FARCY. 105 



FARCY. 



THE farcy is a contagious disease among horses, 

 and is more to be dreaded than any malady to which 

 they are subject. 



It sometimes makes its appearance on a particular 

 part, while at other times it spreads its horrid ravages 

 through the whole system. It may be found in the 

 neighbourhood of each blood vessel, following the track 

 of the veins, and when inveterate, appears to thicken 

 their coats and integuments. Its characteristics are a 

 fulness and hardness of the veins, a number of small 

 lumps or buds on the limbs or lower parts of the body, 

 which at first appearance are hard, but soon turn into 

 soft blisters, and which (when broken) discharge an 

 oily or bloody ichor, and turn into foul, spreading 

 ulcers. In some horses it appears in the head only, 

 in others near the external jugular or plate veins, 

 inside the fore arms, on the hind parts, near the large 

 veins inside the thighs, about the pasterns, and parti- 

 cularly about the knees of the horse, which are fre- 

 quently swelled until they appear deformed. 



The poison of the farcy appears to be slow in its 

 operation, as a horse will frequently linger and dwindle 

 away for six or nine months, and the ulcers increase 

 in number and size, until the flesh appears almost dis- 

 posed to fall from the bones, before life is destroyed, 

 The appetite of a horse thus diseased is generally good 

 to the last, but his hair looks dead, and his eyes sad 

 and desponding. 



The farcy, in its first stage, readily admits of a 

 cure : but after running on a horse for a length 01 time 



