356 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 
soaking tub and at night by applying a moderately tight-roller band- 
age. Later absorption may be promoted by a Priessnitz bandage,* 
pressure by roller bandages, sweating, the use of liniments, or if nec- 
essary by a sharp blister of biniodid of mercury. This treatment 
should subdue the inflammation, abate the soreness, absorb the excess 
of secretion, strengthen the walls of the sac, and finally cause the 
windgalls to disappear, provided the animal is not too quickly re- 
turned to labor and exposed to the same factors that occasioned them 
at first. 
If the inflammation has become chronic, however, and the enlarge- 
ment has been of considerable duration, the negative course will be 
the wiser one. If any benefit results from treatment it will be of 
only a transient kind, the dilatation returning when the patient is 
again subjected to labor, and it will be a fortunate circumstance if 
inflammation has not supervened. 
Notwithstanding the generally benighant nature of the swelling 
there are exceptional cases, usually when it is probably undergoing 
certain pathological changes, which may result in lameness and dis- 
able the animal, in which case surgical treatment will be indicated, 
especially if repeated blisters have failed to improve the symptoms. 
Line firing is then a preeminent suggestion, and many a useful life 
has received a new lease as the result of this operation timely per- 
formed. Another method of firing, which consists in emptying the 
sac by means of punctures through and through, made with a red-hot 
needle or wire, and the subsequent injection of certain irritating and 
alterative compounds into the cavity, designed to effect its closure 
by exciting adhesive inflammation, such as tincture of iodin, may be 
commended. But they are all too active and energetic in their effects 
and require too much special attention and intelligent management to 
be trusted to any hands other than those of an expert veterinarian. 
BLOOD SPAVIN, BOG SPAVIN, AND THOROUGHPIN. 
' The blood spavin is situated in front and to the inside of the hock 
and is merely a varicose or dilated condition of the saphena vein. It 
occurs directly over the point where the bog spavin is found, and has 
thus been frequently confused with the latter. 
The complicated arrangement of the hock joint, and the powerful 
tendons which pass on the posterior part, are lubricated with the 
product of secretion from one tendinous synovial and several articu- 
lar synovial sacs. A large articular sac contributes to the lubrica- 
1This bandage consists of a cloth drenched in warm water or a dripping bandage laid 
around the diseased part, then covered by several layers of woolen blanket or cloth, which 
is in turn covered by parchment paper, rubber cloth, or other impervious material, Heat, 
moisture, and pressure are obtained by such a bandage if water is poured upon it several 
times daily. 
