But the hock may be spavined

But the hock may be spavined

But the hock may be spavined

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.