230 DR. LEGEAR'S STOCK BOOK. 



diseased it is verv hard to treat, as the trouble is located so deeply 

 in the foot. The coronary band is situated just to the inside of 

 the top of the wall of the hoof, and it is from it the wall grows. 

 A brief description of the diseases and injuries of the foot will 

 be found below. 



CONTRACTION, OR NARROW HEEL. 



Contraction is not of itself a disease, but the symptom of dis- 

 ease. It is often called "narrow-heel," as the whole heel and 

 frog waste away. Contraction is due to the atrophy or wasting 

 away of the fatty frog and other vascular substances above the 

 frog and within the heel. When these substances waste away 

 the walls at the heel gradually draw in and form contraction, or 

 narrow-heel. It is generally brought on by coffin- joint lameness 

 or any fever in the heels. Improper shoeing, by cutting out the 

 bars and frogs, and shoeing with high heel shoes, etc., are fre- 

 quent causes of this trouble. 



Treatment. Dilatation of the hoof by mechanical means (hoof 

 -expanders, Fig. 48) is practiced very little in this country to what 



it is in France. In many cases, no 

 doubt, hoof expanders are found to 

 be beneficial in contraction. But 

 when the contracted feet have to be 

 expanded, there is a far more simple 

 and effective means of attaining that 

 end in the foot itself. v By lowering 

 the walls at the heels, so as to re- 

 store frog pressure, the latter speed- 

 ily recovers its lost characteristics, 



Fig. 48. Hoof-Expander. J 



and in a healthy condition gradu- 

 ally and naturally accomplishes one of the very purposes for 

 \diich nature placed it there. In some cases tips properly ap- 

 plied and persisted in will cure contracted heels. 



