148 EVERY MAN HIS OWN PARKIER 



make the beast lame, and when discovered, the part 

 should be cleansed, and healed with some proper oint- 

 ment. Sometimes from inattention to this, the part 

 becomes horny ; in this case the hard parts must be 

 cut away, and the wounded flesh cured. 



A general indication of health in neat cattle is a 

 moist or wet nose, and when this is found dry it is a 

 certain symptom of diseases of some kind or other. 



Symptoms. — When an animal is at all lame, its 

 foot should be carefully felt. The first indication is 

 usually an uncommon degree of warmth, and a soft 

 and puffed feel of the parts immediately connected with 

 the slit between the hoof, either before or behind the 

 foot and generally just above it. If in the hind foot, 

 and not easily handled, a fullness may generally be 

 perceived, by standing behind the animal and carefully 

 comparing the appearance of the two feet, between the 

 dew claws and the hoofs (for it very rarely commences 

 its attack in more than one foot.) In the fore foot it 

 generally swells forward ; and in taking up the foot, 

 the slit between the hoofs will have an appearance of 

 dryness, easily distinguishable to a person used to 

 cattle ; and the animal frequently licks the front part 

 of the foot. Instances often occur of sudden and ex- 

 treme lameness, without any appearance of heat or 

 swelling in the foot ; and these are often the worst 

 cases ; but one symptom rarely fails to accompany the 

 disease, which is extreme restlessness and appearance 

 of anguish, attended with loss of appetite and flesh; 

 but without in the least affecting the brightness of the 

 eye, and, perhaps, sometimes, unnaturally increasing 

 it ; but the eye has a peculiar cast. As a general rule 

 it is safest to attribute all lameness of the foot, which 

 cannot be traced to a sufficient cause, to the hoof ail. 



