the treatment we have already suggested for that ailment is at once
indicated, and the astringent lotions may be relied upon to bring about
beneficial results. Sometimes, however, preference may be given to a
lotion possessing a somewhat different quality, the alterative
consisting of tincture of iodin applied to the inflamed spot several
times daily. If the lameness persists under this mild course of
treatment, it must, of course, be attacked by other methods, and we must
resort to the cantharides ointment or Spanish-fly blister, as we have
before recommended. Besides this, and producing an analogous effect, the
compounds of biniodid of mercury are favored by some. It is prepared in
the form of an ointment, consisting of 1 dram of the biniodid to 1 ounce
of either lard or vaseline. It forms an excellent blistering and
alterative application, and is of special advantage in newly formed or
recently discovered exostosis.
It remains a pertinent query, however, and one which seems to be easily
answered, whether a tumor so diminutive in size that it can be detected
only by diligent search, and which is neither a disfigurement nor an
obstruction to the motion of the limb, need receive any recognition
whatever. Other modes of treatment for splints are recommended and
practiced which belong strictly to the domain of operative veterinary
surgery; among these are to be reckoned actual cauterization, or the
application of the fire iron and the operation of periosteotomy. These
are frequently indicated in the treatment of splints which have resisted
milder means.
The mode of the development of their growth; their intimacy, greater or
less, with both the large and the small cannon bones; the possibility of
their extending to the back of these bones under the suspensory
ligament; the dangerous complications which may follow the rough
handling of the parts, with also a possibility, and, indeed, a
probability, of their return after removal--these are the considerations
which have influenced our judgment in discarding from our practice and
our approval the method of removal by the saw or the chisel, as
recommended by certain European veterinarians.
RINGBONES.
Ringbone is the designation of the exostosis which is found on the
coronet and in the digital and phalangeal regions. (See Plate XXVI.) The
name is appropriate, because the growth extends quite around the
coronet, which it encircles in the manner of a ring, or perhaps because
it often forms upon the back of that bone a regular osseous arch,
through which the back tendons obtain a passage. The places where these
growths are usually developed have caused their subdivision and
classification into three varieties, with the designations of high,
middle, and low, though much can be said as to the importance of the
distinction. It is true that the ringbone or phalangeal exostosis may be
found at various points on the foot, in one case forming a large bunch
on the upper part and quite close to the fetlock joint; in another
around the upper border of the hoof, or perhaps on the extreme front or
on the very back of the coronet. The shape in which they commonly appear
is favorable to their easy discovery, their form when near the fetlock
usually varying too much from the natural outlines of the part when
compared with those of the opposite side to admit of error in the
matter. (See also page 439.)
A ringbone, when on the front of the foot, even when not very largely
developed, assumes the form of a diffused convex swelling. If situated
on the lower part, it will form a thick ring, encircling that portion of
the foot immediately above the hoof; when found on the posterior part, a
small, sharp osseous growth somewhat projecting, sometimes on the inside
and sometimes on the outside of the coronet, may comprise the entire
manifestation.
_Cause._--As with splints, ringbones may result from severe labor in
early life, before the process of ossification has been fully perfected;
or they may be referred to bruises, blows, sprains, or other violence;
injuries of tendons, ligaments, or joints also may be among the
accountable causes.
It is certain that they may commonly be traced to diseases and traumatic
lesions of the foot, and their appearance may be reasonably expected
among the sequelae of an abscess of the coronet; or the cause may be a
severe contusion resulting from calking, or a deep-punctured wound from
picking up a nail or stepping upon any hard object of sufficiently
irregular form to penetrate the sole.
Moreover, a ringbone may originate in heredity. This is a fact of no
little importance in its relation to questions connected with the
extensive interests of the stock breeder and purchaser.
That the hereditary transmission of constitutional idiosyncrasies is an
active cause with regard to diseases in general, it would be absurd to
assert, but we do say that a predisposition to contract ringbone through
faulty conformation, such as long, thin pasterns with narrow joints and
steep fetlocks, may be inherited in many cases, and in a smaller
proportion of cases this predisposition may act as a secondary cause in
the formation of ringbone.
The importance of this point when considered in reference to the policy
which should be observed in the selection of breeding stock is obvious,
and, as the whole matter is within the control of the owners and
breeders, it will be their own fault if the unchecked transmission of
ringbones from one equine generation to another is allowed to continue.
It is our belief that among the diseases which are known for their
tendency to perpetuate and repeat themselves by individual succession,
those of the bony structures stand first, and the inference from such
fact which would exclude every animal of doubtful soundness in its
osseous apparatus from the stud list and the brood farm is too plain for
argument.
