234 FRACTURE OF THE HAUNCH. 



wood may be modelled to the inequalities of the limb, 

 if used before all the heat has departed. The splints 

 are to be firmly bound by a broad canvas bandage, 

 and the whole kept constantly wet with cold water. 



This should be done in the box or stall, in which it 

 is intended that the horse should remain. He should 

 then be left as much as possible to himself. He will 

 take care of his broken leg; he will not press upon it 

 for many a day ; and not at all, until he can do so 

 without much pain ; and, in many more cases than 

 some have imagined, the fractured bone will unite, 

 and the horse will do well. 



Slings should not be used in the first instance; but 

 the horse should have his head tied up for four nights, 

 and then the slings may be offered, but these reliefs 

 should not be continued too long. The excoriations 

 and other inconveniences occasioned by the long use 

 of the slings have, more than any thing else, brought 

 the treatment of fractures into disrepute. 



Fractures of the hind extremities are more serious 

 affairs, and should be undertaken with great caution. 

 But after either injury a long rest should be allowed, 

 and a full allowance of the best food supplied. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



INJURIES AND LAMENESS OF THE HIND EXTREMITIES 

 FRACTURE OF THE HAUNCH. 



The point of the hip, or haunch, is exposed to con- 

 siderable danger from accident or brutal force. Either 





