An anticor, also known as anticoeur or avant-cœur, among farriers, is a dangerous swelling or inflammation in a horse's breast, of the size and shape of an apple, just opposite the heart. The term literally means anti heart or before heart.
A farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of horses' hooves and the placing of shoes on their hooves, if necessary. A farrier combines some blacksmith's skills with some veterinarian's skills to care for horses' feet.
Inflammation is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants, and is a protective response involving immune cells, blood vessels, and molecular mediators. The function of inflammation is to eliminate the initial cause of cell injury, clear out necrotic cells and tissues damaged from the original insult and the inflammatory process, and initiate tissue repair.
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated, such as the endangered Przewalski's horse, a separate subspecies, and the only remaining true wild horse. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior.
The swelling may appear as a hard tumor, slow to develop, or as an inflammation. A traditional remedy, in the first case, involves splitting the skin along the breadth of the tumor, allowing the matter contained to escape, and stopping the hemorrhage by using an amadou or a hot iron. This kind of operation is best done by a veterinarian. If the tumor is inflammatory, one resorts to an oil of pompillion, an ointment made of buds of black poplar, lard and sheets of poppy, belladonna, etc. If it has formed an abscess, one first applies a soft poultice. [1]
Amadou is a spongy material derived from Fomes fomentarius and similar fungi that grow on the bark of coniferous and angiosperm trees, and have the appearance of a horse's hoof. It is also known as the "tinder fungus" and is useful for starting slow-burning fires. The fungus must be removed from the tree, the hard outer layer scraped off, and then thin strips of the inner spongy layer cut for use as tinder.
Lard is fat from a pig, in both its rendered and unrendered forms. It is a semi-soft white fat derived from fatty parts of the pig, with a high saturated fatty acid content and no trans fat. Rendering is by steaming, boiling, or dry heat. The culinary qualities of lard vary somewhat depending on the origin and processing method. At retail, refined lard is usually sold as paper-wrapped blocks.
An abscess is a collection of pus that has built up within the tissue of the body. Signs and symptoms of abscesses include redness, pain, warmth, and swelling. The swelling may feel fluid-filled when pressed. The area of redness often extends beyond the swelling. Carbuncles and boils are types of abscess that often involve hair follicles, with carbuncles being larger.
In pre-modern medicine, this was thought to be caused by a sanguine and bilious humour. The disease has also been erroneously attributed to the heart, whence it was called by Jacques de Solleysell a swelling of the pericardium, whereas it is really an inflammation in the gullet and throat. [2]
Sanguine or red chalk is chalk of a reddish-brown colour, so called because it resembles the colour of dried blood. It has been popular for centuries for drawing. The word comes via French from the Italian sanguigna and originally from the Latin "sanguis".
Bile or gall is a dark green to yellowish brown fluid, produced by the liver of most vertebrates, that aids the digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In humans, bile is produced continuously by the liver, and stored and concentrated in the gallbladder. After eating, this stored bile is discharged into the duodenum. The composition of hepatic bile is 97% water, 0.7% bile salts, 0.2% bilirubin, 0.51% fats, and 200 meq/l inorganic salts.
The pericardium is a double-walled sac containing the heart and the roots of the great vessels. The pericardial sac has two layers, a serous layer and a fibrous layer. It encloses the pericardial cavity which contains pericardial fluid.
In humans, this is called Ludwig's angina, or squinancy.
Ludwig's angina is a type of severe cellulitis involving the floor of the mouth. Early on the floor of the mouth is raised and there is difficulty swallowing saliva, which may run from the person's mouth. As the condition worsens, the airway may be compromised with hardening of the spaces on both sides of the tongue. This condition has a rapid onset over hours.
