PELVIC ABSCESS. 141 



Pelvic Abscess. — This condition is sometimes seen 

 in weakly constitutioned mares within a few days after 

 foaling. 



Symptom. — In from one to four days one of the thighs 

 of the hind legs will be swollen, hot and painful, causing 

 the mare to shiver or appear chilly, not from cold but 

 from the suppurative inflammatory action going on. The 

 milk will have almost entirely ceased to be, and the colt 

 will have to be fed by the bottle as a child, or out of a 

 bucket like a calf, till the mare is cured and the milk 

 returns. One curious condition about pelvic abscess 

 although it suppurates the abscess does not break usually 

 on the thigh as it would be expected to do, but it breaks 

 within an inch or two from the haunch bone. 



Treatment. — The pus which has accumulated from so 

 large an abscess, does not discharge itself from the place 

 of opening, but burrows away down among the muscles 

 of the hip and thigh, down to within a few inches of the 

 hock itself. Hence the great secret in the treatment of 

 pelvic abscess is to make two free openings, one above at 

 the point of the soft abscess, and the other from four to 

 six inches of the hock on the outside of the thigh. Then 

 take a smooth elastic twig or a long piece of whalebone 

 nicely smoothed with sand-paper, and introduce into the 

 opening above, and gently force it down to within an 

 inch or so of the lower opening. This being done 

 the pus will all discharge itself from the lower hole, 

 then inject with a small syringe once a day, for a few 

 days about half a tablespoonful of the following mixture : 

 oil of turpentine and olive oil, equal parts. Keep the 

 parts clean, and feed the mare and colt well, and leave 

 nature to complete the cure. 



