DISEASES OF HORSES 293 



cautery applied. The same treatment should be adopted where side- 

 bones form or inflammation of the coronet bone follows. When the 

 sole breaks through, exposing the soft tissues, the feet must be care- 

 fully shod with thin heels and thick toes where there is a tendency 

 to walk on the heels, and the sole must be well protected with appro- 

 priate dressings and pressure over the exposed parts. When there is 

 turning up of the toe, blistering of the coronet, in front only, some- 

 times stimulates the growth of norn, but as a rule judicious shoeing 

 is the only treatment that will enable the animal to do light, slow 

 work. 



Where suppuration of the laminae is profuse, it is better to de- 

 stroy your patient at once and relieve his suffering; but if the sup- 

 puration is limited to a small extent of tissue, especially of the sole, 

 treatment, as in acute cases, may induce recovery and should always 

 be tried. If from bed sores or other causes septicemia or pyemia is 

 feared, the bisulphite of soda, in half-ounce doses, may be given in 

 conjunction with tonics and such other treatment as is indicated in 

 these diseases. 



The propriety of insisting upon enforced recumbency is 

 doubted, as the patient usually assumes whatever position gives most 

 comfort. No doubt recumbency diminishes the amount of blood 

 sent to the feet, and may greatly relieve the pain, so that forcing the 

 patient to lie down may be tried, yet should not be renewed if he 

 thereafter persists in standing. 



Where the animal persistently stands, or where constant lying 

 indicates it (to prevent extensive sores), the patient should be placed 

 in slings. When all four feet are affected it may be impossible to 

 use slings, for the reason that the patient refuses to support any of 

 his weight and simply hangs in tnem. Lastly, convalescent cases 

 must not be returned to work too early, else permanent recovery may 

 never be effected. (Spl. Rpt. Horse, Dept. Agr., 1911; S. C. E. S. 

 B. 23, 26; Miss. E. S. B. 31.) 



DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 



The diseases of the skin are very 7 numerous and complex, which 

 may be largely accounted for by the fact that the cutaneous covering 

 is exposed to view at all points, so that shades of difference in inflam- 

 matory and other diseased processes are easily seen and distinguished 

 from one another. In the horse the hairy covering serves to some 

 extent to mask the symptoms, and hence the nonprofessional man is 

 tempted to apply the term mange to all alike, and it is only a step 

 further to apply the same treatment to all these widely different dis- 

 orders. Yet even in the hairy quadruped the distinction can be 

 made in a way which can not be done in disorders of that counter- 

 part and prolongation of the skin the mucous membrane, which 

 lines the air passages, the digestive organs, the urinary and genera- 

 tive apparatus. Diseased processes, therefore, which in these organs 

 it might be difficult or impossible to distinguish from one another, 

 can usually be separated and recognized when appearing in the skin. 



Nor is this differentiation unimportant. The cutaneous cover- 

 ing presents such an extensive surface for the secretion of cuticular 



