608 THE DISEASES OF THE HORSE 



fed on the least heating food which will serve the purpose for which he 

 is intended, and his stable should be kept as cool as possible. Beans ought 

 never to be allowed to the possessor of feet with the slightest suspicion of 

 founder; and no more oats should be used than are necessary for the 

 condition i-eqmred. For horses at slow work, bran mashes and nitre, with 

 small doses occasionally of physic, will serve to keep down the tendency to 

 inflammation, and by their use, joined to cold applications after ivork (they 

 are of no use at other times), and a cool stable, the horse may be enabled 

 to do moderately fast work. If the frog is not very prominent, a leather 

 sole, put on in the usual way, will save the jar, and in some measure 

 supply the place of the natural elastic tissue, destroyed in this disease. 

 Usually, however, it only adds to the mischief by increasing the pressure 

 on the frog, and then the leather must be introduced between the foot and 

 the shoe, but cut to the same shape as the latter, so as not at all to bear on 

 the frog. Many horses with slight traces of laminitis can work for years 

 with leather applied in this way, and it may be said to be the most useful 

 mode of treating this disease when exhibited in a mild form. Sometimes 

 by throwing a horse by for six months, taking off his shoes, and blistering 

 his coronets two or three tunes, a great deal of good may be done, but he 

 '^tnust be made to stand on tan or sawdust during the whole time, and never 

 allowed to go on hard ground, even for half-a-mile at a walking pace. 

 A modification of the shoe recommended by Mr, Broad will enable many 

 a horse to do useful work. 



SEEDY TOE 



Is the name given to a condition of the foot in which a defective toe 

 results from a cavity within the wall of the hoof extending from the plantar 

 surface upwards. It may spread in either direction and affect both front 

 and hind feet, but the toe of a front foot is its most frequent situation. 

 It is a common result of laminitis, but there are many cases in which no 

 inflammatory disease has been the precursor so far as can be ascertained. 

 The shoeing-smith is usually the first to observe it, and if not attended to, 

 the crust is soon broken and appears shelly and brittle. When the shoe 

 is removed there will be discovered a cheesy material between the sound 

 parts. 



Treatment consists in picking out all the morbid deposit and pouring in 

 warm tar so as to thoroughly fill up the space, and replace the shoe in such 

 a manner that no clip shall press upon the defective parts, and no direct 

 bearing be imposed on them. The coronet should be gently stimulated 

 from time to time with a mild blister and the tar dressing repeated as often 

 as the removal of the shoe or opportunity affords. Many cases of seedy toe 

 are in this way cured or the progress of the disease at least so far arrested 

 as not to interfere with the animal's usefulness. 



