340 REPORT ON THE DISEASES OF FARM HORSES. 



bearing should be given and the animal allowed to go shoeless 

 on soft dry litter or bark covering. Determined treatment will 

 usually effect a cure in three weeks. 



Canker is one of those diseases of the feet which is not only 

 troublesome, but also frequently accompanied by constitutional 

 taint, and treatment of which not uncommonly proves a most 

 unprofitable, proceeding. It is present as the result of defective 

 stable management, filth, and wet. Sloppy manure yards are 

 fertile sources, and wet ground not behind in the list of causes, 

 if bad feeding and housing is added. Like grease, it may be 

 considered as partaking of the character of low vitality, in fact, 

 it may be considered as a degeneration of the structure of frog 

 and hoof, the sole particularly. The tendency to destruction is 

 extreme. What ulceration is to the softer tissues, canker is the 

 same to the hoof, it softens, and in its place is supplied by 

 fungus which is composed of a series of blood vessels which 

 bleed on the slightest touch. The power of formation of horn is 

 abortive, the contiguous parts are implicated, pain is extreme, 

 especially after some of the rude dressings employed by men 

 who always pretend to the repair of a machine, the internal ar- 

 rangements and mechanism of which they know nothing of. 



Treatment. — Keep the feet dry — apply pressure by means of 

 a shoe and iron plate, or splinters of wood across, and dress by 

 means of sulphuric or nitric acid and Barbadoes tar ; about two 

 drams of acid to eight ounces of tar. 



Rapid growth of hoof in the wall is a consequence of the 

 usual actions in canker. This must frequently be lowered to 

 produce pressure, an effect as useful as most dressings, and to- 

 wards effecting a cure, the application of astringent remedies 

 as already advised, must be unremittingly and scrupulously per- 

 sisted in. 



Confirmed cases seldom pay for the amount of trouble and 

 attention required. 



Treatment of convex soles from Laminitis. — Give a level bear- 

 ing to the foot, enjoin rest on soft dry surfaces, encourage the 

 growth of horn by the use of hoof ointment, and remove none 

 except for the purpose of effecting a proper diffusion of the 

 superincumbent weight. The toe being the principal portion 

 where the growth takes place, will require shortening, but not 

 recklessly ; great judgment is required. 



Apply a shoe which bears entirely on the crust or wall, and 

 which is made to fit accurately the foot. This can only be done 

 after a course of treatment has been pursued on the feet, as 

 stated above, but by which many good horses would be — in fact, 

 have been — restored to a period of extended usefulness after be- 

 ing about to be consigned to the knacker. 



Great evils result from over- shoeing. The frequency with 



