DISEASES OF THE HOESE. 403 



Treatment consists in drawing the nail, and if the soft tissues have 

 been penetrated or suppuration has commenced, the horn must be 

 pared away until the diseased parts are exposed. The foot is now to 

 be poulticed for a day or two, or until the lameness and suppuration 

 hav^e ceased. If the discharge of pus from the coronet is the first evi- 

 dence of the disease, the oflfending nail must be found and removed, the 

 horn pared out, and creolin or a weak solution of carbolic acid injected 

 at the coronet until the fistulous tract has healed. 



CONTRACTED HEELS, OR HOOF-BOUND. 



Contracted heels, or hoof -bound, is a common disease among horses 

 kept on hard floors in dry stables, and in such as are subject to much 

 saddle work. It consists in an atroph}^, or shrinking, of the tissues of 

 the foot, whereby the lateral diameter of the heels is diminished. It 

 afl'ects the fore feet principal I3"; but it is seen occasionall}^ in the hind 

 feet, w here it is of less importance for the reason that the hind foot 

 first strikes the ground with the toe, and, consequentl}^, less expan- 

 sion of the heels is necessary than in the fore feet, where the weight 

 is first received on the heels. Any interference with the expansibilitj^ 

 of this part of the foot interferes with locomotion and ultimately gives 

 rise to lameness. Usually but one foot is affected at a time; but when 

 both are diseased the change is greater in one than in the other. 

 Occasionally but one heel, and that the inner one, is contracted; in 

 these cases there is less likel}^ to be lameness and permanent impair- 

 ment of the animal's usefulness. According to the opinion of some 

 of the French veterinarians, hoof -bound should be divided into two 

 classes — total contraction., where the whole foot is shrunken in size; and 

 contraction of the heels, when the trouble extends onlv from the quarters 

 backward. (Plate XXXIV, figs, -i and 7.) 



Causes. — Animals raised in wet or marsh}^ districts, when taken to 

 towns and kept on dry floors, are liable to have contracted heels, not 

 alone because the horn becomes dry, but because fever of the feet and 

 wasting awa}^ of the soft tissues result from the change. Another 

 common cause of contracted heels is to be found in faulty shoeing, 

 such as rasping the wall, cutting awa}^ the frog, heels, and bars; high 

 calks and the use of nails too near the heels. Contracted heels may 

 happen as one of the results of other diseases of the foot; for instance, 

 it often accompanies thrush, sidebones, ringbones, canker, navicular 

 disease, corns, sprains of the flexor tendons, of the sesamoid and sus- 

 pensory ligaments, and from excessive knuckling of the fetlock joints. 



Sym.2?toms. — In contraction of the heels the foot has lost its circular 

 shape, and the walls from the quarters backward approach to a straight 

 line. The ground surface of the foot is now smaller than the coronary 

 circumference; the frog is pinched between the inclosing heels, is 

 much shrunken, and at times is aflected with th^-ush. The sole is more 



