458 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



of the wound the apposition of the edges will be rendered more per- 

 fect by the application of strips of sticking plaster in the intervals. 



When efforts at primary union have failed and pus has formed, or 

 fermentative changes have occurred on the raw surfaces and the lips 

 gape more or less, some antiseptic dressing will be required, as in the 

 case of lacerated and contused wounds. 



In cases where an incised wound has had foreign bodies or septic 

 ferments introduced into it these should first be removed. A current 

 of water that has been boiled and cooled is one of the best methods of 

 cleansing a wound, and there is no objection to the addition of one- 

 twentieth of its amount of carbolic acid, as this will tend to destroy 

 any germ life that might otherwise prove fatal to the healing process. 

 Then the wound may be stitched up as if it' had been clean, and a 

 daily dressing of carbolic acid 1 part and sweet oil 10 parts may be 

 applied. 



For a wound on the convex surface of a joint, where stitches are 

 not sufficient to keep the lips accurately applied to each other, the 

 movement of the joint may be temporarily abolished by the applica- 

 tion of a splint and bandage, and in any such case the bandage should 

 be applied uniformly from the hoof upward, as otherwise the limb 

 below the bandage is liable to swell or even die. 



The treatment of contused, punctured, and lacerated wounds de- 

 mands cleansing and antiseptic applications as for an incised wound, 

 but as primary adhesion is next to impossible, the same accurate appo- 

 sition of the lips by stitching is not so essential. If portions of skin 

 or other tissue are so detached or crushed that they can not possibly 

 live, they may be cut off, but if there is any doubt on this matter the 

 injured portion should be left and every attempt should be made to 

 preserve it. Such portions of the wound as are free from such fatally 

 injured parts may be disinfected by the carbolic lotion referred to 

 nbove and stitched up like a clean wound. The severely injured parts 

 may be left open to discharge, and the whole may be dressed daily 

 with the carbolized oil or with a solution of 1 part of mercuric chlo- 

 ride in 1,000 of water. 



Granulating wounds may be irrigated with the mercuric chloride 

 solution, and if the granulations become inflamed (soft, flabby, exu- 

 berant, rising above the edges of the wound), they may be touched 

 lightly with a stick of lunar caustic, so as to leave them covered with 

 a white film. 



In all wounds that fail to heal by primary union an elaborate anti- 

 septic treatment is desirable, but the difficulty of applying this suc- 

 cessfully to the horse in an ordinary stable would seem to forbid a 

 lengthy description in a book of this kind. 



