JOINT DISEASES. 145 



Causes. The blacksmith is many times wrongfiiUy 

 blamed for want of attention or skill in shoeing the horse, 

 because he interferes. There are cases, no doubt, where a 

 little observation and care, on the part of the sheer, would 

 have prevented it. From much observation, however, 1 

 am satisfied that the chief cause lies in the weakness of the 

 horse, particularly in the spring of the year. Horsemen 

 well know that their horses did not interfere in the winter 

 months, when the weather was not oppressive, and the 

 horse in excellent spirits ; and no changes have been made 

 in the shoer or manner of shoeing. 



Treatment. Give a few powders of iron and gentian in 

 the feed, to restore the horse to strength. (See Medicines.) 



Jack. — A small point on the inside of the hock-joint 

 of the horse, affected with bone spavin. 



Jaundice. — This signifies bile in the blood; biliary 

 intoxication, tinging the membranes of the nose, mouth, 

 Ate., with a yellow color. 



Joint Diseases. — The diseases of the various joints in 

 the horse, are many. Among them may be enumerated : 

 Of spavin — bone, blood, bog and occult — four varieties, all 

 of the hock-joint; of the patella, in the form of dislocation ; 

 of the hip, or whirl-bone joint, ulceration and sprain ; of 

 the joints of the back-bones, caries and ulceration; of the 

 foot, coffin-joint, commonly called navicular-joint, lame- 

 ness; of the pastern joints, anchylosis or stiff-joint; of the 

 lower pastern, ring-bone; of the knee-joint, stiffness and 

 open joint; of the point of the shoulders, ulceration and 

 bulging out of the capsular ligament of the joint; wind 

 galls, of almost all the joints, more specially in the pasterns. 

 The cause and treatment of these affections will be found 

 under their proper heads, throughout the book. 

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