426 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



ragged opening is found in the frog, leading down to a mass of dead, 

 sloughing tissues, which are pale green in color if gangrene of the 

 plantar cushion has set in. In rare cases the coffin bone may be in- 

 volved in the injury and a small portion of it may become carious. 



Treatinent. — If the injury is seen at once, the foot should be placed 

 in a bath of cold water to prevent suppuration. If suppuration nas 

 already set in, the horn of the frog, and of the bars and branches of 

 the sole, if necessary, is to be pared thin so that all possible pressure 

 may be removed, and the foot poulticed. When the pus has loosened 

 the horn, all the detached portions are to be cut away. If the pus is 

 discharging from an opening near the hair, the whole frog, or one- 

 half of it, will generally be found separated from the plantar cush- 

 ion, and is to be removed with the knife. After a few days the gan- 

 gr-enous portion of the cushion will slough off from the effects of 

 the i^oultice ; under rare circumstances only should the dead parts be 

 removed by surgical interference. When the slough is all detached, 

 the remaining wound is to be treated with simple stimulating dress- 

 mgs, such as tincture of aloes or turpentine, oakum balls, and band- 

 ages as directed in punctured wounds. When the lameness has sub- 

 sided, and a thin layer of new horn has covered the exposed parts, the 

 foot may be shod. Cover the frog with a thick pad of oakum, held 

 in place by pieces of tin fitted to slide under the shoe, and return to 

 slow work. Where caries of the coffin bone, etc., follow the injury 

 the treatment recommended for these complications in punctured 

 wounds of the foot must be resorted to. 



PUNCTURED WOUNDS OF THE FOOT. 



Of all the injuries to which the foot of the horse is liable, none are 

 more common than punctured wounds, and none are more serious 

 thuji these may be when involving the more iuiportant organs within 

 the hoof. A nail is the most common instrument by which the in- 

 jury is inflicted, yet wounds may happen from glass, wire, knives, 

 sharp pieces of rock, etc. 



A wound of the foot is more serious Avlien made by a blunt-pointed 

 instrument than when the point is sharp, and the nearer the injury is 

 to the center of the foot the more liable are disastrous results to fol- 

 low. Wounds in the heel and in the posterior parts of the frog are 

 attended with but little danger, unless they are so deep as to injure 

 the lateral cartilages, when quittor may follow. Punctured wounds 

 of the anterior parts of the sole are more dangerous, for the reason 

 that the coffin bone may be injured, and the suppuration, even when 

 the wound is not deep, tends to spread and alwavs gives rise to in- 

 tense suffering. The most serious of the punctured wounds are those 

 which happen to the center of the foot, and which, in proportion to 



