506 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



impracticable. In other casas the bones may be attacked in some inac- 

 cessible location, or the joints may be affected, and in these cases it is 

 often best to destroy the horse at once. 



The reappearance of the fistula after it has apparently healed is not 

 uncommon. The secondary attack in these cases is seldom serious. 

 The lesion should be carefully cleaned and afterwards injected with 

 a solution of zinc sulphate, 20 grains to the ounce of water, every sec- 

 ond or third day until a cure is effected. 



In fistula of the foot we see the same tendency toward the burrow- 

 ing of pus downward to lower structures, or in some cases upward 

 toward the coronet. Prior to the development of a quittor there is 

 always swelling at the coronet, accompanied with heat and pain. 

 Every effort should now be made to prevent the formation of an 

 abscess at the point of injury. Wounds caused by nails, gravel, or 

 any other foreign body which may have lodged in the sole of the 

 foot should be opened at once from below, so as to allow free exit 

 to all purulent discharges. Should the injury have occurred directly 

 to the coronet the application of cold fomentations may prove efficient 

 in preventing the formation of an abscess. 



When a quittor becomes fully established it should be treated pre- 

 cisely as a fistula situated in any other part of the body ; that is, the 

 sinuses should all be opened from their lowest extremities, so as to 

 afford constant drainage. All fragments of diseased tissue should be 

 trimmed away, antiseptic solutions injected, and, after covering the 

 wound with a pad of oakum saturated with some good antiseptic 

 M^ash, the whole foot may be carefully covered with clean bandages, • 

 which will afford valuable assistance to the healing process by exclud- 

 ing all dirt from the affected part. 



Another form of treatment for this class of infections Consists in 

 the use of bacterial vaccines. Such treatment appears to be well 

 adapted for the purpose, and according to current veterinary litera- 

 ture has met with success. These vaccines are composed of several 

 strains of the organisms usually found in these pustular infections 

 of the horse. Two kinds of vaccines are used : First, autogenic vac- 

 cines, which consist of heated (killed) cultures of the organism or 

 organisms which are causing the trouble and which have been iso- 

 lated from the lesions; second, stock vaccines, consisting of dead 

 organisms of certain species generally found in these lesions and 

 Avhich are used in diseased conditions caused by one or the other of 

 these germs. The vaccine is administered subcutaneously by means 

 of a syringe, but the quantity of the vaccine to be injected and the 

 number of doses to be used should be left to the judgment of a 

 competent veterinarian. 



