Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. oHil 



seiits of bofj aud hone spavins and being harmless should 

 not be interfered with. 



This is a swelling, at first soft and doughy, but later 

 hard and resistant, in the median line of the hmb and 

 just behind the lowest part of the hock joint. It is best 

 seen by standing to one side of the hmb and looking di- 

 rectly across it. The injury is usually a sprain of the 

 tendon (perforatus) which plays over the front of the hock, 

 though in some bad cases the ligament of the hock be- 

 neath this is injured as weU. There is heat and tender- 

 ness with more or less lameness and a tendency to knuckle 

 forward at the fetlock. Curhy lioclcs are congenital in 

 some horses and cannot be looked on as disease, but 

 rather distortion. 



Treatment. Keep quiet, put on a high-heeled shoe, and 

 apply hot fomentations or cooling lotions until inflamma- 

 tion moderates, when an active bhster may be applied. 

 In some severe cases this may require to be repeated or 

 resort must be had to the hot iron, but this is altogether 

 exceptional. 



STEING-HALT. 



This is the name given to a habit of suddenly jerking 

 up the hind lipab when raised from the ground. It may 

 be shown only in turning from side to side in the stall 

 and in starting, or it may appear in walkuig and trotting 

 as well. Again, the jerk may be comparatively slight, or 

 so extreme that the fetlock may even strike the belly. 

 Its causes are unlinown, though manifestly it is a reflex 

 nervous act and may perhaps be determined by a variety 

 of local injuries. If any such can be found they should 

 be corrected, but as a rule treatment is eminently unsat- 

 isfactory. The affection is usually aggravated with time 

 and the animal is sooner fatigued and worn out than other 

 horses. 



