322 



If any benefit results from treatment it will be of only a transient kind, 

 the dilatation returning when the imtient is again subjected to labor, 

 and it will be a fortunate circumstance if inflammation has not super- 

 vened. 



But notwithstanding the generally benignant nature of the tumor 

 there are exceptional cases, usually when it is probably undergoing cer- 

 tain pathological changes, which may result in lameness and disable 

 the animal, in which case surgical treatment will be indicated, especially 

 if repeated blisters have failed to improve the symptoms. Firing is 

 then a preeminent suggestion, and many a useful life has received a 

 new lease as the result of this operation timely performed. The opera- 

 tion, wbich consists in emptying the sac by means of punctures through 

 and through, made with a red-hot needle or wire, and the subsequent 

 injection into the cavity of certain irritating and alterative compounds, 

 designed to effect its closure by exciting adhesive inflammation, such 

 as tincture of iodine, may be commended; but they are all too active 

 and energetic in their effects and require too much special attention and 

 intelligent management to be trusted to any hands other than those of 

 an expert veterinarian. 



Blood spavin and tJiorougJiinns.— The complicated arrangement of the 

 hock joint, and the powerful tendons which pass on the posterior part, 

 are lubricated with the product of secretion from one tendinous synovial 

 and several articular synovial sacs. One large articular sac contributes 

 to the lubrication of the shank bone (the tibia) and the bones of the 

 hock proper (the astragalus). The tendinous sac lies back of the artic- 

 ulation itself and extends upwards and downwards in the groove of that 

 joint through which the flexor tendons slide. The dilatation of this 

 articular synovial sac is what is denominated blood spavin, the term 

 thoroughpin being applied to the dilatation of the tendinous capsule. 



The blood spavin is situated in front and a little inward of the hock; 

 the thoroughpin is found at the back and on the top of the hock. The 

 former is round, smootb, well defined, presenting on its outer surface, 

 running from below upwards, a vein which is more or less prominent as 

 the bursa is more or less dilated, and it is from this conspicuous blood 

 vessel that the tumor derives its name. The thoroughpin is also round 

 and smooth, but not so regularly formed, on each side and a little in 

 front of the tendons in that part of the hock known as the "hollows," 

 immediately back of the posterior face of the tibia or shank bone. 



In their general characteristics these tumors are similar to windgalls, 

 and one description of the origin, symptoms, pathological changes, and 

 treatment will serve for a>ll equally, except that it is possible for a blood 

 spavin to cause lameness, and thus to involve a verdict of unsoundness 

 in the patient, a circumstance which will of course justify its classifica- 

 tion by itself as a severer form of a single type of disease. 



We have already referred to the subject of treatment and the means 

 emi>ioyed— rcsf, of course — with liniments, blisters, etc., and what we 



