CHAP. ii. RINGBONE AND SPAVIN. ,575 



marked in some families : hence horses and mares suffering from them 

 should not on any account be used for breeding purposes. Of the 

 exciting causes, treads and bruises over the coronets in early life are 

 perhaps the most common. Young horses working in deep heavy 

 ground when tired, and turning at the headlands, are liable to tread 

 each other and themselves, and thus excite inflammation and bone 

 formation in the cartilages. Many cases are referable to cart shafts 

 being allowed to fall upon the coronets while horses are being un- 

 yoked. In towns where cart-horses are made to trot over the stone 

 pavement concussion of the feet is no doubt a fruitful cause of the 

 disease. 



The presence of sidebones is recognised by the unyielding state of 

 the lateral cartilages. Lameness is not always present and some 

 horses appear to suffer little or no inconvenience from them, but in 

 the majority of instances they prove a serious impediment to locomo- 

 tion. Where this is the case the patient should be thrown out of work 

 and caused to stand with his feet in cold water two or three hours a 

 day. Opening the walls of the hoof by what is known as "Smith's 

 operation," will frequently give marked relief. 



RINGBONE consists of a bony enlargement between the coronet and 

 fetlock joint. When it is nearer the former it is termed " low ring- 

 bone," when towards the latter it is spoken of as " high ringbone." 

 Usually it is confined to the front of the pastern, but it sometimes 

 extends round to the back and encroaches on important ligaments and 

 tendons whose action it impedes. In this position it is productive of 

 serious lameness which rarely altogether disappears notwithstanding 

 the most active treatment. 



Causes. Predisposition to ringbone may be transmitted from parent 

 to offspring (page 410). Horses with short upright pasterns are more liable 

 to contract the disease than others in whom greater length and elasticity 

 of the parts more effectually oppose concussion. External violence is 

 a fruitful cause of these bony excrescences. Young animals, when tied 

 up for the first time, often strike their pasterns against manger posts or 

 halter logs while pawing, and excite inflammation and enlargement of 

 the bones. In towns, where horses do fast work on stone pavement, 

 it arises out of concussion and sometimes from falls, treads, and otber 

 forms of direct violence. 



Treatment. As in sidebones, so in this disease, the treatment will 

 consist in reducing inflammatory action by physic and cold water 

 immersion, or warm fomentations, and then blistering or firing, or 

 both, combined with long rest. 



SPAVIN. Spavins are commonly spoken of as bog spavin and bone 

 spavin. The former is a fluctuating swelling on the inner and front 

 part of the hock, and arises out of a distension of the joint capsule 

 with fluid (synovia or joint oil). The latter is an enlargement on the 

 inner and lower part of the joint, involving the small bones which enter 

 into its composition. 



