746 
DISEASES OF THE HOCK. 
Prognosis. True capped hock can seldom be cured, though the removal 
of cutaneous thickening is less difficult. Hygroma of the bursa sub- 
cutanea is usually obstinate, but can sometimes be improved, or even 
completely cured. Disease of the flexor pedis perforatus and of the 
Inn sa tendinea is more serious, and generally incurable, as is thickening 
of the os calcis, though recent cases sometimes improve under proper 
treatment. 
As these conditions seldom produce lameness, the working powers are 
not much interfered with. Even in draught-horses they are far less 
giave than curb, &c., and should not exclude the animal from the stud 
if the hocks be otherwise perfect. Infectious processes in the flexor 
pedis peifoiatus and in its tendon sheath are alone dangerous. 
Treatment. As a preventive the sides of the stall should be padded, 
and the animal, if inclined to kick at night, should be hobbled. Hock 
boots may be worn. Where acute inflammation exists, cold applications 
are indicated, as in curb. Wounds must be carefully disinfected. In 
disease of the skin and mucous bursa, resolvent applications and massage 
are most useful. 
Becent oases of hydrops in the subcutaneous bursa and bursa tendinea 
should be treated by blistering, by the compound cantharides and 
euphorbium plaster, or by cantharidated collodion. The last two form a 
firm, unyielding covering on the surface of the skin, which exerts con¬ 
tinuous pressure on the inflamed swelling, and assists resorption of fluid 
fiom the bursa. Cantharidated collodion is even more convenient than 
the plaster, though it must be repeatedly applied at short intervals, and 
the neighbourhood of the swelling covered so as to produce a sufficiently 
firm covering. Moderately active preparations are preferable to severe 
blisters. Exercise is very useful, except during the inflammatory 
stages. 
Practitioners differ as to the advisability of surgical interference, 
mainly because the different conditions are not always differentiated. 
Puncture of hygromata with the hollow needle or slender trochar is 
seldom of service, the contents being soon replaced. It might perhaps 
be advantageously supplemented by the use of plaster or collodion 
applied immediately after operation. 
In capped hock the knife has been employed with very varying success 
Laying open the bursa subcutanea is seldom dangerous, and sometimes 
lemoves hygromata; but the result is not certain, and depends princi¬ 
pally on the degree of inflammation excited. Lanzillotti-Buonsanti 
recently operated successfully in two cases of enlargement of the sub¬ 
cutaneous bursa. Proceeding with strict antiseptic precautions he made 
a half-moon-shaped incision on the outer surface of the swelling, and 
through it he enucleated the bursa. Sutures were applied after the 
