DISEASES OF THE HOESE. 291 



location, its tendency to increased development, its exposure to the 

 influence of causes of renewed danger, all tend to impart an unfavor- 

 able cast to the prognosis of a case and to emphasize the importance 

 and the value of an earl}^ discovery of its presence and possible growth. 

 Even when the discovery has been made, it is often the case that the 

 truth has come to light too late for effectual treatment. Months may 

 have elapsed after the first manifestation of the lameness before a dis- 

 covery has been made of the lesion from which it has originated, and 

 there is no recall for the lapsed time. And by the uncompromising 

 seriousness of the discouraging prognosis must the energy and severity 

 of the treatment and the promptness of its administration be meas- 

 ured. The periostitis has been overlooked; any chance that might 

 have existed for preventing its advance to the chronic stage has been 

 lost; the osseous formation is established; the ringbone is a fixed fact, 

 and the indications are urgent and pressing. 



Treatment. — ^The preventive treatment consists in keeping colts 

 well nourished and in trimming the hoof and shoeing to properly bal- 

 ance the foot, and thus prevent an abnormal strain on the ligaments. 

 Even after the ringbone has developed, a cure may sometimes be occa- 

 sioned by proper shoeing directed toward straightening the axis of the 

 foot as viewed from the side by making the wall of the hoof from the 

 coronet to the toe continuous with the line formed by the front of 

 the pastern. As long as inflammation of the periosteum and ligaments 

 remains, a sharp blister of biniodide of mercury and cantharides may 

 do good if the animal is allowed to rest for four or five weeks. If this 

 fails, some success may be accomplished Xix point firing in two or three 

 lines over the ringbone. It is necessary to touch the hot iron well 

 into the bone, as superficial firing does little good. When all these 

 measures have failed to remove the lameness, or when the animal is 

 not worth a long and uncertain treatment, a competent veterinarian 

 should be engaged to perform double neurectomy, high or low, of the 

 plantar nerves, or neurectomy of the median nerve as indicated by the 

 seat of the lesion. 



SIDEBOXES. 



On each side of the bone of the hoof — the coffinbone — there are 

 normally two supplementary organs which are called the cartilages of 

 the foot. They are soft, and though in a degree elastic, yet somewhat 

 resisting, and are implanted on the lateral wings of the coffinbone. 

 Evidently their office is to assist in the elastic expansion and contrac- 

 tion of the posterior part of the hoof, and their healthy and normal 

 action doubtless contributes in an important degree to the perfect per- 

 formance of the functions of that part of the leg. These organs are, 

 however, liable to undergo a process' of disease which results in an 

 entire change in their properties, if not in their shape, by which they 



