When a considerable portion of the tongue has been lost, the horse is unable to drink without plunging his head up to the eyes in the water, and he also has difficulty in grazing.
Stitches are sometimes put in the tongue of a horse to make it sore and so prevent it from cribbing.
An Astringent for Scours.
The following interesting remedy is taken from the “Complete Farrier,” published in 1850:
“But when the disorder (a scouring) continues, and the horse’s flesh keeps wasting away, recourse must be had to astringents. Tormentil root, dried and pounded in a mortar, and put through a sieve, is one of the best astringents yet found, though very little known. I heartily wish my fellow creatures would make more use of this valuable root than they do. The dose is from an ounce to an ounce and a half. I believe that this valuable root has done more good in my time, in stopping looseness and other bowel complaints, than anything else.”
An Old Operation for Spavin.
A few years ago it was recommended as a new treatment that the saphena vein be obliterated at the place where it passes the seat of spavin, before using the firing irons. We recently ran across an allusion to this method of treatment which shows that it is by no means new. It is referred to as follows in the “Complete Farrier and Horse Doctor,” published in 1850, the writer being John C. Knowlson, of New York, a nonagenarian “horse doctor” of the old school: “Before you fire a horse for bone-spavin, be careful to take the vein out of the way, for it generally lies over the spavin, and you cannot fire deep enough to come at the callous substance without its removal. In order to destroy the vein, cut a nick through the skin to the vein, just below the spavin, and another just above it, and put a crooked needle under the vein and tie both ends: then cut the vein across between the tyings, both above and below, and you may either draw out the piece or leave it in.”
The same author says relative to the treatment of bog-spavin: “As soon as you discover the vein puffed up or forming a bag, lay on some blistering ointment, and in four days after bathe the swelling well with hot vinegar with a little saltpeter dissolved in it. Also put a bandage round it to disperse the swelling as much as you can. If this method does not succeed, you must make two incisions in the skin lengthwise, as the vein runs, one just above and the other just below the joint, and lay the vein bare: then put the end of a buck’s horn under it, raise it up, and fasten it in both places with waxed thread; then cut the vein in two just within the tyings, and, if you think proper, draw the severed piece out. This method of proceeding will cure most bog-spavins at the beginning.”