140 CAUSES, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OF 



the length of time the disease has been in progress. Remove the 

 shoe ; cut down the toe ; rasp the wall, and, in some cases, you may 

 thin out the sole to a certain extent. Then allay the irritation by a 

 judicious use of poultices, water-baths, either hot or cold. Keep 

 him standing with the foot in water two or three hours a day. After 

 the irritation ceases, then blister around the coronet, investing con- 

 siderable surface, or, instead of a blister, you may use a frog seaton. 

 Insert with a curved needle, after cutting down the frog and making 

 an incision in the back part. Dress it with astrmgent dressings ; 

 keep it m for two or three weeks ; shoe with high heels and short 

 toes, if it is due to a sprain of the tendon, but in some cases the 

 animal will go better with an ordinary low shoe. A leather sole may 

 be useful, nicely stuffed with tow and tar, especially if the horse is 

 used upon hard roads, jont is not best in the mud. Sometimes it is 

 advisable to use constitutional remedies — a laxative diet, if plethoric 

 — if in the spring, a run at pasture,. but if in the summer months, and 

 the ground hard, there is not much benefit in it. Be careful about the 

 shoeing, and do not allow the shoes to stay on too long. Although 

 you are satisfied that the disease is incurable, from the symptoms, 

 you may relieve it to a considerable extent. Neurotomy may be 

 successfully resorted to in some cases. This is division of the nervous 

 cord and excision of a part of it, with a view to relieve the pain, but 

 not with a view of curing the disease. The plantar nerves are the 

 ones usually operated on. The low operation is the one likely to be 

 successful, if performed in a proper foot— one that is contracted to a 

 certain extent. Remove the shoe, bring the foot into proper condition, 

 keep the animal quiet for a day or two, and bathe with cold water to 

 allay any irritation and to remove the swelling ; then cast the horse 

 and make an incision about an inch long above the fetlock, exposing 

 the nerve, and remove an inch or more of it, or reunion will take place 

 — a sort of nervous tumour and connection be established. It is not 

 generally a difficult operation, but care must be taken not to injure 

 the artery. If it is performed too high up, you may leave a branch 

 that will furnish sensation. This branch runs obliquely from the 

 inside down and outward. If you perform above this there will re- 

 main nervous influence. After operating, bring the edges of the 

 wound together and apply cold water. When this operation was first 

 performed for lameness it was performed upon all kinds of subjects, 

 many of which were not fit for the operation — and this was one reason 

 why it was brought into disrepute — but if you exercise judgment and 

 select proper subjects, it will prove successful, do you credit and be 

 beneficial to the animal ; but if done indiscriminately, it will prove a 

 lamentable failure. Endeavour to impress the character of the opera- 

 tion upon the owner, for I have known some trouble to arise from the 

 neglect of this, where the operation was not successful. In a flat foot 

 it is not likely co prove successful ; but in a deep, strong foot, although 

 small, it is attended with success. If reunion takes place, you may 

 have to operate a second time. The dangers of neurotomy are from 

 punctures, pricks, bruises, etc., which, on account of there being no 

 sensation in the foot, run on to suppuration, and the first thing that 

 will be noticed is a swelling and quittor, or the tendon may be rup- 

 tured from using it more freely than when pain was present. After an 

 operation the animal should be watched carefully, the ahoes applied 

 with great care, and the feet should be examined every time the horse 

 is brought into the stable. 



