CHAPTER IX. 



GALLS AND BRUISES. 



Their Effects and How to Avoid Them. 



Abscesses or boils caused by contusion, bruises and their 

 treatment, chafing by the harness, and saddle or collar 

 galls, etc. 



fouNDS and bruises often produce inflammation as a result of the 

 injury of the affected part. If the wound is a puncture of .some 

 joint as the hock, fetlock, or knee, often there is discharged 

 a thin, whitish or yellowish fluid, called joint-oil, or joint-water. 

 If it is a bruise it often causes abscesses or the accumulation of pus. If 

 it is caused by a continued rubbing, (chafing) it often leads to sores 

 that are hard to heal, and even when healed the hair often grows in 

 white or there is left a calloused condition of the skin. 



Abscesses. These consist of accumulations of pus within circum- 

 scribed walls, at different parts of the body, and may becla.ssedas acute, 

 and cold or chronic abscesses. 



Acute abscesses follow as the result of local inflammation in glands, 

 muscular tissue, or even bones. They are very common in the two 

 former. The abscesses most commonly met with in the horse (and the 

 ones which will be here described) are those of the salivary glands, 

 occurring during the existence of "strangles" or "colt distemper." 

 The glands behind or under the jaw are seen to slowly increase in size, 

 becoming firm, hard, hot, and painful: At first the swelling is uni- 

 formly hard and resisting over Its entire surface, but in a little while 



