PRICKED, STABBED, OR CUT FOOT. 223 



would be likely to occasion a lock jaw, and such a result has 

 occurred in veterinary practice. The external wound is com- 

 monly of a size to render sutures needless. Where the tendon 

 is divided, however, the most active steps we can take are, 

 approximation — apposition, if possible — of the orifice, and 

 resistance to all motion in the limb. 



The regulation of the shoe will be the chief agent, and 

 this with a bandage will do much. We must expect slough- 

 ing of the exposed parts of the tendon. We must, there- 

 fore, treat with linseed meal, yeast, or turnip, or charcoal 

 poultices, with dressings of nitric acid lotion (3j to ft»j), and 

 with spirituous tinctures, &c. We are to anticipate the 

 granulation will be succeeded by sloughing, and must hail 

 it as a step towards the closure of the wound. 



Those common-place details I may have omitted, the 

 reader^s knowledge of inflammation will enable him to 

 supply. 



PRICKED, STABBED, OR CUT FOOT. 



There are two ways in which the foot may be "pricked :^^ 

 either through misdirection of the nail in shoeing or through 

 the animal treading upon a nail, &c. The parts exposed to 

 this injury are those composing the ground surface of the 

 foot. The injury itself will vary with the cause, the part 

 punctured, and the direction of the wound. 



Prick in Shoeing. — To those who are acquainted with 

 the conformation of the foot, it is matter of surprise that 

 accidents of this nature do not oftener happen : the luckless 

 wight of a smith frequently incurs the maledictions of his 

 employer for pricking the horse, when, but for the unsteadi- 

 ness of the animal while shoeing, no such accident would 

 have occurred. The injury may result from direct punc- 

 ture of the sensitive parts, either in consequence of the nail 

 being pitched w'\\\i too much inclination, or from its point 

 splitting, and giving it a contrary direction to that which 

 was designed : or it may be the efi'ect of the nail being 

 driven too near to the quick — "taking too much hold" — in 



