PREVENTION, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT 5 



a well defined wall. There are two forms — acute and chronic. The 

 acute results from traumatism and infection. The infectious variety 

 is especially common in glands, as of the parotid and submaxillary 

 of horses in influenza and strangles. It occurs as tender, hot, more 

 or less hard swellings under or behind the jaw in the latter diseases. 



Treatment. — The treatment of acute abscess consists in the re- 

 moval of hair from the part and in the use of tincture of iodine 

 painted very freely on the swelling in its early stages and the injec- 

 tion — especially if a gland is the seat — of 10 minims of 2 % 

 solution of carbolic acid into the swelling. These measures may 

 abort the abscess. When the progress of the abscess appears to 

 be certain, it should be hastened by hot, frequently changed, flax- 

 seed poultices, or by the application of a fly blister — in the case of 

 indurated glands of the neck in the horse. When the swelling 

 begins to soften and suppuration is evident, the abscess may be 

 opened by the knife or actual cautery. The latter is excellent in 

 being aseptic and comparatively bloodless and painless, when the 

 white hot iron is used, and much of the tissue — which would 

 slowly slough — may be at once destroyed by the cautery. 



The after care consists in washing the cavity, once or more 

 daily, with hydrogen dioxide and injecting 5 % iodoform in 

 warmed vaseline, or peruvian balsam at a later stage, to stimulate 

 granulation. It is well to keep up the poultices for a day or two 

 after opening of the abscess. 



Chronic or cold abscess is commonly eicher tuberculous or re- 

 sults from repeated traumatism, as in the case of shoulder abscess 

 or shoe-boil in the horse, from the irritation of an ill-fitting collar or 

 from that of the shoe calks in lying down. The swelling is usually 

 large, without inflammatory signs, as heat and tenderness, except in 

 recent cases (as in shoe-boil or capped elbow). The inflammation 

 starts in connective tissue and results in the formation of many 

 pockets, and the abscess is usually very thick-walled and cure is 

 chiefly by the knife or cautery, with the removal of all the indur- 



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