. FOOT-EOT IN SHEEP. 4t)3;. 



ments to tlie coronary substance, or, where the attack has been , 

 violent, from the connecting lamina? also, and thus the horny- 

 digits are more or less completely separated from the sensitive 

 and vascular structures within ; and in a varying period, depend- 

 ing on the severity of the attack, the claw can be pulled off with 

 ease, or is cast off spontaneously, leaving the exposed living 

 structures smooth, red, and congested, and now of course liable 

 to be affected by external irritants, and to sprout up in the form 

 of fungoid granulations, and thus may be confounded with foot- 

 rot by inexperienced persons. Eeference to page 401 will show 

 that even in the worst forms of foot-rot, where the horn is de- 

 tached from the sensitive foot, that it still remains attached at 

 its upper border. Now, in foot-and-mouth disease, the separa- 

 tion always commences at the coronary junction. 



Professor Brown says — " Of the several quite distinct local 

 diseases of the foot of the sheep, none is distinguished by 

 the presence of a blister or vesicle in any part of the foot, 

 while in the foot-and-mouth disease there are always vesicles 

 present, or distinct evidence of their previous existence, and 

 there is also a general absence of that condition of hoof which 

 is usual in foot-rot. In exceptional cases the hoofs are elon- 

 gated, much broken, and sometimes ragged and rotten; but this 

 condition has nothing to do with the aphthous disease, which is 

 indicated by the presence of vesicles between the claws, in the 

 posterior part of the foot immediately above the hoof, and 

 sometimes exactly on the portion of skin between the digits 

 which covers the transverse ligament connecting the two sides 

 of the foot together, and which is rendered tense, and therefore 

 distinct when the digits are pulled apart. When the posterior 

 part of the hoof is separated from the secreting membrane, as it 

 often is in foot-and-mouth disease, the vascular surface is seen 

 to be congested, but there are no signs of the so-called fungoid 

 growths which distinguish foot-rot. In short, no two diseases 

 can be more distinct from each other in the local aj)pearances ; 

 but independently of the evidence aftbrded by the diseased parts, 

 there is in cases of foot-and-mouth disease clear evidence of 

 febrile action in the system. The animal's appetite may not 

 be much affected, nor is it necessary that the demeanour should 

 be suggestive of much suffering, but the application of the 

 tliermometer will show a rise of internal temperature when the 



