^42 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 



of bad spavin, be capable of doing farm work even with a stiff leg, but is 

 totally unfit for driving on the road. 



What to do. — Precisely the same treatment must be pursued as in the 

 case of bone spavin. Fomentations, while in the stage of fever or in- 

 flammation, and blistering, firing and setons to assist absorption. It 

 must be rememljered, however, that either in spavin, or any other disease 

 of the bones, joints, cartilages, or muscular tissues, that straining of the 

 parts is likely to ensue again, and consequently care must be taken abou\ 

 overworking or injuring by fast driving, especially on rough ground. 



VL Ring-bone. 



This is a deposit of bony matter above and below the coronet of the 

 foot, just where the hair begins above the hoof, or of the bone of the 

 hoof, as the coffin bone is called, or bony growth on the pasterns. 



Causes. — It is caused by heavy work, hard pulling by draft horses, 

 bruises of the bone by pounding of the feet on hard roads and pavements, 

 generally beginning as inflammation of the membranes covering the 

 bones, and at these points giving attachments to the ligaments at the side 

 of the lower or small pastern bone, or of the lower end of the upper or 

 large pastern. Sometimes the bony formation proceeds to such an ex- 

 tent, involving and covering the whole surface, as to produce a kind of 

 club foot. 



How to know it. — There may be lameness or not, except on hard 

 ground, or upon liinding the limb, in old-seated ring-bones. During the 

 beginning of the evil, or while there is inflammation, and a tender, elas- 

 tic swelling, and a more or less doughy state (engorgement) of the soft 

 parts. In the course of the disease this matter becomes hard, from being 

 turned into a soft or spongy bony formation. The swelling may be 

 scarcely seen and confined to the sides of the pastern bone, or there may 

 be great enlargement of the whole surface. If the trouble occurs in a 

 fore-leg, the heel is put do\vn first ; if the ring-bone is in the hind-foot, 

 and in the sides or back part of the pastern, the toe will be put down 

 first. 



What to do. — For the fore-foot, put on a thin-heeled bar shoe. If la 

 the hind-foot, a high-hccled shoe. That is, if the animal walks on the 

 toe, use a high-heeled shoe ; if on the heel, a thin-heeled shoe. If there 

 is inflammation, known by heat and tenderness, use fomentations of hot 

 water, porscveringly applied until it is reduced. Then blister severely 

 with the following: : 



o 



