MEDICAL TREATMENT OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 4S7 



" If removed, by any means, before this is accomplished, it must 

 " necessarily proportionably fail in its effects. 



" The preparation of the foot, then, requires no mean skill. 

 " The tools must be sharp, the movements of the operator careful 

 " and deliberate. As he shaves down near the quick, he must 

 *' cut thinner and thinner, and with more and more care, or else 

 '' he will either fail to remove the horn exactly far enough, or he 

 " will cut into the fleshy sole and cause a rapid flow of blood. I 

 " have already remarked that the blood can be stanched by caus- 

 " tics — but they coagulate it on the surface in a mass which 

 " requires removal before the application of remedies, and in the 

 " process of its removal the blood is very frequently set flowing 

 " again, and this sometimes several times follows the application 

 " of the caustic." 



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" The separation of the sheep, poulticing, inclosing of the foot, 

 " etc., I believe to be unnecessary — but the feet must be well 

 " prepared, and the sheep must be kept out of the rain, or grass 

 " wetted by rain or dew, for twenty-four or thirty-six hours after- 

 " ward — the longer the better. Without this the most careful prepa- 

 " ration of the foot and the best remedies cannot be made effectual. 

 " * * * * The best place to put sheep after applying 

 " remedies to their feet, is on the naked floors of stables — scatter- 

 " ing them over as much surface as practicable, so that there 

 " shall be as little accumulation of manure as possible under foot. 

 " Straw, especially if fresh littered down, absorbs or rubs off the 

 " moist substances which have been applied to their feet. The 

 '■''bottoms of the feet are soon thus cleaned off. A boy should go 

 "round with a shovel, until night, taking up the dung as fast as 

 " dropped. The sheep should be kept in the stables over the 

 " first night, and not let out the next day until the dew is off the 

 "grass; then they should be turned on the most closely cropped 

 " grass on the farm. It well pays for the trouble to put them in 

 " the stables the second night before the dew falls, and to keep 

 " them, as before, until it is dried off the next day. 



" I have never found that for moderate cases of hoof-rot — the 



