THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE LEG IS CAUGHT UP WHEN OCCULT SPAVIN EXISTS; ALSO THE VIEW OF THE FOOT PRESENTED TO THE SPECTATOR WHO IS PLACED AT THE SIDE OF THE HORSE, WHEN, DURING THIS DISEASE, THE LEG IS IN MOTION.
Such is the origin of the disease: some authors assert the synovial membrane has been ruptured; some, on the contrary, say the bone has been injured. The author, knowing nothing, cannot tell how the disease begins, but he knows that from the date of its origin the horse is lame; very bad one day, but better, probably, the next. Generally improved after rest, and always badly limping subsequent to work; never to be depended upon, for proprietors say the animal is sure, wherever its services are required, to be obstinately lame.
Usually the wretched horse is blistered; setoned; blistered again; and, at last, fired. All failing to do the smallest good, the horse is next turned out for three months; while at grass, the poor animal, with an acutely diseased joint, which is enlarged and stiffened by mistaken treatment, has to take one step for every morsel it bites of poor and watery food. It is forced to travel long and far, or literally to starve; its body must rest upon the ulcerated bone, and the weight even be increased by the pendulous head before enough herbage can be cropped to sustain the life. At every step two ulcerated surfaces grate upon each other and are forced violently together; while anguish consumes the flesh, the nature of the food may keep in the life, but cannot otherwise than depress the spirits. Besides, the horse has been turned from a sheltered stall where it was daily groomed, into a field where it has to brave the utmost stress of the elements, uncared for and unnoticed.
At the end of three months the horse is taken up: to the master's disgust, it is found to be not looking smarter and not to be going sounder. More routine treatment is now permitted, and the diseased limb undergoes further torture; another three months is passed, and the lameness becomes worse than ever. The proprietor is loath to part with his property; but he often says "he wishes the animal were dead." At last, losing all patience, and never having possessed any care for the life which had suffered injury in his service, the horse is lent to some carter, who undertakes to "work it sound." This process never, in occult spavin, succeeds; the wretched quadruped gets worse day by day, till neither oaths nor lashes can prevent misery from limping on three legs.
At length, worked to a skeleton, the horse is returned to its proprietor, who, inviting pity upon his misfortune, that life will feel, and that horse-flesh is subject to the ailments affecting all creatures which breathe, orders his servant to take "the beast" to the knacker's and to get what he can for it.
Such is the history of ulcerated joint. All joints are exposed to ulceration; every bone in the fore and hind leg may be thus affected. The small bones of the hock are those most commonly diseased; whenever this is the case, the only termination which can reasonably be hoped for is that the inflamed surfaces may be united. The bones are then bound together by osseous union, and are, of course, firmly locked; they are no longer capable of the slightest movement one upon the other; but this is no vast evil: many animals are now at work having the smaller bones firmly united by osseous deposit. Horses in that condition are far from useless, even for the highest purposes.
The man whose animal gets ulceration of the hock-joint ought to allow the injured quadruped even twelve months of uninterrupted rest. The first thing is to get the sufferer into slings; the earlier this is done the better; it takes off the weight from the affected joint, relieves the pain, and gives the system full opportunity to rectify the lesion. To draw blood to the part and so promote deposit, rub in, once every two days, some of the embrocation recommended in the article on "Rheumatism," which is thus composed: of soap liniment, sixteen ounces; liquor ammonia, tincture of cantharides, and of laudanum, of each two ounces. There need be no fear of applying friction; the utmost pressure made upon an ulcerated joint can call forth no response. When the joint is embrocated, wrap the part loosely in flannel, using an elastic webbing to fasten the portion above and below the hock, and not tying any fastening around the painfully-diseased member; give three feeds of corn, a few old beans, and sweet hay for each day's support, while the treatment lasts.
The improvement will be denoted by the animal bearing upon the affected limb; after three mouths or longer, the slings may be removed; in another three months, the horse, should the pace be sound, may perform gentle work. However, the first three months must be reckoned from the date when the animal commenced to bear continuously on the ulcerated joint; in short, the slings are not to be removed until long after the quadruped has, by its carriage, declared them to be useless. Then, for the three subsequent months, the work must not be violent; time should be allowed for the union to be confirmed, for, among the many diseases the horse is exposed to, there is not one more treacherous or more liable to relapse than occult spavin.
Such is all that is necessary for the treatment of this disorder; rest—perfect rest, with food capable of supporting nature in the reparative process—is everything which is absolutely necessary. A loose box even does injury, so entire must be the rest, which should be as near to stagnation as it is possible to make it. The embrocation is simply recommended to draw blood to the part, and promote the required deposition. One caution only is necessary—give no purgative; keep the bowels regular by means of cut grass and bran mashes.