PARTICULARLY IN SUCKING FOALS. 437 
an extent that the capsular ligaments rupture, making a direct 
opening into the joint by a corresponding ulceration forming 
through the surrounding effused lymph and integument. The 
best mode of treatment consists in the frequent application of 
fomentations of warm water to the inflamed joint. The colt should 
be immediately taken from the mare on the appearance of in¬ 
flammation in the joint, and supported with fresh milk from 
the cow; the mare should discontinue her work, and have her 
milk well drawn by hand for three or four days, when, if the 
colt is doing well, he may again suck on the mare; but the colt 
should not be allowed to draw milk from the mare while febrile 
symptoms continue, or inflammation and swelling exist in the 
joint. Copious local bleedings, when the pulse is quick and hard, 
are often attended with much benefit; and if the bowels are 
costive, which is commonly the case, a quart of thin oatmeal 
gruel, as a clyster, should be administered once a-day. Some¬ 
times the cow’s milk acts as a laxative : should it not do so, a 
drachm or a drachm and a half of aloes in solution may be given 
according to the size and strength of the colt. M. Benard directs 
the treatment of the colt through the medium of the mare; but 
if the colt is diseased by an unhealthy state of the mare’s milk, 
it certainly must be best to move the colt from the mare until 
there is a probability that the milk has changed, and again be¬ 
come of a healthy quality. Many colts would recover, provided 
they were attended to on the first appearance of disease. Far¬ 
mers are apt to neglect an early application to the veterinary 
surgeon: a joint of the foal inflames, swells, and is exceed¬ 
ingly painful for three or four days; it subsides, and another 
joint suffers—the mare continues to work, and the foal to suck— 
the owner waits, in hope that it will disappear altogether and save 
expenses, until evident symptoms of great danger prompt him 
to get assistance, and then he discovers he has delayed it too 
long: the surgeon finds the colt in the highest state of irritative 
fever, and death shortly puts a period to its sufferings. 
On the 17th of April, 1832, a sucking foal, a month old, 
whose dam was employed daily at plough, the property of Mr. 
G. Strongitharm, near Walsall, Staffordshire, had inflammation, 
swelling, and pain occur in the knee of the near fore leg. In three 
days it subsided, when the opposite knee began to swell, which 
became exceedingly painful, the colt bearing no weight upon it : 
the mare continues at work, and the colt sucks when she comes 
to the stable as usual; the inflammation and swelling abated, 
and the colt again walked tolerably sound on the leg. On 
the 27th, the near hock swelled, became exceedingly hot and 
painful, producing considerable fever; the throat was swelled, 
