496 CHAPTER 65. 



shod, as is often the ease with heavy draught horses, with calkins on the 

 inside as well as on the outside. In these cases the best remedy is to 

 substitute a raised heel well bevelled off for the inside calkin. If, how- 

 ever, it is considered absolutely necessary to use a calkin on the inside, 

 the liability to injury will be decreased by making it long and broad 

 (Plate 53, fig. 15 A) instead of short and narrow (fig. 15s). Shoes pro- 

 jecting beyond the crust are also a common cause both in hind and fore 

 feet. A little attention to properly fitting and rounding off carefully the 

 edges of the shoe, will render treads less frequent as well as less serious 

 when they do occur. Young horses are more prone than others to injure 

 themselves in this way. 



The treatment of a tread is the same as that of common wounds. But 

 when lameness is present, a poultice may be beneficially applied and a 

 dose of laxative medicine may be given. Treads, if neglected, especially 

 when they occur towards the heels, are apt to run into quittor. When 

 such is the case, the treatment recommended under the head of that 

 disease should be followed (par. 1011). 



1006. Pricking, picking up a nail, and puncture. 



Pricking is a technical name given to injuries of the foot caused by the 

 misdirection of a nail in shoeing. Punctures may arise from the above 

 or any similar cause. Picking up a nail is a somewhat similar injury, 

 and may occur at any time at exercise. 



When the sensitive sole is injured by any such cause, inflammation is 

 necessarily set up in it. The inflammation, unless very slight, produces 

 a secretion of pus, or what is commonly termed matter. 



The pus, which forms in the internal structure, i. e. in the sensitive 

 sole, must have an exit. The processes of suppuration and ulceration are 

 the means by which Nature provides an exit for the pus thus produced. 

 These processes, however, can only take place in organised structures. 

 The insensitive sole is of too inorganic a nature to be capable of suppura- 

 tion and ulceration. Hence the pus which forms in the sensitive sole is 

 unable to gain an exit through the insensitive sole, and will collect, or a* 

 it is termed " under-run " the horny sole. Therefore, not being able to 

 escape below, it must, unless relieved by treatment, work its way upwards 

 through the soft vascular parts of the interior of the foot, which are 

 capable of suppuration and ulceration, and will gain an exit for itself 

 immediately above the coronet. The fistulous sore so formed is known 

 as Quittor. 



- 1007. Treatment. 



In all cases it is essential to pare out freely, not merely the seat of the 

 puncture, but the whole of the surrounding insensitive sole for a consider- 

 able distance with the view of affording an easy exit for any matter or 

 pus, which may form in the sensitive sole, as a result of the'inflammatory 

 action caused by the wound. The foot should then be bathed in hot- 

 water for an hour. 



