INFLAMMATION OF THE FOOT, OR ACUTE FOUNDER. 381 



the feet." There is no more fruitful source ot inflammation in the human 

 being, or the brute, than these sudden changes of temperature. This has been 

 explained as it regards grease, but it bears more immediately on the point novr 

 under consideration. The danger is not confined to change from heat to cold. 

 Sudden transition from cold to heat is as injurious, and therefore it is that so 

 many horses, after having been ridden far in frost and snow, and placed imme- 

 diately in a hat stable, and littered up to the knees, are attacked by this com- 

 plaint. The feet and the lungs are the organs oftenest attacked, because they 

 have previously suffered most by our mismanagement, and are most disposed to 

 take on disease, and that which would cause slight inflammation of other parts, 

 or trifling general derangement, will produce all its mischief on these organs ; 

 therefore it is that horses, the crust or laminae of whose feet are warped or 

 obliquely placed, are most subject to it. 



Sometimes there is a sudden change of inflammation from one organ to another. 

 A horse may have laboured for several days under evident inflammation of the 

 lungs ; all at once that will subside, and the disease will appear in the feet, 

 or inflammation of the feet may follow similar affections in the bowels or 

 the eyes. In cases of severe inflammation of the lungs, it may not be bad practice 

 to remove the shoes and poultice the feet. 



To the attentive observer the symptoms are clearly marked, and yet there is 

 no disease so often overlooked by the groom and the carter, and even by the 

 veterinary surgeon. The disease may assume an acute or a chronic form. The 

 earliest symptoms of fever in the feet are fidgetiness, frequent shifting of the 

 fore-legs, but no pawing, much less any attempts to reach the belly with the 

 hind-feet. The pulse is quickened, the flanks heaving, the nostrils red, and 

 the horse, by his anxious countenance, and possibly moaning, indicating great 

 pain. Presently he looks about his litter, as if preparing to lie down, but he 

 does not do so immediately ; he continues to shift his weight from foot to foot ; 

 he is afraid to draw his feet sufficiently under him for the purpose of lying 

 down : but at length he drops. The circumstance of his lying down at an 

 early period of the disease will sufficiently distinguish inflammation of the 

 feet from that of the lungs, in which the horse obstinately persists in standing 

 until he drops from mere exhaustion. His quietness when down will distin- 

 guish it from colic or inflammation of the bowels, in both of which the horse 

 is up and down, and frequently rolling and kicking when down. When the 

 grievance is in the feet, the horse experiences so much relief, from getting rid 

 of the weight painfully distending the inflamed and highly sensible laminae, 

 that he is glad to lie as long as he can. He will likewise, as clearly as in 

 inflammation of the lungs or bowels, point out the seat of disease by looking 

 at the part. His muzzle will often rest on the feet or the affected foot. He 

 must be inattentive who is not aware of what all this indicates. 



If the feet are now examined, they will be found evidently hot. The patient 

 will express pain if they are slightly rapped with a hammer, and the artery at the 

 pastern will throb violently. No great time will now pass, if the disease is 

 suffered to pursue its course, before he will be perfectly unable to rise ; or, if 

 he is forced to get up, and one foot is lifted, he will stand with difficulty on the 

 other, or perhaps drop at once from intensity of pain. 



The treatment will resemble that of other inflammations, with such differ- 

 ences as the situation of the disease may suggest. Bleeding is indispensable ; 

 and that to its fullest extent. If the disease is confined to the fore -feet, four 

 quarts of blood should be taken as soon as possible from the toe of each at the 

 situation pointed out, fig. #, p. 346, and in the manner already described ; 

 care being taken to open the artery as well as the vein. The feet may like- 

 wise be put into warm water, to quicken the flow of the blood, and increase 



