Cutting the Hair from the Heels.
Custom has very properly retained the hair on our farm-horses. Nature would not have given it had it not been useful. It guards the heel from being injured by the inequalities of the plowed field, and prevents the dirt, in which the heels are constantly enveloped, from reaching, and caking on, and irritating the skin. When the horse is carefully tended after his work is over, and his legs quickly and completely dried, the less hair he has about them the better, for then both the skin and the hair can be made perfectly dry before evaporation begins, or proceeds so far as to deprive the legs of their heat. Grease is the child of negligence and mismanagement.
Setons
Are pieces of tape or cord, passed, by means of an instrument resembling a large needle, either through abscesses, or the base of ulcers with deep sinuses, or between the skin and the muscular or other substances beneath. They are retained there by the ends being tied together, or by a knot at each end. The tape is moved in the wound twice or thrice in the day, and occasionally wetted with spirits of turpentine, or some acrid fluid, in order to increase the inflammation which
it produces, or the discharge which is intended to be established.
In abscesses, such as occur in the withers or the poll, and when passed from the summit to the very bottom of the swelling, setons are highly useful by discharging the purulent fluid, and suffering any fresh quantity of it that may be secreted to flow out; and, by the degree of inflammation which they excite on the interior of the tumor, stimulating it to throw out healthy granulations, which gradually occupy and fill the hollow. In deep fistulous wounds they are indispensable, for except some channel is made through which the matter may flow from the bottom of the wound, it will continue to penetrate deeper into the part, and the healing process will never be accomplished. On these accounts, a seton passing through the base of the ulcer in poll-evil and fistulous withers is so beneficial.
"Setons are sometimes useful by promoting a discharge in the neighborhood of an inflamed part, and thus diverting and carrying away a portion of the fluids which distend or overload the vessels of that part; thus, a seton is placed with considerable advantage in the cheek, when the eyes are much inflamed."—(Youatt.)
Founder,
Or inflammation of the foot, arises from various causes; excessive exertion, great heat, and particularly when followed by drinking cold water, or overloading the stomach in any way, sudden transition from great cold to excessive heat, and change of inflammation from some other part.
Remedies.—When the attack is severe and confined to the fore-feet, Youatt recommends removing the shoe and paring the hoof as much as possible, taking four quarts of blood from each toe, placing the feet in warm water, and afterwards applying soft poultices of linseed meal to the whole foot and pastern. If this is ineffectual, take three quarts of blood from each foot the succeeding day. It may then be necessary to blister the foot and coronet. The animal should be kept on green food or light mashes, and allowed to run on grass without labor. An effectual cure has followed from taking off the shoe, and applying lard, raised to the boiling point, to every part of the foot.