_Symptoms._--Periostitis of the phalanges is an ailment requiring
careful exploration and minute inspection for its discovery, and is very
liable to result in a ringbone of which lameness is the result. The
mode of its manifestation varies according to the state of development
of the diseased growth as affected by the circumstances of its location
and dimensions. It is commonly of the kind which, in consequence of its
intermittent character, is termed lameness when cool, having the
peculiarity of exhibiting itself when the animal starts from the stable
and of diminishing, if not entirely disappearing after some distance of
travel, to return to its original degree, if not indeed a severer one,
when he has again cooled off in his stable. The size of the ringbone
does not indicate the degree to which it cripples the patient, but the
position may, especially when it interferes with the free movement of
the tendons which pass behind and in front of the foot. While a large
ringbone will often interfere but little with the motion of the limb, a
smaller growth, if situated under the tendon, may become the cause of
considerable and continued pain.
A ringbone is doubtless a worse evil than a splint. Its growth, its
location, its tendency to increased development, its exposure to the
influence of causes of renewed danger, all tend to impart an unfavorable
cast to the prognosis of a case and to emphasize the importance and the
value of an early discovery of its presence and possible growth. Even
when the discovery has been made, it is often the case that the truth
has come to light too late for effectual treatment. Months may have
elapsed after the first manifestation of the lameness before a discovery
has been made of the lesion from which it has originated, and there is
no recall for the lapsed time. And by the uncompromising seriousness of
the discouraging prognosis must the energy and severity of the treatment
and the promptness of its administration be measured. The periostitis
has been overlooked; any chance that might have existed for preventing
its advance to the chronic stage has been lost; the osseous formation is
established; the ringbone is a fixed fact, and the indications are
urgent and pressing.
_Treatment._--The preventive treatment consists in keeping colts well
nourished and in trimming the hoof and shoeing to balance the foot
properly and thus prevent an abnormal strain on the ligaments. Even
after the ringbone has developed, a cure may sometimes be occasioned by
proper shoeing directed toward straightening the axis of the foot as
viewed from the side by making the wall of the hoof from the coronet to
the toe continuous with the line formed by the front of the pastern. So
long as inflammation of the periosteum and ligaments remains, a sharp
blister of biniodid of mercury and cantharides may do good if the animal
is allowed to rest for four or five weeks. If this fails, some success
may be accomplished by point firing in two or three lines over the
ringbone. It is necessary to touch the hot iron well into the bone, as
superficial firing does little good. When all these measures have failed
to remove the lameness, or when the animal is not worth a long and
uncertain treatment, a competent veterinarian should be engaged to
perform double neurectomy, high or low, of the plantar nerves, or
neurectomy of the median nerve as indicated by the seat of the lesion.
SIDEBONES.
On each side of the bone of the hoof--the coffinbone--there are normally
two supplementary organs which are called the cartilages of the foot.
They are soft, and though in a degree elastic, yet somewhat resisting,
and are implanted on the lateral wings of the coffinbone. Evidently
their office is to assist in the elastic expansion and contraction of
the posterior part of the hoof, and their healthy and normal action
doubtless contributes in an important degree to the perfect performance
of the functions of that part of the leg. These organs are, however,
liable to undergo a process of disease which results in an entire change
in their properties, if not in their shape, by which they acquire a
character of hardness resulting from the deposit of earthy substance in
the intimate structure of the cartilage, and it is this change, when its
consummation has been effected, that brings to our cognizance the
diseased growth which has received the designation of sidebones. They
are situated on one or both sides of the leg, bulging above the superior
border of the hoof in the form of two hard bodies composed of ossified
cartilage, irregularly square in shape and unyielding under the pressure
of the fingers.
_Cause._--Sidebones may be the result of a low inflammatory condition or
of an acute attack as well, or may be caused by sprains, bruises, or
blows; or they may have their rise in certain diseases affecting the
foot proper, such as corns, quarter cracks, or quittor. The deposit of
calcareous matter in the cartilage is not always uniform, the base of
that organ near its line of union with the coffinbone being in some
cases its limit, while at other times it is diffused throughout its
substance, the size and prominence of the growth varying much in
consequence.
_Symptoms._--It would naturally be inferred that the degree of
interference with the proper functions of the hoof which must result
from such a pathological change would be proportioned to the size of the
tumor, and that as the dimensions increase the resulting lameness would
be the greater in degree. This, however, is not the fact. A small tumor
while in a condition of acute inflammation during the formative stage
may cripple a patient more severely than a much larger one in a later
stage of the disease. In any case the lameness is never wanting, and
with its intermittent character may usually be detected when the animal
is cooled off after labor or exercise. The class of animals in which
this feature of the disease is most frequently seen is that of the
heavy draft horse and others similarly employed. There is a wide margin
of difference in respect to the degrees of severity which may
characterize different cases of sidebone. While one may be so slight as
to cause no inconvenience, another may develop elements of danger which
may involve the necessity of severe surgical interference.
