352 



The prognosis of interfering is never a very serions one. However 

 violent tlie blow may bo it is rarely that subsequent complications of a 

 troublesome nature occur. The principal evil attending it is a liability 

 to be followed by a tliiclieucd or callous deposit which is not only an 

 eyesore and a blemish, but constitutes a new and increased predisposi- 

 tion. The remark that " an animal which has interfered once is always 

 liable to interfere," is often confirmed and sanctioned by a recurrence 

 of the trouble. 



Another point in which there is a resemblance between this lesion 

 and others which we have considered is in its responsiveness to the same 

 treatment with them. Indeed, the prescription of warm fomentations, 

 soothing applications, and astringent and resolvent mixtures, in a ma- 

 jority of cases, is the first that occurs all through the list. If the swell- 

 ing assumes the character of a serous collection, pressure, cold water 

 and bandages will contribute to its removal. If suppuration seems to 

 be established, and the swelling assumes the character of a developing 

 abscess, the hot poultices of flaxseed or of boiled vegetables and the 

 embrocations of suppurative or sedative ointments, those of basilicon, 

 or propuleum, impregnated with xirejiarations of opium or belladonna — 

 all these recommend themselves by their general adaptation and the 

 beneficial results which have followed their administration, not less in 

 one case than in another. When an abscess has formed and is fluctu- 

 ating, it should be carefully but fully opened to evacuate the pus. If 

 it is a serous cyst, some care is necessary in emptying it, and the pos- 

 sibility of the extension of the inflammation to the joint must be taken 

 into consideration. When the cavities have been emptied and have 

 closed by filling up with granulations, or if, not being opened, the con- 

 tents have been reabsorbed, and there remains in either case a plastic 

 exudation and a tendency to the callous organization that may yet exist, 

 blisters under their various forms, including those of cantharides, of 

 mercury, and of iodine arc then indicated, principally in the early stages, 

 as it is then that their effects will prove most satisfiictory. The use of 

 the actual cautery, with fine points, penetrating deeply throughout the 

 enlargement, has in our hands, when employed in the very early stages 

 of its formation, nearly always brought on a radical recovery with com- 

 plete absorption of the thickening. 



Stringhalt. — The characteristic symptom, if not in fact the sum of 

 the symptomatology of this disease, is the spasmodic flexion, more or 

 less violent, of the hock, sometimes to the extent of striking the abdo- 

 men with the fetlock of the affected leg, and at others only sufficient to 

 lift it a few inches from the ground, but always with the same sudden, 

 uncontrollable jerk. The habit is unaffected by the gait of the animal, 

 and whether trotting, walking, or merely turning around, it is all the 

 same. It does not seem to be influenced by the horse's age, young and 

 old being alike affected. Its first manifestations are sometimes very 

 slight. It has been noticed as occurring to an animal when backing 



