333 



will accouiplisli all that will be desired. It will subdue the inflam- 

 mation and abate the soreness, and perhaps if the animal is not too 

 soon returned to labor and exposed to the same causes by which they 

 were before induced, the excess of secretion will be absorbed and the 

 walls of the sac strengthened, and the windgall will disappear. 



But if the inflammation has become chronic, and the enlargement 

 has been of considerable duration, the negative course will be the 

 wiser one. If any benefit results from treatment it will be of only a 

 transient kind, the dilatation returning when the patient is again sub- 

 jected to labor, and it will be a fortunate circumstance if inflammation 

 has not supervened. 



But notwithstanding the generally benignant nature of the tumor 

 there are exceptional cases, usually when it is probably undergoing 

 certain pathological changes, which may result in lameness and dis- 

 able the animal, in which case surgical treatment will be indicated, 

 especially if repeated blisters have failed to improve the symptoms. 

 Firing is then a preeminent suggestion, and many a useful life has 

 received a new lease as the result of this operation timely performed. 

 The operation, which consists in emptying the sac by means of punc- 

 tures through and through, made with a red-hot needle or wire, and 

 the subsequent injection into the cavity of certain irritating and alter- 

 ative compounds, designed to effect its closure by exciting adhesive 

 inflammation, such as tincture of iodine, may be commended; but 

 they are all too active and energetic in their effects and require too 

 much special attention and intelligent management to be trusted to 

 any hands other than those of an expert veterinarian. 



Blood spavin and ilioroughpins. — The complicated arrangement of 

 the hock joint, and the jaowerful tendons which i^ass on the jDOsterior 

 part, are lubricated with the product of secretion from one tendinous 

 synovial and several articular synovial sacs. One large articular sac 

 contributes to the lubrication of the shank bone (the tibia) and the 

 bones of the hock proi^er (the astragalus). The tendinous sac lies 

 back of the articulation itself and extends upwards and downwards 

 in the groove of that joint through which the flexor tendons slide. 

 The dilatation of this articular synovial sac is what is denominated 

 blood spavin, the term thoroughpin being applied to the dilatation of 

 the tendinous capsule. 



The blood spavin is situated in front and a little inward of the hock ; 

 the thoroughpin is found at the back and on the top of the hock. 

 The former is round, smooth, well defined, presenting on its outer 

 surface, running from below upwards, a vein which is more or less 

 prominent as the bursa is more or less dilated, and it is from this 

 conspicuous blood vessel that the tumor derives its name. The 

 thoroughpin is also round and smooth, but not so regularly formed, 

 on each side and a little in front of the tendons in that part of the 

 hock known as the "hollows," immediately back of the posterior face 

 of the tibia or shank bone. 



