378 ' DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



swelling of the parts at the point of injury, will enable anyone to 

 make a diagnosis. 



Treatment. — Sprain of the suspensory ligament, no matter how 

 mild it may be, should always be treated by enforced rest of at least a 

 month, and the application of cold douches and cold-water bandages, 

 firmly applied until the fever has subsided, when a cantharides blister 

 should be put on and repeated in two or three weeks if necessary. 

 When rupture has taken place, the patient should be put in slings, and 

 a constant stream of cold water allowed to trickle over the seat of 

 injury until the fever is reduced. In the course of a week or ten 

 days a plaster of Paris splint, such as is used in fractures, is to be 

 applied and left on for a month or six weeks. When this is taken off, 

 blisters may be used to remove the remaining soreness ; but it is use- 

 less to expect a removal of all the thickening; for, in the process of 

 repair, new tissue has been formed which will always remain. 



In old cases of sprain the firing iron may often be used with good 

 results. As a rule, severe injuries to the suspensory ligament inca- 

 pacitate the subject for anything but slow, light work. 



OVERREACH. 



An overreach is where the shoe of the hind foot strikes and injures 

 the heel or quarter of the fore foot. It rarely happens except when 

 the animal is going fast, hence is most common in trotting and run- 

 ning horses. In trotters the accident generally happens when the 

 animal breaks from a trot to a run. The outside heels and quarters 

 are most liable to the injury. 



Symptoms. — The coronet at the heel or quarter is bruised or cut, 

 the injury in some instances involving the horn as well. Wliere the 

 hind foot strikes well back on the heel of the fore foot — an accident 

 known among horsemen as " grabbing " — the shoe may be torn from 

 the fore foot or the animal may fall to its knees. Horses accustomed 

 to overreaching are often " bad breakers," for the reason that the 

 pain of the injury so excites them that they can not readily be brought 

 back to the trotting gait. 



Treatment. — If the injury is but a slight bruise, cold-water bandages 

 applied for a few days will remove all of the soreness. If the parts 

 are deeply cut, more or less suppuration will follow, and, as a rule, it 

 is well to poultice the parts for a day or two, after which cold baths 

 may be used, or the wounds dressed with tincture of aloes, oakum, 

 and a roller bandage. 



When an animal is known to be subject to overreaching, he should 

 never be driven fast without quarter boots, which are specially made 

 for the protection of the heels and quarters. 



If there is a disposition to " grab " the forward shoes, the trouble 

 may be remedied by having the heels of these shoes made as short as 



