SIDE-BONES 



387 



among the results. Joints may be laid open, tendons and their sheaths 

 inflamed, and the leg may swell as the result of inflammation extending 

 along the cellular tissue (cellulitis) from the foot upwards. 



In all these conditions the lameness is severe, and in some no weight 

 can be borne on the foot. The animal stands with the toe lightly resting 

 on the ground, lifting up the leg now and again and holding it suspended 

 in the air as the result of pain. 



The slighter injuries, when promptly attended to, readily yield to treat- 

 ment and a few days' rest. 



In all cases of pricks to the foot in which swelling of the coronet or 

 persistent lameness remains after subsidence of the acute symptoms, a 

 repetition of blisters over the pas- 

 tern during a rest at grass will 

 prove beneficial. 



SIDE-BONES 



Side-bones are hard, unyielding 

 formations situated immediately 

 above the coronet towards the 

 heel. Pathologically considered, 

 they consist in a transformation 

 of the lateral cartilages into bone 

 by the deposition into their struc- 

 ture of calcareous salts. This change is sometimes preceded by inflam- 

 mation of the tissue of the cartilage, but in a large percentage of cases 

 no such antecedent state exists. 



The liability to this disease is much greater in heavy than in light 

 horses, and whether it occurs in the one or the other it almost invariably 

 affects the fore- feet. 



Before the days of the Shire Horse Society, a very large proportion of 

 our heavy horses became victims of the disease, resulting in a diminution 

 in their value from 25 to 75 per cent. Thanks to the rigid veterinary 

 inspection instituted by this Society, and more or less completely adopted 

 by others, the prevalence of the malady has been so far reduced as to 

 encourage the hope of its becoming as rare as it was common. 



Causes. Side -bone is one of the most pronounced of hereditary 

 diseases. Its tendency to arise in the progeny of affected animals is now 

 known to every horse-breeder of experience, and we owe it to the growing 

 recognition of this fact, and the more judicious selection of breeding stock, 

 that the existence of the disease has been so largely curtailed. In some 



Fig. 401. Pedal Bone, showing ossification of ligaments 

 constituting " side-bones " 