_Treatment._--The curative treatment should be similar to the
prophylactic, and such means should be used as would tend to prevent the
deposit of bony matters by checking the acute inflammation which causes
it. The means recommended are the free use of the cold bath; frequent
soaking of the feet, and at a later period treatment with iodin, either
by painting the surface with the tincture several times daily or by
applying an ointment made by mixing 1 dram of the crystals with 2 ounces
of vaseline, rubbed in once a day for several days. If this proves to be
ineffective, a Spanish-fly blister to which a few grains of biniodid of
mercury have been added will effect in a majority of cases the desired
result and remove the lameness. If finally this treatment is ineffectual
the case must be relegated to the surgeon for the operation of
neurectomy, or the free and deep application of the firing iron.
SPAVIN.
(Pls. XXVII-XXIX.)
This affection, popularly termed bone spavin, is an exostosis of the
hock joint. The general impression is that in a spavined hock the bony
growth should be seated on the anterior and internal part of the joint,
and this is partially correct, as such a growth will constitute a spavin
in the most nearly correct sense of the term. But an enlargement may
appear on the upper part of the hock also, or possibly a little below
the inner side of the lower extremity of the shank bone, forming what is
known as a high spavin; or, again, the growth may form just on the
outside of the hock and become an outside or external spavin. And,
finally, the entire under surface may become the seat of the osseous
deposit, and involve the articular face of all the bones of the hock,
which again is a bone spavin. There would seem, then, to be but little
difficulty in comprehending the nature of a bone spavin, and there would
be none but for the fact that there are similar affections which may
confuse one if the diagnosis is not very carefully made.
But the hock may be "spavined," while to all outward observation it
still retains its perfect form. With no enlargement perceptible to sight
or touch the animal may yet be disabled by an occult spavin, an
anchylosis in fact, which has resulted from a union of several of the
bones of the joint, and it is only those who are able to realize the
importance of its action to the perfect fulfillment of the function of
locomotion by the hind leg who can comprehend the gravity of the only
prognosis which can be justified by the facts of the case--a prognosis
which is essentially a sentence of serious import in respect to the
future usefulness and value of the animal. For no disease, if we except
those acute inflammatory attacks upon vital organs to which the patient
succumbs at once, is more destructive to the usefulness and value of a
horse than a confirmed spavin. Serious in its inception, serious in its
progress, it is an ailment which, when once established, becomes a fixed
condition which there is no known means of dislodging.
_Cause._--The periostitis, of which it is nearly always a termination,
is usually the effect of a traumatic cause operating upon the
complicated structure of the hock, such as a sprain which has torn a
ligamentous insertion and lacerated some of its fibers, or a violent
effort in jumping, galloping, or trotting, to which the victim has been
compelled by the torture of whip and spur while in use as a gambling
implement by a sporting owner, under the pretext of "improving his
breed"; the extra exertion of starting an inordinately heavy load, or an
effort to recover his balance from a misstep, slipping upon an icy
surface, or sliding with worn shoes upon a bad pavement, and other
kindred causes. We can repeat here what we have before said concerning
bones, in respect to heredity as a cause. From our own experience we
know of equine families in which this condition has been transmitted
from generation to generation, and animals otherwise of excellent
conformation have been rendered valueless by the misfortune of a
congenital spavin.
_Symptoms._--The evil is one of the most serious character for other
reasons, among which may be specified the slowness of its development
and the insidiousness of its growth. Certain indefinite phenomena and
alarming changes and incidents furnish usually the only portents of
approaching trouble. Among these signs may be mentioned a peculiar
posture assumed by the patient while at rest, and becoming at length so
habitual that it can not fail to suggest the action of some hidden
disorder. The posture is due to the action of the adductor muscles, the
lower part of the leg being carried inward, and the heel of the shoe
resting on the toe of the opposite foot. Then an unwillingness may be
noticed in the animal to move from one side of the stall to the other.
When driven he will travel, but stiffly, with a sort of sidelong gait
between the shafts, and after finishing his task and resting again in
his stall will pose with the toe pointing forward, the heel raised, and
the hock flexed. Considerable heat and inflammation soon appear. The
slight lameness which appears when backing out of the stall ceases to be
noticeable after a short distance of travel.
A minute examination of the hock may then reveal the existence of a bony
enlargement which may be detected just at the junction of the hock and
the cannon bone, on the inside and a little in front, and tangible both
to sight and touch. This enlargement, or bone spavin, grows rapidly and
persistently and soon acquires dimensions which renders it impossible to
doubt any longer its existence or its nature. Once established, its
development continues under conditions of progress similar to those to
which we have before alluded in speaking of other like affections. The
argument advanced by some that because these bony deposits are
frequently found on both hocks they are not spavins is fallacious. If
they are discovered on both hocks, it proves merely that they are not
confined to a single joint.
