OSSIFICATION OF THE LATERAL CARTILAGE. SIDE-BONE. 901 



Treatment consists in resting the horse, removing the shoes, and 

 placing the animal on tan or other soft bed ; thinning the wall over 

 the affected cartilage, and applying cold poultices. When lameness 

 disappears shoe as directed below. Should lameness persist, 

 neurectomy is indicated, or a mercurial blister may be applied to 

 the coronet and the animal be given two or three months' rest. 

 Firing the ossified cartilage is useless. For sidebones associated 

 with contracted foot, Major-General Smith recommends hoof -section, 

 but the results are not invariably satisfactory. The portion of wall 

 covering the side-bone is isolated by sawing through the hoof from 

 coronet to plantar border in three places, and with a drawing-knife, 

 detaching the segments from their connection with the sole, thus 

 relieving the compression of the sensitive laminae. The fissures 

 in the wall are filled with wax or hard soap, and the foot is shod 

 with a bar-shoe, relieved at the quarters or under the loose segments 

 of horn. 



In shoeing animals with side-bone it is important to know whether 

 the condition is uni- or bi- lateral. In side-bone of the outer heel 

 the wall of that side is comparatively immobile, and the shoe at 

 the corresponding quarter and heel is excessively worn. On 

 removing the shoe the outer wall is found much higher than the 

 inner. The external heel of the shoe is thin, the internal comparatively 

 little worn. The hoof is either unchanged in form or the wall of the 

 outer heel is contracted, and sometimes covered with rings. The 

 outer portion of the coronet is more prominent, and the outer limb 

 of the frog smaller than the inner. Bruises or strains in the wall 

 not infrequently exist. 



The shoe should be flat, the outer limb broader than usual, the 

 seating-out should terminate behind the last nail hole, so that the 

 entire breadth of the heel surface may form a horizontal plane. The 

 outer wall should be lowered more than the inner, and the shoe so 

 formed that its inner limb fits as close as possible, the outer being 

 left sufficiently wide to meet a perpendicular line dropped from 

 the coronet. The supporting surface is thus widened towards the 

 outside, and, in consequence of the level tread, more even wearing 

 of the shoe produced. 



When both lateral cartilages are ossified, a thick leather sole 

 materially assists in diminishing shock. Special deeply-fullered 

 shoes with rope inlay are also of value, but pads and bar shoes seem 

 (in theory at least) contra-indicated, and, at first, cause pain by 

 pressing on the frog and so tending to thrust asunder parts that 

 are now unyielding. 



