24 The Diseases of Animals 



kept clean, and diseases such as scratches, mud fever 

 and others, all caused by irritation from mud or dirt, 

 are prevented. 



THE CARE OF THE FEET 



The feet of animals should be looked after fre- 

 quently and all accumulations of dirt removed. This 

 is especially important with horses. Their feet should 

 be examined and scraped out in the morning before 

 being sent to work and at night after returning, as 

 it is very common to find foreign bodies, such as 

 nails and stones, either driven into the wall or sole 

 of the foot, or collected in the clefts of the frog or 

 between the bars and the frog. If the hoofs show 

 a tendency to dry out and become hard and brittle 

 they should be softened with some good oil or hoof 

 ointment. If they are ragged and tend to split, 

 they should be rasped on the edges and trimmed un- 

 til smooth. When animals are closely confined in 

 stalls, especially on bedding, the hoofs grow out long; 

 and if not treated they will deform the animal and 

 make traveling extremely difficult. This condition is 

 often observed in sheep, cattle and horses when they 

 do not get exercise enough to wear away the horn 

 as rapidly as it grows. The hoofs of such animals 

 can be trimmed by paring them with a knife, or, 

 better, in most cases, by using hoof-paring instru- 

 ments which are made for farriers. These resemble 

 in construction a pair of pincers. In paring hoofs, 

 care should be exercised not to cut them too short, 



