THE SKIN FROM BENEATH WHICH
THE TUMOR OF CAPPED
HOCK HAS BEEN REMOVED.
Should the enlargement, however, have become hard, the knife then must be employed; the horse must be cast, and the substance must be carefully dissected out without opening the sac. This being done, remove none of the skin; leave that bagging about the hock; simply treat it with a lotion composed of chloride of zinc one grain, to water one ounce, and the integument will contract. Ultimately there will remain no more than will be required to cover the part, whereas, if any be taken away, the wound, which in these cases never heals quickly, will be very long before it closes, and, in proportion to the skin which has been removed, there will remain a lasting blemish.
There is another caution we have to give the reader before leaving this subject; let no advice persuade, no temptation induce him to puncture, seton, or merely to open capped hock. The membrane lining the swelling is, when diseased, so extremely sensitive that the writer has known the lives of animals endangered by these so-called remedies. The author, moreover, never knew the enlargement to be much reduced by these means; neither has it been the author's lot to witness much good follow the application of blisters. No; extirpation is the only remedy, and it should be accomplished without puncturing the sac; this is as safe an operation as there is in the entire range of veterinary surgery. There is neither nerve, muscle, membrane, vessel, nor any important structure to avoid; with ordinary care, the removal is most easy. There is but one thing annoying connected with the business, and that is, the length of time which the healing of a necessary wound, made upon a point of motion, almost invariably occupies.
CAPPED ELBOW.
This is very common, especially among cart-horses; it is attributed to the calkin of the fore foot; to the point of the hind hoof; or to a stable floor, thinly bedded, and composed of sharp stones. So, likewise, blows with the butt-end of the whip will induce it; but the harness probably guards the elbow, which therefore can be struck only in exceptional cases.
A CAPPED ELBOW.
It consists of a bursa, which, as in the former instance, has been injured, and has consequently enlarged; in appearance and in its subsequent course it greatly resembles capped hock, from which it differs only in a greater liability to ulcerate and become sinuous when allowed to remain until it is of extreme magnitude. It is said to derive that unenviable peculiarity from being situated nearer to the center of circulation. Capped hock is so little disposed to take on such a form of disease that the author cannot remember having seen a case of the kind; with a tumor on the elbow, however, ulceration is unfortunately too common. That probability should forbid the owner to allow the tumor to attain any great size; when large, moreover, it is apt to encircle the elbow-joint, and then its size seems to render the removal apparently impossible. It, however, may be extirpated. All said of capped hock applies to capped elbow.