SPAVIN. 293 



crystals with 2 ounces of vaseline, rubbed in once a day for several 

 days. If this proves to be ineffective, a Spanish fly blister, to which 

 a few grains of biniodide of mercury have been added, will, in a 

 majority of cases, efi'ect the desired result and remove the lameness. 

 If, hnaily, this treatment is inetfcctual, the case must be relegated to 

 the surgeon for the operation of neurectomy, or the free and deep 

 application of the firing iron. 



SPAVIN. 



This aft'ection, popularly termed hone spavin^ is an exostosis of the 

 hock joint. The general impression is that in a spavined hock the 

 bony growth should be seated on the anterior and internal part of 

 the joint, and this is partially correct, as such a growth will constitute 

 a spavin in the most correct sense of the term. But an enlargement 

 may appear on the upper part of the hock also, or possibly a little 

 below the inner side of the lower extremit}^ of the shank bone, form- 

 ing what is known as a likjh spavin; or, again, the growth may form 

 just on the outside of the hock and become an outside^ or external^ 

 spavin. And, finally, the entire under surface may become the seat 

 of the osseous deposit, and involve the articular face of all the bones 

 of the hock, and this again is a hone spavin. There would seeui, then, 

 to be but little difficulty in comprehending the nature of a bone 

 spavin, and there would be none but for the fact that there are similar 

 affections which might confuse one if the diagnosis is not very care- 

 fully made. 



But the liock may be " spavined," while to all outward observation 

 it still retains its perfect form. With no enlargement perceptible to 

 sight or touch the animal may yet be disabled by an occult spavin, 

 an anchvlosis in fact, which has resulted from a union of several 

 of the bones of the joint, and it is only those who are able to realize 

 the importance of its action to the perfect fulfillment of the function 

 of locomotion by the hind leg who can comprehend the gravity of the 

 only prognosis which can be justified by the facts of the case — a prog- 

 nosis wliicli is essentially a sentence of serious import in respect to 

 the future usefulness and value of the animal. For no disease, if 

 we excej)t those acute iuflaunnatory attacks upon vital organs to 

 Avhich the jjatient succumbs at once, is more destructive to the useful- 

 ness and value of a horse than a confirmed spavin. Serious in its 

 inception, serious in its progress, it is an ailment which, when once 

 established, becomes a fixed condition which there is no known 

 means of dislodging. 



Cause. — The periostitis, of which it is nearly always a termination, 

 is usually the effect of a traumatic cause operatiug upon the compli- 

 cated structure of the hock, such as a sprain which has torn a liga- 

 mentous iusertion and lacerated some of its fibers; or a violent effort 

 in jumping, galloping, or trotting, to which the victim has been com- 

 pelled by the torture of whip and spur Avhile in use as a gambling 



