3i2 DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 



days, the division will be obliterated, and sound and united horn will grow down. 

 When there is sufficient horn above the crack, a horizontal line should be drawn with 

 a firing-iron between the sound horn and the crack. The connexion between the sound 

 part and the crack will thus be prevented, and the new horn will gradually and safely 

 descend, but the horse should not be used until sufficient horn has grown down fairly 

 to isolate the crack. In this case, as in almost every one of sand-crack, the horse 

 should be kept as quiet as possible. It is not in the power of the surgeon to effect a 

 perfect cure, if the owner will continue to use the animal. When the horn is divided 

 at the coronet, it will be five or six months before it will grow fairly down, and not 

 before that, should the animal be used even for ordinary work. When, however, the 

 horn is grown an.inch from the coronet, the horse may be turned out — the foot being 

 well defended by the pitch plaster, and that renewed as often as it becomes loose — a 

 bar-shoe being worn, chambered so as not to press upon the hoof immediately under 

 the crack, and that shoe being taken off, the sole pared out, and any bulbous projec- 

 tion of new horn being removed once in every three weeks. 



To remedy the undue brittleness of the hoof, there is no better application than that 

 recommended in page 303, the sole being covered at the same time with the common 

 cow-dung, or felt stopping. 



TREAD AND OVER-REACH, 



Under these terms are comprised bruises and wounds of the coronet, inflicted by the 

 other feet. 



A TREAD is said to have taken place, when the inside of the coronet of one hind 

 foot is struck by the calkin of the shoe of the other, and a bruised or contused wound 

 is inflicted. The coronary ring is highly vascular externally, and within it is cartila- 

 ginous ; the blow, therefore, often produces much pain and hemorrhage, and contusion 

 and destruction of the parts. The wound may appear to be simple, but it is often of 

 a sadly complicated nature, and much time and care will need to be expended in 

 repairing the mischief. Mr. Percivall very accurately states that " the wound has, 

 in the first place, to cast off a slough, consisting of the bruised, separated, and 

 deadened parts ; then the chasm thereby exposed has to granulate ; and finally, the 

 sore has to cicatrize, and form new horn."* 



A tread, or wound of the coronet, must never be neglected, lest gravel should 

 insinuate itself into the wound, and form deep ulcerations, called sinuses or pipes, and 

 which constitute quillor. Although some mildly stimulating escharotic may be occa- 

 sionally required, the caustic, too frequently used by farriers, should be carefully 

 avoided, not only lest quitter should be formed, but lest the coronary ligament should 

 be so injured as to be afterwards incapable of secreting perfect horn. When pro- 

 perly treated, a tread is seldom productive of much injury. If the dirt is well washed 

 out of it, and a pledget of tow, dipped in Friar's balsam, bound over the wound, it 

 will, in the majority of cases, speedily heal. Should the bruise be extensive, or the 

 wound deep, a poultice may be applied for one or two days, and then the Friar's bal- 

 sam, or digestive ointment. Sometimes a soft tumour will form on the part, which 

 will be quickly brought to suppuration by a poultice; and when the matter has run 

 out, the ulcer will heal by the application of the Friar's balsam, or a weak solution 

 of blue vitriol. 



An OVER-REACH is a tread upon the heel of the coronet of the fore foot by the shoe 

 of the corresponding hind foot, and either inflicted by the toe, or by the inner edge of 

 the inside of the shoe. The preventive treatment is the bevelling, or rounding off, of 

 the inside edge or rim of the hind shoes. The cure is, the cutting away of the loose 

 parts, the application of Friar's balsam, and protection from the dirt. 



There is a singular species of over-reaching, termed forging or clkking. The 

 horse, in the act of trotting, strikes the toes of the hind shoos against the fore ones. 

 This noise of the clicking is unpleasant, and the trick or habit is not altogether free 

 from danger. It is most frequent in young horses, and is attributable to too great 

 activity, or length of stride in the hind legs. The rider may do something l)y keep- 

 ing the head of the horse well up ; but the smith may effect more by making the hind 

 shoes of clicking horses short in the toe, and having the web broad. When they are 



* Percivall's Hippopathology, vol. i. p. 243. 



