50 i _ SPATIN. 



Sigh-Heeled STioe. — The proper form of shoe best to use 

 in eases of Spavin is shewn at Figure 29, page 499. 



Fwing and Blistering the Hock. — Before having recourse 

 to the actual cautery, the joint should be made as cool and 

 the disease palliated as much as possible by means of cold vrater, 

 or cold lotions. The best article to apply to the joint to effect 

 this, is a hay-band folded around the limb and' kept wet with 

 cold water. Its use should be persevered with for six or eight 

 days, or longer if necessary ; when the hock should be Fired, 

 and afterwards Blistered. 



Sest. — Hundreds of Spavined horses are ruined either in 

 consequence of the disease being allowed to go on until the 

 bones of the joint become ulcerated upon their articulatory 

 surfaces, or because sufficient rest is not allowed to the patient 

 after the free use of the cautery. 



The cure of Spavin depends upon two essentials : first, upon 

 the small bones of the hock being anchylosed ; and secondly, 

 when the anchylosis is complete, upon the further deposit of 

 bone being arrested. So long as motion can be produced 

 amongst the cuneiform bones, and so long as bony matter con- 

 tinues to be deposited after the cuneiform bones are perfectly 

 united, lameness will exist. 



The free use of the cautery to the joint, aided by rest to 

 the limb, will in the generality of cases do all which can be 

 done in fulfilling these ends. It may be necessary to fire the 

 hock more than either once or twice ; and it sometimes proves 

 of great value to vary the mode of cauterising the joint. Instead 

 of burning the skin in lines (the usual practice in these cases) 

 use a blunt-pointed budding iron, and cauterise the joint by 

 burning holes into the enlargement. The holes should be about 

 three quarters of an inch apart ; and I am of opinion it is better 

 to cauterise upon the middle of the bones than vrithin the 

 grooves or furrows which separate them. See Figure 30. 



