Symptoms.—Distortion of the face; partial enlargement and softening of the facial bones; irregular discharge of fetid pus from one nostril. The discharge is increased, or brought down by feeding off the ground, or by trotting fast.
Treatment.—Surgical operation, with injection of a weak solution of chloride of zinc. Also give daily a ball composed of balsam of copaiba, half an ounce; powdered cantharides, four grains; cubebs, a sufficiency. If the foregoing should affect the urinary system, change it for half-drachm doses of extract of belladonna, dissolved in a wineglass of water. Give these every fourth day, and on such occasions repeat the belladonna every hour, until the appetite has been destroyed.
NASAL POLYPUS.
Symptoms.—An enlarged nostril; a copious mucous discharge; signs of suffocation, if the free nostril be stopped; a cough generally forces down the growth.
Treatment.—Surgical operation, which removes the tumor.
NAVICULAR DISEASE.
Causes.—Frog pressure, and not shoeing with a leathern sole. The unprotected foot treads on a rolling stone, and navicular disease is the result.
Symptoms.—Acute lameness; this disappears, but may come again in six or nine months. Acute lameness is then present for a longer time, while the subsequent soundness is more short. Thus the disease progresses, till the horse is lame for life. The pain in one foot causes greater stress upon the sound leg, and from this cause both feet are ultimately affected. The foot is pointed in the stable. The bulk diminishes, while the hoof thickens and contracts. The horse, when trotting, takes short steps, and upon the toe, going groggily.
Treatment.—Feed liberally upon crushed oats and old beans. Soak the foot every other night in hot water. Afterward bandage the leg, fix on tips, and having smeared the horn with glycerin, put on a sponge boot. Rest very long—six months in the first instance—and then give three months agricultural employment. In bad cases resort to neurotomy, but do so upon the second attack of lameness; because continued disease disorganizes the internal structures of the hoof, and also occasions the sound foot to be attacked by navicular disease.