8 Nov., 1907.] Disrasis of Far/// A//////als. 643 



splinters, and iron pegs. Sometimes tlie wound may penetrate to the 

 bone or into tlie coffin joint, in either of which cases the results may be 

 very serious, because of the hindrance to exit of pus and foreign matters 

 caused by the closure of the wound in the elastic horn. The principles 

 of treatment to be followed, after removing anv foreign body, and cutting 

 an efficient exit opening in the horn, are the same as those indicated for 

 pricks. 



Quittor. 



Quittor or fistula of the coronet is one of the most grave affections of 

 the foot. In the early stages it partakes of the nature of an abscess 

 situated on the coronet, but the contained pus is prevented from being 

 evacuated completely on account of the hard unyielding horn which forms 

 part of the wall of the abscess. Fluids cannot get discharged upwards ; 

 they remain imprisoned and act as irritants producing extension of the 

 inflammation ; so that, later on, the abscess, at first soft and fluctuating, 

 becomes hard and much increased in size ; openings, from which a little 

 pus exudes, may form at different parts, and these are connected with pus 

 canals running through the mass of tissue and deep down into the soft 

 structures of the foot. The lateral cartilages may become involved in the 

 inflammatory process and a hard swelling of considerable size becomes 

 established on the coronet. 



Causes. — As previously stated, quittors often result from neglected 

 pricks in shoeing. Thev may also result from any womid in the foot from 

 Avhich pus cannot escape through the horn. As a direct cause, injuries 

 to the coronet, such as may be inflicted by "tread," over-reaching or 

 external violence of anv kind, mav be mentioned. 



Fig. III. Hoof affected with mild "quittor," showing fistulous openings at 

 coronet, from which discharge is issuing. 



Treatment. — Nothing short of bold surgery can insure success in 

 treatment. Sometimes blistering the surface of the quittor, and 

 nitroducing caustics such as arsenic and corrosive sublimate into the 

 sinuses or canals, may effect a cure; but. as a rule, time is only lost bv 

 the adoption of such methods. It is, in most cases of well established 

 quittor, the safest and (luickest plan to excise the whole mass of diseased 



