RADICAL OPERATIONS FOR QUITTOR 



325 



The practice of leaving the wound bandaged with the 

 original .dressing for twenty days is imprudent, even though 

 there appears no evidence of sepsis, because .when the evi- 

 dence of infection becomes apparent by fever it is often too 

 late to ward off impending disaster. The treatment of this 

 wound should be no exception to the treatment of wounds in 

 general. If aseptic it may safely be left undressed during 

 the first week or so, but thereafter infection is quite certain 

 to enter into the situation unless measures are taken to 

 prevent, and these measures should consist of occasional 

 antiseptic dressing according as the condition of the wound 

 indicates. 



Fig. 159— Fourth Step of Bayer's Operation for Quittor. 

 The Flap Sutured. 



During the first week or ten days the temperature of the 

 patient is taken twice daily, and if pyrexia appears immediate 

 and repeated dressing with irrigations of hydrogen peroxide 

 followed by iodoform ether is an imperative necessity. Other- 

 wise, an active infective inflammation will soon send havoc 

 to the underlying synovials, cause gangrene of the flap, or 

 even end in serious septicemia. 



The horse, under favorable conditions, is ready for mod- 

 erate work at the end of sixty to ninety days, but sometimes 

 will again become incapacitated by the inability to attach the 

 shoe to the hoof on the affected side. The removed portion 

 of the wall, by growing down to the nail-line, leaves no place 



