Capped Hock is a pursy swelling over the os calcis or heel-bone at the end of the hock, generally produced by kicking either in the stable or against some object in harness, or possibly in consequence of exertion in getting up and lying down on a scanty bed, especially where the paving-stones are uneven.
Use hot fomentations, loose water-dressing, followed by rubbing in iodine ointment, if necessary, for reduction, but this must be done with judgment and careful observance of the effect the iodine produces. Or, after using hot fomentations for a week, apply gas water (which can be obtained from any gas-works) with a sponge dabbed on every hour during the day. This treatment, if persisted in, is said to be very efficacious.
For prevention, keep a good bed for your horse to lie on at night. See “Kicking in the Stable” ([page 85]) and “Kicking-Strap” ([page 58]).
Thorough-Pin and Bog-Spavin are, like wind-galls, an undue distension of the bursæ containing the synovia intended to keep the surrounding parts of the leg lubricated; such distension interfering with the circulation of the vein in front of the hock is denominated “Blood” (or Bog) Spavin; at the back and sides of the hock these distensions are called Thorough-Pin.
The treatment is with hot fomentations and gas water, as in “capped hock,” or other absorbents, especially Stevens’s ointment, iodine ointment, blisters, and actual cautery, which remedies had better be tried in rotation, the three latter only by a practitioner; but unless the distensions produce lameness, it is perhaps preferable not to meddle with them at all.
There are other diseases of the feet and legs, but requiring very delicate definitions: they must be left altogether to the professional man.
As a rule, in all cases where it may be considered desirable to use stimulating or strong absorbing treatment externally to cure lameness, the inflammation should be first fully abated by local cooling applications; and in severe cases, purges administered before the application of blisters or powerful absorbents.
FARCY.
This dreaded disease is, I believe, like glanders, incurable, and generally ends in glanders itself.