154 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



is more or less mixed with pus. From a healthy frog 

 there is no discharge, but if the foot of the horse is 

 allowed to soak in urine and dung for a time, in- 

 flammation is set up in the sensitive frog, and this 

 ends in suppuration and separation of the horny frog 

 from the sensitive frog from which it grows. 



Thrush is a disease to which horses of all ages 

 are liable, and in all situations. Even unshod colts 

 are subject to this complaint. When the frog is in 

 a healthy condition, the cleft sinks but a small way 

 into it. Any complaint which affects the healthy 

 condition and action of the frog, is almost sure to 

 induce thrush. Differing from most diseases of the 

 foot, thrush is generally more severe in the hind 

 than in the fore feet. This can only be accounted 

 for by bad stable management, and that the hind 

 feet are subjected to being so much exposed to the 

 baneful consequences of immersion in the dung and 

 urine, producing irritation, and generating disease. 



A horse may have thrush without being lame, 

 and it often happens that no alteration whatever can 

 be seen on the foot thus diseased, and it may require 

 a close inspection to detect that it is affected. But 

 it will always be manifested by the disagreeable and 

 peculiar smell which invariably accompanies the 

 complaint. In some cases no tenderness of the 

 frog attends thrush, and therefore the horse is not 

 reckoned legally unsound by many persons. This 

 we, however, consider strange, as it is a complaint 

 which may, and indeed is likely to assume a worse 

 aspect, particularly if not remedied in time, and hence 

 may lead to positive unsoundness. But it is only in 

 cases where considerable alteration in the form of 

 the hoof has taken place, that thrushes are likely to 

 be of a severe kind ; for we find that they may exist 



