360 



soreness, and the rest of the now familiar phenomena. The swelling 

 is at first diffused, extending more or less on the exterior part of the 

 hock, and in a few instances running uj) along the tendons and muscles 

 of the back of the shank. Soon, however, unless the irritating causes 

 are continued and repeated, the oedema diminishes, and becoming 

 more defined in its external outlines, leaves the hock capped with a 

 hj^groma. The hygroma, at the very beginning of the trouble, con- 

 tains a bloody serosity which soon becomes strictly serum, but through 

 the influence of an acute inflammatory action is liable to undergo a 

 metamorphosis which converts it into the product of the suppurative 

 jjrocess. 



The external appearance ought to be sufficient to determine the diag- 

 nosis, but there are a few signs which may contribute toward a nicer 

 identification of the lesion. The capped hock, whether under the 

 appearance of an acute oedematous swelling, or as a sero-bloody col- 

 lection, or as a simple serous cyst, does not give rise to any remark- 

 able local manifestation other than such as have already passed under 

 our survey in considering similar cases, nor will it be likely to inter- 

 fere with the functions which belong to the member in question, unless 

 it assumes verj^ large dimensions and on each side of the tendons, as 

 well as on the summit of the bone. But if the inflammation is quite 

 high, if suppuration is developing, if there is a true abscess, or — 

 and this is a common complication — especially when the kicking 

 or rubbing of the animal is frequently recurring, then, besides the 

 local trouble of the cyst or of the abscess, the bones become diseased 

 and the periosteum inflamed; perhaps the superior ends of the bone 

 and its fibro-cartilage become affected, and a simple lesion or bruise, 

 whatever it maj'' have been, becomes complicafcf^d with periostitis and 

 ostitis, and is naturally accompanied with lameness, developed in a 

 greater or less degree, which in some cases may be permanent and in 

 others increased b}^ work. But these complications are not conunon 

 or frequent. 



Capped hocks are in manj" cases amenable to treatment, and yet 

 they often become the opprobrium of the practitioner by remaining, 

 as the}^ frequently do, an ej^esore on the top of the hock; not inter- 

 fering, it is true, with the work of the horse, but fixing upon him the 

 stigma of what, in human estimation, and especially in that of the 

 tribe of " practical politicians," is a most unreliable and objectionable 

 reputation, to-wit, that of being an habitual "kicker," and, worse than 

 all, one that kicks where he receives his provender. 



The maxim that " an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure " 

 fits the present case vcrj- neatly. A horse whose hocks have a some- 

 what puffy look and whose skin on the front of the hock is loose and 

 flabby, justly subjects himself to a suspicion of his addictedness to 

 this bad habit. But he may easily be cither convicted or exonerated — 

 a little watching will soon establish the truth. If, then, the verdict 



