382 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



While this disease attacks any and all classes of horses, it is the 

 large, common breeds, with thick skins, heavy coats, and coarse legs 

 that are most often affected. Horses well groomed and cared for in 

 stables seem to be less liable to the disease than those running at large 

 or than those which are kept and worked under adverse circumstances. 



Symptoms. — Lameness, lasting from one to three or four days, 

 nearly always precedes the development of the strictly local evidences 

 of quittor. The next sign is the appearance of a small, tense, hot, 

 and painful tumor in the skin of the coronary region. If the skin of 

 the affected foot is white, the inflamed portion will present a dark-red 

 or even a purplish appearance near the center. Within a few hours 

 the ankle, or even the whole leg as high as the knee or hock, becomes 

 much swollen. The lameness is now so great that the patient refuses 

 to use the foot at all, but carries it in the air if compelled to move. 

 As a consequence, the opposite leg is required to do the work of both, 

 and if the animal persists in standing a greater part of the time it, 

 too, becomes swollen. In many of these cases the suffering is so in- 

 tense during the first few days as to cause general fever, dullness, 

 loss of appetite, and increased thirst. Generally the tumor shows 

 signs of suppuration within forty-eight to seventy ^two hours after its 

 first appearance; the summit softens, a fluctuating fluid is felt be- 

 neath the skin, which soon ulcerates completely through, causing the 

 discharge of a thick, yellow, bloody pus, containing shreds of dead 

 tissue which have sloughed away. The sore is now converted into an 

 open ulcer, generally deep, nearly or quite circular in outline, and 

 with hardened base and edges. In exceptional cases large patches of 

 skin, varying from 1 to 2J inches in diameter, slough away at once, 

 leaving an ugly superficial ulcer. These sores, especially when deep, 

 suppurate freely, and if there are no complications they tend to heal 

 rapidly as soon as the degenerated tissue has softened and is entirely 

 removed. When suppuration is fully established, the lameness and 

 general symptoms subside. Where but a single tumor and abscess 

 form, the disease progresses rapidly, and recovery, under proper 

 treatment, may be effected in from two to three weeks ; but when two 

 or more tumors are developed at once, or where the fcirmation of one 

 tumor is rapidly succeeded by another for an indefinite time, the suf- 

 ferings of the patient are greatly increased, the case is more difficult 

 to treat, and recovery is more slow and less certain. 



October. In these fifty cases all forms of the disease and all possible compli- 

 cations were presented. During the rainy season at Leadville, Colo., outbreaks 

 of quittor are common, and the disease is so virulent that it has long been 

 known as the " Leadville foot rot." The soil being rich in mineral matters is 

 no doubt the cause of the outbreaks. In the city of Montreal quittor is said to 

 be very common in the early springtime, when the streets are muddy from the 

 melting snow and ice. 



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