lameness only remains, after all heat is gone, 

 proceed to blister mildly twice. In all cases of ligamentary extension when the heat has subsided, the part 

 may be considered as in a state of atony j and bandages judiciously applied are then proper, particularly 

 during the day. 



6503. Rupture of the tendons and ligaments of the leg. It is very seldom that the tendons themselves 

 are ruptured, but the suspensory ligaments are more often so, and the evil is called breaking down. It is 

 usually very sudden, and the fetlock is brought almost to the ground. A perfect cure is seldom obtained ; 

 but the inflammation should be moderated by the means already described, and the heels should be raised. 

 A laced stocking or firm bandage, when the inflammation has subsided, is necessary ; and firing is often 

 prudent as a permanent bandage. 



6.504. Strains of the ligaments of the fetlock and coffin joints often occur, and may always be distinguished 

 by the heat, tenderness, and swelling. Treat as already described. In all strains of the leg, attended with 

 inflammation, a goulard poultice is a convenient and useful application. The goulard water should be 

 mixed with bran ; and a worsted stocking being drawn over the foot, and up the leg, it is first tied around 

 tlie foot ; the poultice is then put in, and the stocking fastened around the leg above the injury. ((i536 ) 



6505. Mallendets and sellenders are scurfy scabby eruptions, affecting the back of the knee, and ply of 

 the hock ; common only in coarse, low-bred, and in cart horses. Wash with soft soap every day, after 

 which anoint with an unguent formed of equal parts of mercurial ointment, tar, and calamine cerate. 



6506. Broken knees^ The usual cases of broken knees are referrible to wounds in general ; and the 

 treatment of them in nowise differs therefrom, with this caution, that here it is more immediately neces- 

 sary, both for appearance and safety, that if any flap of skin hang apart, to cut it off, or the wound will 

 heal with rugosed edges. But when the joint of the knee is broken into by the violence of the injury, it 

 becomes of a very different nature, and is known first by the extreme lameness and swelling that occur ; 

 and next, by the escape of a slippery mucus not unlike the white of an egg. If this continue to escape, 

 violent inflammation follows, and either the horse or the joint are lost by it Farriers are apt to attempt 

 to stop the flow of i\\e joint oil, as it is called, by oil of vitriol, or other escharotics, which treatment is 

 usually followed by the most disastrous consequences. It is, however, necessary to stop the immediate 

 flow, by otiier means ; the best of which is by a fine budding-iron heated. Should the laceration be con- 

 siderable, this cannot be done ; but the treatment must then consist of saturnine poultices, bleeding, 

 low diet, and the other antifebrile remedies, until the swelling has subsided, when apply the astringent 

 paste recommended by Clark, made of pipe-clay and alum, every day ; but by no means introduce any 

 escharotics. 



6507. Splints and bone spavins. The former are usually situated on the inner side of the canon or 

 shank before ; and as they are situated, so they are more or less injurious. When buried, as it were, 

 within the tendons or back sinews, they are very apt to lame the horse seriously ; but when situated on 

 the plain bone, unless they be very large, they seldom do much injury. If a splint be early attended to, 

 it is seldom diflScult to remove. Blaine reconnnends the swelling to be rubbed night and morning for five 

 or six days, with a drachm of mercurial ointment, rubbing it well in ; after which to apply a blister, and 

 at the end of a fortnight or three weeks to apply another. In very bad cases, he recommends firing in the 

 lozenge form. 



6508. Bone spavin is an exostosis of the hock bones, the treatment of which in nowise diflfers from that 

 of splint ; except that as a spavin in general is more injurious than a splint, so it is more necessary to 

 commence the treatment eairly, and to continue it energetically. From the greater complexity of 

 structure in the hock, spavin is not so easily removed as splint, and more usually requires the application 

 of firing. 



6509. Ring bone is of the same nature, being an exostosis or bony circle formed around the coronet, the 

 treatment of which is the same with that of splint and spavin. 



6510. Blood spavin, bog spavin, and thoroughpin, are all of them originally of the nature of windgalls, 

 and are nothing more than enlargements of the bursal capsules described in the anatomy, as surrounding 

 tendons, ligaments, and bones, to furnish them with a lubricating medium. By over-exertion or hard 

 work these bursal bags become extended, and their contents increased and distended into puffy swellings 

 in the hock, called, when on the ply, bog spavin. The pressure of this sometimes occasions a varicose state 

 of the superficial vein, which passes directly over it on the inner side of the hock, and which enlargement 

 then receives the name of blood spavin. When the bursal enlargement extends through the hock, it is 

 called thoroughpin. When it is situated below, in the bursce of the flexor tendons, near the fetlock joint, 

 it receives the name of windgnll. 



6511. The treatment of all these cases must be similar in principle, and consists in lessening the dis. 

 tended sac ; not as was formerly practised, to the destruction of the horse often, by letting out the con- 

 tents of these windgalls ; but by strengthening the sides of the tumours by stimulants or by pressure. The 

 more active stimulants are the liquid blister {Vet. Pharm. 6562.), milder ones are found in the astringent 

 wash. {Vet. Pharm. 6555. No. 1.) Bandages assist greatly, when well applied to the part, and in desperate 

 cases firing has been resorted to, which is nothing more Ihan a more violent stimulant, and a more per- 

 manent bandage. 



