TIIEIR PATHOLOGY, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT. 51 



The hotbeds of grease, as of many other horse diseases, are the dark 

 and filthy dens where light and fresh air are as far as possible excluded, 

 as though they carried destruction with them, where accumulated heaps of 

 manure discharge gases that contaminate the air the horse is compelled to 

 breathe, and where too often the poor animal's bedding, if he has any, is 

 saturated, and he is forced to stani in pools of liquid manure, the ex- 

 halations from which have a harmful effect, both locally and generally. 

 It is for the most part the aged and those debilitated with over work 

 and indifferent food that suffer from grease, although an over stimulating 

 and heated diet will tend to develop it where other circumstances are 

 favourable to its presence. Among other causes of grease, clipping the 

 hair from the heels, and thus depriving them of the warmth which nature 

 placed the hair there to give, by preventing the rapid evaporation which 

 takes place from a bare surface. Washing the feet in cold hard water, or, 

 as is oftener done, dashing a pail or two of water over them and leaving 

 them to dry as they like, tends to produce grease. When heavy draught 

 horses are brought in muddy and wet, they should not be washed but 

 relieved of the dirt as far as possible with a brush, and rubbed as dry as 

 possible with wisp3 of straw, the horse will be far more comfortable than 

 with his legs wet and cold, and grease and other untoward events obviated. 

 Another source of grease is turning old horses out to grass in wet meadows 

 in cold weather, and especially when pasture is scant ; so that we see in 

 every instance this is, in the strictest sense, a preventible disease, and as 

 such, we repeat, a disgrace to the stable management where it occurs. 



The first symptoms of grease are a scurfiness and itching of the legs. 

 The scurfiness can be seen in grooming, and the itchiness is plainly 

 indicated by the horse frequently stamping his feet on the ground and 

 rubbing the back of one leg with the other. The hair begins to stand 

 out, cracked heels succeed, and the fetlocks become tumiSed ; a discharge 

 takes place, which may be seen standing on the hairs in drops ; this rapidly 

 increases, as does the swelling and the craeks on the heel, and the 

 abhorrent smell, so peculiar to the discharge in this disease, becomes 

 intensified as the discharge increases, lameness sets in, and if the disease 

 is not checked and mastered granulations appear in bunches, and the horse 

 suffers great pain from the slightest contact of the parts with the straw 

 bedding, &c. 



The first thing to be done in cases of grease is to diligently search for the 

 cause which produced it, and which will encourage and intensify it and retard 

 progress towards recovery. These causes will not be far to seek, and should 

 be at once removed. In the scurfy stage, when increased heat and swelling 

 are beginning, wash the legs well with soap and warm water, drying care- 

 fully afterwards; then apply constantly bandages saturated with this 

 lotion : 



Lotion for Grease : Extract of lead loz., tincture of arnica loz., water 

 18oz., mixed. 



Two or three bandages should be at hand, and frequently changed, a 



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