382 



"While this disease at times attacks an^' and all classes of liorses, it 

 is the large, coinmon breeds, with thick skins, heavy coats, and coarse 

 legs that are most often affected. Horses well groomed and cared 

 for in stables seem to be less liable to the disease than those run- 

 ning at large or than those which are kept and worked under adverse 

 circumstances. 



Symptoms. — Lameness, lasting from one to three or four days, 

 nearly always x)recedes the development of the strictly local evidences 

 of quittor. The next sign is the appearance of a small, tense, hot, and 

 painful tumor in the skin of the coronary region. If the skin of the 

 affected foot is white the inflamed portion will present a dark red or 

 even a purplish appearance near the center. Within a few hours' 

 time the ankle, or even the whole leg as high as the knee or hock, 

 becomes much swollen. The lameness is now so great that the patient 

 refuses to use the foot at all, but carries it in the air if comiDelled to 

 move. As a consequence the opposite leg is required to do the work 

 of both, and if the animal persists in standing a greater part of the 

 time it, too, becomes swollen. In many of these cases the suffering 

 is so intense during the first fcAv days as to cause general fever, dull- 

 ness, loss of appetite, and increased thirst. Generally the tumor shows 

 signs of suppuration within from forty-eight to seventy-two hours 

 after its first appearance; the summit softens, a fluctuating fluid is 

 felt beneath the skin, which soon ulcerates completely through, caus- 

 ing the discharge of a thick, yellow, bloody pus, containing shreds of 

 dead tissue which have sloughed away. The sore is now converted 

 into an open Ulcer, generally deep, nearly or quite circular in outline, 

 and with hardened base and edges. In exceptional cases large patclies 

 of skin, varying from 1 to 2^ inches in diameter, slough away at once, 

 leaving an ugly superficial ulcer. These sores, especially when deep, 

 suppurate freely; if there are no complications the}^ tend to heal 

 rapidly as soon as the degenerated, tissue has softened and is entirely 

 removed. When suppuration is fully established the lameness and 

 general symptoms subside. Where but a single tumor and abscess 

 form the disease progresses rapidlj', and recovery, under proper treat- 

 ment, may be effected in from two to three weeks' time; but when two 

 or more tumors are developed at once or where the formation of one 

 tumor is rapidly succeeded by another for an indefinite time the suf- 

 ferings of the patient are greatly increased, the case is more difficult 

 to treat, and recovery is more slow and less certain. 



Tliis form of quittor is often complicated with the tendinous and 

 subhorny quittors by an extension of the sloughing process. 



Treatment. — The first step in the treatment of an outbreak of quittor 

 should be the removal of all exciting causes. Crowding animals into 

 small corrals and stables, where injuries to the coronet are likely to 

 happen from tramping, especially among unbroken range horses, must 

 be avoided as much as possible. 



