80 THE DISEASES OF HORSES, 



up. It occurs when horses, having been bled from the neck vein, are 

 allowed to graze or eat from the floor, and permitted free motion. The 

 lips of the orifice made by the fleam separate, a small lump forms, which 

 ultimately discharges matter, and similar lumps appear along the vein 

 following the same course. The treatment consists in repeated blistering, 

 whilst the horse should be fed with nutritious but soft food ; such cases 

 should however be left to the skill of the veterinary surgeon. 



Warts. — Most people are familiar with the excrescences on the skin 

 known by this name. There are several kinds which appear on the horse, 

 but the difference between them would not be recognised by the amateur, 

 and the treatment is in all cases the same, either they should be removed 

 by the knife when they are solitary— and this method can be adopted — 

 or caustics should be regularly applied until they are burnt off ; of these 

 the best is the lunar caustic, or nitrate of silver, and the glacial acetic 

 acid. In using the latter care must be taken that it does not spread over 

 the sound skin, which it is apt to do, being very thin. It is easiest applied 

 with a camel's hair pencil. When warts appear they should be at once 

 attacked, as although they do not, according to an exploded superstition, 

 "breed" in the sense that animals or vegetables do, yet it is satisfactorily 

 shown by experience that when allowed to remain the disposition to develop 

 them is increased, and when they are removed this is discouraged and 

 stopped. It seems almost needless to say that the various plans adopted 

 to " charm " away these excrescences is a silly superstition. Yet I have 

 met many simple people with a firm belief in such nonsense. 



Warbles or Warblets are small lumps caused by the heat and friction 

 of the saddle, which, if care be not taken, become tumours ; generally they 

 disappear if the saddle is altered to give relief from pressure on the part, 

 and when that fails the horse should be thrown off work and the warbles 

 rubbed with blistering ointment (p. 24). 



Windy Colic— See Colic. 



Windfalls are small round or oval puffy swellings above the fetlock, 

 brought on by severe work, which cause irritation of the sacs containing 

 the synovia or joint oil, which lubricates the tendons, so that more of it 

 is secreted than is required for that purpose, or than the sacs can contain ; 

 hence windgalls are seen most prominently after a hard day, although on 

 the other hand they sometimes disappear after a hard run, when a puffi- 

 ness of the whole leg, from fetlock to hock, appears. 



The treatment for windgalls consists of cold fomentations with bandages, 

 and pressure by means of pads. The cooling lotion already given (p. 37) 

 is an excellent preparation for this purpose, or blisters may be applied, 

 in which case biniodide of mercury blister (p. 24) will answer best, and 