The characteristic lameness of bone spavin, as it affects the motion of
the hock joint, presents two aspects. In one class of cases it is most
pronounced when the horse is cool, in the other when he is at work. The
first is characterized by the fact that when the animal travels the toe
first touches the ground, and the heel descends more slowly, the motion
of flexion at the hock taking place stiffly, and accompanied with a
dropping of the hip on the opposite side. In the other case the
peculiarity is that the lameness increases as the horse travels; that
when he stops he seeks to favor the lame leg, and when he resumes his
work soon after he steps much on his toe, as in the first variety.
As with sidebones, though for a somewhat different reason, the
dimensions of the spavin and the degree of the lameness do not seem to
bear any determinate relation, the most pronounced symptoms at times
accompanying a very diminutive growth. The distinction between the two
varieties of cool and warm, however, may easily be determined by
remembering the fact that in most cases the first, or cool, is due to a
simple exostosis, while the second is generally connected with disease
of the articulation, such as ulceration of the articular surface--a
condition which, as we proceed further, will receive our attention when
we reach the subject of stringhalt.
An excellent test for spavin lameness, which may be readily applied,
consists in lifting the affected leg from the ground for one or two
minutes and holding the foot high so as to flex all the joints. An
assistant, with the halter strap in his hand, quickly starts the animal
off in a trot, when, if the hock joint is affected, the lameness will be
so greatly intensified as to lead readily to a diagnosis.
_Prognosis._--Having thus fully considered the history of bone spavin,
we are prepared to give due weight to the reasons that exist for the
adverse prognosis which we must usually feel compelled to pronounce when
encountering it in practice, as well as to realize the importance of
early discovery. It is but seldom, however, that the necessary advantage
of this early knowledge can be obtained, and when the true nature of
the trouble has become apparent it is usually too late to resort to the
remedial measures which, if duly forewarned, a skillful practitioner
might have employed. We are fully persuaded that but for the loss of the
time wasted in the treatment of purely imaginary ailments very many
cases of bone spavin might be arrested in their incipiency and their
victims preserved for years of comfort for themselves and valuable labor
to their owners.
_Treatment._--To consider a hypothetical case: An early discovery of
lameness has been made; that is, the existence of an acute
inflammation--of periostitis--has been detected. The increased
temperature of the parts has been observed, with the stiffened gait and
the characteristic pose of the limb, and the question is proposed for
solution, What is to be done? Even with only these comparatively
doubtful symptoms--doubtful with the nonexpert--we should direct our
treatment to the hock in preference to any other joint, since of all the
joints of the hind leg it is this which is most liable to be attacked, a
natural result from its peculiarities of structure and function. And in
answer to the query, What is the first treatment indicated? We should
answer _rest_--emphatically, and as an essential condition, _rest_.
Whether only threatened, suspected, or positively diseased, the animal
must be wholly released from labor, and it must be no partial or
temporary quiet of a few days. In all stages and conditions of the
disease, whether the spavin is nothing more than a simple exostosis, or
whether accompanied with the complication of arthritis, there must be a
total suspension of effort until the danger is over. Less than a month's
quiet ought not to be thought of--the longer the better.
Good results may also be expected from local applications. The various
lotions which cool the parts, the astringents which lower the tension of
the blood vessels, the tepid fomentations which accelerate the
circulation in the engorged capillaries, the liniments of various
composition, the stimulants, the opiate anodynes, the sedative
preparations of aconite, the alterative frictions of iodin--all these
are recommended and prescribed by one or another. We prefer
counterirritants, for the reason, among many others, that by the
promptness of their action they tend to prevent the formation of the
bony deposits. The lameness will often yield to the blistering action of
cantharides, in the form of ointment or liniment, and to the alterative
preparations of iodin or mercury. If the owner of a "spavined" horse
really succeeds in removing the lameness, he has accomplished all that
he is justified in hoping for; beyond this let him be well persuaded
that a "cure" is impossible.
For this reason, moreover, he will do well to be on his guard against
the patented "cures" which the traveling horse doctor may urge upon him,
and withhold his faith from the circular of the agent who will deluge
him with references and certificates. It is possible that nostrums may
in some exceptional instances prove serviceable, but the greater number
of them are capable of producing only injurious effects. The removal of
the bony tumor can not be accomplished by any such means, and if a trial
of these unknown compounds should be followed by complications no worse
than the establishment of one or more ugly, hairless cicatrices, it will
be well for both the horse and his owner.