204 TH« HORSB. 



designated disease of the hock is responsible for it, and in the present 

 state of knowledge the best prescription that can be devised is the safe 

 and economical one of rest, a long rest in a pasture, where unmolested 

 nature shall be permitted to bring about any necessary change that 

 may be appropriate to the case. 



Interfering'. The results from interfering are not often very serious. 

 However violent the blow may be it is rarely that complications of a 

 troublesome nature occur. The chief evil attending it is a liability to 

 be followed by a thickened skin for a callous which is an eyesore and a 

 a blemish. The remark than "an animal which has interfered once is 

 always liable to interfere, ' ' is often confirmed and sanctioned by a re- 

 currence of the trouble. 



A point in which there is a resemblance between this trouble and others 

 which we have considered is in its yielding to the same treatment. In- 

 deed the prescription of warm fomentations, soothing applications, and 

 astringent and resolvent mixtures, in a majority of cases, is the first that 

 occurs all through the list. If the swelling assumes the character of a 

 serous collection, pressure, cold water and bandages will contribute to 

 its removal. If festering seems to be established, and the swelling as- 

 sumes the character of a developing abscess, the hot poultices of flaxseed 

 or of boiled vegetables and the use of basilicon, or propuleum, oint- 

 ments containing preparations of opium or belladonna, recommend 

 themselves by their general usefulness and the beneficial results which 

 have followed their application, not less in one case than in another. 

 When an abscess has formed and is ripening, it should be carefully but 

 fully opened to let out the pus. If it is a serous cyst, some care is neces- 

 sary in emptying it, and the possibility of the extension of the inflam- 

 mation to the joint must be taken into consideration. When the cavities 

 have been emptied and have closed by filling up with granulations 

 (scabs), or if, not being opened, the contents have been reabsorbed, and 

 there remains in either case a plastic scab and a tendency to the callous 

 organization that may yet exist, blisters under their various forms, in- 

 cluding those of cantharides, mercury, and iodine should then be used 

 chiefly in the early stages, as it is then that their effects will prove most 

 satisfactory. The use of the actual cautery, with fine points, penetrating 

 deeply throughout the enlargement, has when employed in the early 

 stages, nearly always hastened recovery with complete absorption of the 

 thickening. 



