STEmaHALT. 549 



times when the temperature of the atmosphere is liable to fall. 

 Precautions should be taken to prevent the animal getting chilled, 

 especially after work. His body should not be washed. It is a 

 good plan, in tropical climates, when the horse is picketed in the 

 open, to protect his spinal cord from the direct rays of the sun, 

 or from chill, by placing a folded blanket over his back and loins. 

 The horse should have the protection of a wall between him and the 

 quarter from which cold winds may be expected to blow. Of 

 course, these precautions are necessary only in places where the 

 disease is common. 



Stringhalt 



is a symptom of disease or injury, and is characterised by the hock 

 being more energetically flexed (bent) than it is extended during 

 movement. In mild cases, this want of co-ordination may be 

 noticed only when the animal begins to move, or from time to time 

 as he progresses. It is sometimes intermittent, as, for instance, 

 it may be present one day, and may be absent, after that, for one, 

 two, or three days. In bad cases, it may be seen at every step 

 he takes. It is almost always confined to the hind legs, and oc- 

 casionally affects both of them. In nearly every case it gets worse 

 with age, and becomes aggravated by hard work and injury. 

 Twenty years ago, it was comparatively common among Edin- 

 burgh cart-horses, the extensor muscles of whose hind legs had 

 to perform very severe work, when ascending the steep inclines 

 that are in that city. 



Many theories have been put forward as to the cause of string- 

 halt, which is generally regarded in this country as a nervous 

 disease. This supposition is, I think, strengthened by the fact that 

 a leg which is affected with stringhalt is almost always in an 

 abnormally high state of sensibility. Whatever may be the cause, 

 the fact remains that diminution of the muscular power which 

 bends the hock, reduces as a rule the defective action, and renders 

 it normal in many cases. With this object, one of the muscles 

 which helps to bend the hock (the peroneus) is thrown out of 

 action, by removing a portion of its tendon. If the tendon was 

 simply divided, it might reunite later on. This operation is 

 performed on the outside of the leg and just below the hock. 

 It should, of course, be done under antiseptic precautions (p. 70). 



I think slight cases of stringhalt are more readily seen in 

 the box or stall, on turning the animal round to one side and 

 then to the other, than when he is taken outside. 



TREATMENT is generally of very little use, except, perhaps, in 

 mitigation, when the affection has been made worse by over-exertion 



