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DISEASES OF THE FEET. 115 



is frequently exposed, not to mention the evils following 

 the unnatural shape and enlargement of the foot. 



SYMPTOMS. .** 



These are variable. Sometimes they are well marked, the 

 horse indicating the nature of his sufferings with unmistake- 

 able plainness ; but not unfrequently they are so obscure as 

 to be mistaken or entirely overlooked. The first noticeable 

 sign is the horse's restlessness and the frequent shiftings of 

 the fore-feet. The pulse is quick and hard, the nostrils have 

 a red and florid appearance, and the horse indicates his con- 

 dition of extreme suffering by an anxious, woe-begone look, 

 with repeated or heavy grunts. He does not stand long 

 upon his feet, and yet can not lie down in the natural man- 

 ner; but, after making several efforts to do so, he will rise 

 up, turn round, change his position, and then resume his 

 feints of lying down. Sometimes these efforts will be re- 

 peated three or four times before he accomplishes his object, 

 which he finally does by dropping to the ground like a log. 

 The stillness with which he lies upon his side is proof at once 

 that the attack is not one of colic; while his changed look 

 of relief and comparative ease declares, as plainly as words 

 could, what his disorder really is. After a time he rises 

 upon his haunches, to get up, but, overcome with the pain 

 in his fore-feet which the effort occasions, he suddenly 

 drops upon his side again. Putting his head around to the 

 feet, he rests his nose upon them, as if to point out the seat 

 of his acute pain, and to plead, as well as he can, for some 

 relief. 



TREATMENT. 



Bleed in the neck vein, without delay, as soon as the ani- 

 mal's condition is discovered. Let the blood run freely, 

 taking at least a gallon of it. The object of this is to draw 

 away the blood from the overloaded blood-vessels of the 

 feet. Many object to bleeding in the neck, as being too re- 

 mote from the seat of the disease. Experience, however, ia 



