In the region of the joints, and wherever friction is likely to take place, we find the tendons supplied with little sacs (bursæ mucosæ) composed of membrane similar to the synovial, and secreting in health an oily fluid from their internal surface, in very small quantities; but when the tendons become strained, or increased action is set up in them from over-exertion, nature comes to the rescue by increasing the bursal secretion, and we then perceive a slight elastic tumor, called Windgall or Puff.
Causes.—Tendinous sprains or over-exertion of any kind, and long continued friction from quick work on hard roads. Low, marshy pastures seem to have a tendency sometimes to produce a dropsical effusion in and around the joints of young horses, very similar to the enlarged bursæ from hard work; but they soon yield to constitutional treatment.
Symptoms.—Soft, elastic, circumscribed swellings, at first about the size of a nut, but eventually becoming hard and much larger, which appear in the neighborhood of some of the joints, such as the knee, hock, or fetlock. To the latter, however, the name is usually restricted, although equally applicable to the former; so that when we say that a horse has Windgalls, we mean that he has above, or on each side of, the fetlock, or back sinew, one or more elastic tumors, usually unattended by lameness or any active inflammation. The seat of these bursal enlargements is either between the perforatus and perforans tendons, or between the latter and the suspensory ligament. There is, however, another fetlock Windgall found on the front of the joints, between it and the extensor tendon; and a similar swelling occurs at the supero-posterior part of the knee from the distension of the bursa, between the perforatus and perforans tendons.
Pathology.—These enlargements were formerly supposed to contain wind, and so obtained their absurd name; but, from what has been already stated, the reader will perceive that they consist in an increase of bursal fluid similar to joint oil, and in a majority of cases do no harm, but are rather to be considered as a beautiful provision of Nature to obviate the baneful effects of friction from over-exertion of the muscles and tendons. Morbid changes, however, do occasionally take place in the bursæ, either from inordinate increase of their contents setting up inflammation in their tissue, or from an extension of the inflammation to contiguous parts, in which not only the bursal sacs, but also the lining membrane of the tendinous sheath, participate, when we find the puffy swelling extending up the leg, above the ordinary seat of Windgall, and very tender on pressure. The effect of this inflammation on the bursæ mucosæ is to cause a thickening of the membrane and a total change in the contents of the sac; the fluid, instead of being a straw-color, becomes reddened from the effusion of blood, which, after death, we find clotted and of a dark color. Lymph also is occasionally effused, giving the tumor a firm, hard feel, which, from calcareous deposits, produces lameness.
I.I., given morning and night, often clears up these blemishes wonderfully.
Seedy Toe
This disorder, frequently a sequel to laminitis, often arises without any assignable cause. It can sometimes be attributed to the clip of the shoe pressing on a hoof predisposed to the disease from deficiency in its natural glutinous secretions, whereby the horn becomes dry and loses its cohesive property, and is unable to resist the pressure from the toe clip, which a healthy hoof would do with impunity. It may also be consequent on gravel or dirt working in at the edge of the sole.
Symptoms.—The horn at the toe (of the fore-feet of troop and riding horses, but frequently the hind feet of cart horses) becomes “seedy,” and crumbles away like so much saw-dust or the dry rot in wood; while at the junction between the wall and sole a fissure will be apparent, leading upward between the outer and inner crusts of the wall, sometimes extending up to the coronet, and in old cases laterally, so that there is some difficulty in finding a piece of horn sufficiently sound to hold a nail, and side clips become necessary in keeping the shoe on. Percussion on the wall of the hoof with a hammer will show to what extent the separation has taken place.
Treatment.—The whole of the crust, as far as it is separated from the horny laminæ underneath, must be cut away, and the foot bound up with tar, tow, and broad tape. Veterinary Oil applied to the coronet will hasten the downward growth of the wall. Keep the horse standing in clay, daily anointing the hoof with Veterinary Oil. Both means have been successfully tried. Give J.K. morning and night.