CAPPED HOCK. 359 



means of punctures with small trocars or aspirators. The danger 

 attending this last method arises from the possible sloughing of large 

 portions of the skin, while that attending the first is the hazard of the 

 possibility of the extension of the inflammation to the capsular liga- 

 ment of the knee, with the possibility of an open joint in prospect. 



As we have remarked, the cavity after being emptied may rapidly 

 close and leave in a short time but slight traces of its previous exist- 

 ence. But in many, if not in a majority, of cases there will remain 

 after the cicatrization is complete a thickening or organized exuda- 

 tion at one time round and well defined, at another spreading by a 

 diffused infiltration, to which it will be necessary to give immediate 

 attention, from the fact of its tendency to form into an organized and 

 permanent body. To stimulate inflammation in this diseased struc- 

 ture, blisters are recommended, but chiefly for the purpose of promot- 

 ing the process of absorption. 



If this treatment fails, the use of iodine and mercurial preparations 

 is recommended. 



Plain mercurial or plain iodine ointment, or both in combination as 

 iodide of mercury, are commonly used, and may either be applied 

 moderately and by gentle degrees, as we have suggested, or more 

 freely and vigorously with a view to more immediate effects, which, 

 however, will also be more superficial. The use of the firing iron 

 applied deeply with fine points is then to be strongly recommended, to 

 be followed by blisters and various liniments. This course may gen- 

 erally be relied on as quite sure to be followed by satisfactory results. 



While the treatment is in progress it will, of course, be necessaiy to 

 secure the animal in such a manner that a recurrence of the injury 

 will be impossible from similar causes to those which were previously 

 responsible. 



CAPPED HOCK. 



A bad habit prevails among some horses of rubbing or striking the 

 partitions of their stalls with their hocks, with the result of an injury 

 which shows itself on the upper point of that bone, the summit of the 

 OS calcis. From its analogy to the condition of capped elbow the 

 designation of capped hock has been applied to this condition. 



SymjJtoms. — A capped hock is therefore but the development of a 

 bruise at the point of the hock, which if many times repeated may 

 excite an inflammatory process, with all its usual external symptoms 

 of swelling, heat, soreness, and the rest of the now familiar phenom- 

 ena. The swelling is at first diffused, extending more or less on the 

 exterior part of the hock, and in a few instances running up along 

 the tendons and muscles of the back of the shank. Soon, however, 

 unless the irritating causes are continued and repeated, the edema 

 diminishes, and, becoming more defined in its external outlines, leaves 

 the hock capped with a hygroma. The hygroma, at the very begin- 



