297 



the dimensions increased, the resulting lameness would be the greater 

 in degree. This, however, is not the fact. A small tumor, while in 

 a condition of acute inflammation during the formative stage, may 

 cripple a patient more severely than a much larger one in a later 

 stage of the disease. In any case the lameness is never Avanting 

 and with its intermittent character may usually be detected when 

 the animal is cooled off after labor or exercise. The class of ani- 

 mals in which this feature of the disease is most frequently witnessed 

 is that of the heavy draft horse, and others similarl}- employed. There 

 is a wide margin of difference in respect to the degrees of severity 

 which may characterize different cases of side-bone. While one may 

 be so slight as to cause no inconvenience, another may develop ele- 

 ments of danger which ma}^ involve the necessity of severe surgical 

 interference. 



The curative treatment should be similar to the prophj^lactic, and 

 such, means should be used as would tend to i)revent the deposit of 

 bony matters hy checking the acute inflammation which causes it. 

 The means recommended are the free use of the cold bath; frequent 

 soaking of the feet, and at a later j)eriod treatment with iodine, either 

 by i)ainting the surface with the tincture several times daily, or by 

 applying an ointment made by mixing 1 dram of the crystals with 2 

 ounces of vaseline, rubbed in once a day for several daj^s. If this 

 proves to be ineffective, a Spanish fly blister, to which a fen^ grains of 

 biniodidc of mercury have been added, will, in a majority of cases, 

 effect the desired result and remove the lameness. If, unally, this 

 treatment is resisted, the case must be relegated to the surgeon for 

 the operation of neurotomj-, or the application of the fire-iron, freely 

 and deeply. 



SPAVIN. 



This affection, popularly- termed bone 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 consti- 

 tute a spavin in the most correct sense of the term. But an enlarge- 

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

 little below the inner side of the lower extremity of the shank bone, 

 forming what is known as a high 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 internal face of all the bones of 

 the hock, and this again is a Ijone spavin. There would seem, then, 

 to be but little difiieulty in comprehending the nature of a bone spavin, 

 and there would be none but for the fact that thei-e are similar affections 

 which might confuse a diagnosis if not very carefully and intelligently 

 made. 



o9Gl— HOR 10* 



