400 BUllEACr OF ANIMAL INDUSTKY. 



the frog with a thick pad of oakum, hokl in phice )\y pieces of tin 

 fitted to slide under the shoe, and return to slow work. Where 

 caries of the coffinbone, etc., follow the injury, the treatment recom- 

 mended for these complications in punctured wounds of the foot must 

 be resorted to. 



PUNCTUHKD WOUNDS OF Till: FOOT. 



Of all the injuries to which the foot of the horse is liable, none are 

 more common than punctured wounds, and none are more serious than 

 these ma}'^ be Avhen involving the more important organs contained 

 within the hoof. A nail is the most common instrument by which the 

 injury is inflicted, yet wounds ma}- happen from sharp pieces of rock, 

 glass, wire, knives, etc. 



A wound of the foot is more serious when made by a blunt-pointed 

 instrument than when the point is sharp, and the nearer the injury is 

 to the center of the foot the more likely arc disastrous results to follow. 

 Wounds in the heel and in the posterior parts of the frog are attended 

 with but little danger, unless they are so deep as to injure the lateral 

 cartilages, when quittor may follow. Punctured wounds of the ante- 

 rior parts of the sole are more dangerous, for the reason that the coflln- 

 bonc may be injured, and the suppuration, even Vvhere the wound is 

 not deep, tends to spread and alwa^'s gives rise to intense suffering. 

 The most serious of the punctured wounds are those which happen to 

 the center of the foot, and which involve, in proportion to their depth, 

 the plantar cushion, the plantar aponeurosis, the sesamoid sheath, the 

 navicular bone, or the coffin joint. 



Punctured wounds are more likely to be deep in flat or convex feet 

 than in well-made feet, and, as a rule, recovery is neither so rapid nor 

 so certain. These wounds are less serious in animals used for Ijeavy 

 draft than in those required to do faster work; for the former may l)e 

 useful, even if complete recovery is not effected. Lastly, punctured 

 wounds of the fore feet are more serious than of the hind feet, for the 

 reason that in the former the instrument is apt to enter the foit in a 

 nearlj^ perpendicular line, and, consequent!}^, is more likely to injure 

 the deeper structures of the foot; in the hind foot, the injury is 

 generally near the heels and the wound oblique and less deep. 



Symptoms. — A nail or other sharp instrument ma\^ penetrate the 

 frog and remain for several days without causing lameness; in fact, in 

 mau}^ cases of punctured wound of the frog the first evidence of the 

 injur}^ is the finding of the nail or the appearance of an opening where 

 the skin and frog unite, from which more or less pus escapes. Even 

 when the sole is perforated, if the injury is not too deep, no lameness 

 develops until suppuration is established. In all cases of foot lame- 

 ness, especially if the cause is obscure, the foot should be examined 

 for evidence of injury. 



