CANKER. 42.5 



ill the morning before the horse goes to woi-h. Attention shoul.i at the 

 same time, as in other diseases of the foot, be paid to the ajjparent cause 

 of the complaint, and that cause should be carefully obviated or removed. 

 Before the application of the paste, the frog should be examined, and 

 every loose part of the horn or hardened discharge removed ; and if much 

 of the frog is then exposed, a larger and wider piece of tow covered with 

 the paste may be placed over it, in addition to the pledget introduced into 

 the cleft of the frog. It will be necessary to preserve the frog moist while 

 the cure is in progress, and this may be done by filling the feet with tow 

 covered by common stopping, or using the felt pad, likewise covered with 

 it. Turning out would be prejudicial rather than of benefit to thrushy 

 feet, except the di-essing is continued, and the feet defended from 

 moisture. 



CANKER 



Is a separation of the horn from the sensitive part of the foot, and the 

 sprouting of fungous growths instead of it, occupying a portion or even 

 the whole of the sole and frog. ITor do these constitute the only seats of 

 its devastations ; it turns over the lower edge of the foot, and insidiously 

 creeps up the front or sides, disorganising the lamina3 in its progress, and 

 this in some cases to such an extent that the connection between the 

 sensitive and insensitive laminje is entirely destroyed, and the hoof may 

 drop from the foot on the road or in the stable. It is the occasional con- 

 sequence of bruise, puncture, corn, quitter, and thrush, and is exceed- 

 ingly difiicult to cure. It is more frequently the consequence of neglected 

 thrush than of any other disease of the foot, or rather it is thrush in- 

 volving the frog, the bars, and the sole, and making the foot one mass 

 of disease. 



Although canker is often the result of neglected thrush, it is distin- 

 guished from it by its mahgnant nature, and the great tendency to the 

 formation of fungoid growths ; the latter are not found in ordinary 

 thrush. 



It is oftenest found in, and is almost peculiar to the heavy breed of cart 

 horses, and partly resulting from constitutional predisposition. Horses 

 Avith white legs and thick skins, and much hair upon their legs, — the very 

 character of many dray horses, — are subject to canker, especially if they 

 have had an attack of grease, or their heels are habitually thick and 

 gTcasy. The disposition to canker is certainly hereditary. The dray 

 horse likewise has this disadvantage, that in order to give him foot-hold, 

 it is sometimes necessary to raise the heels of the hiuder feet so high, that 

 all pressure on the frog is taken away ; its functions are destroyed, and it 

 is rendered liable to disease. Canker, however, arises most of all from the 

 neglect of the feet and the filthiness of the stable in these establishments. 



Although canker is a disease most difiicult to remove, it is easily pre- 

 vented. Attention to the ^junctures to which these heavy horses, with 

 their clubbed feet and brittle hoofs, are more than any others subject in 

 shoeing, and to the bruises and treads on the coronet, to which from their 

 awkwardness and weight they are so liable, and the greasy heels which a 

 very slight degree of negligence will produce in them, and the stopping 

 of the thrushes, which are so apt in them to run on to the separation of 

 the horn from the sensitive frog, will most materially lessen the number 

 of cankered feet. Where this disease often occurs, the o^vner of the team 

 may be well assured that there is mismanagement cither in himself or his 

 horsekeeper, or the smith, and it will rarely be a difiicult matter to detect 

 the precise nature of that mismanagement. 



The cure of canker is the business of the veterinary surgeon, and a 



