LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
7 
or fired, and which, in consequence, have become converted into 
the callous substance before described — of which they are never 
again likely to go lame. 
A curb is reckoned of consequence only in so far as it interferes 
with the action of the hock or makes it painful, and so far lames or 
incapacitates the horse ; and it is the fact of there being hardly any 
instance on record of permanent or incurable lameness from curb 
that induces horse folks to attach so little importance to the dis- 
ease. From past experience, they entertain a feeling of assurance 
that, in the end, all will become right again. 
The Treatment of Curb, with a knowledge of the fact of its 
universal curability ; or of its tendency, even untreated, and cer- 
tainty, indeed, in the course of time, provided the horse be laid 
up, to cure itself ; — I repeat, with a conviction of all this, the treat- 
ment may be said to be undertaken under the happiest auspices ; 
indeed, to be undertakeable with tolerable prospects of success by 
the mere dabbler even in veterinary medicine. Every groom — 
every amateur veterinarian — can “ cure a curb still there is a 
rational and scientific method of procedure in this, as in all other 
cases, which we rarely see practised but in the hands of the regular 
professional man. 
Knowing that repose, a state of quietude of the affected limb, is 
most desirable, the horse is not to be turned loose into a box, but 
to be kept confined in a stall ; and that the diseased parts, and 
others connected with them, the tendons and ligaments, may 
be thrown into a state of relaxation and ease, a most important aid 
in treatment is a high-heeled shoe. This done, fomentation of the 
curb with water as hot as the hand can be borne in it is the best 
assuasive to a part in pain, and the fomentation is rendered parti- 
cularly effectual by the employment of the spongio-piline. One 
piece may be temporarily confined around the hock while another 
similar piece is soaking in the hot water, ready to succeed the first. 
This succession constitutes most effective fomentation. A dose of 
purgative medicine should be given, and it should be an extra- 
strong one, remembering that the horse will not be able to be 
moved about to work it off. If we could draw blood, locally, from 
the part itself, the abstraction would greatly relieve the inflamma- 
tion present : all that we can do by way of approach to it is, sup- 
posing the inflammation to run high and the lameness to be exces- 
sive, to open the femoral vein, or else lance the foot of the curbed 
limb, and draw blood from the toe. It is not often, however, that 
it is deemed necessary to abstract blood. On the contrary, it not in- 
frequently happens, in a case of curb taken under treatment at the 
moment of or soon after its occurrence, that the fomentation and 
