SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 565 



gree of confidence, even if they chance to conflict with those of professed 

 and eminent veterinarians. 



As all are aware, the horny covering of the sheep's foot extends up, 

 gradually thinning out, some way between the toes or divisions of the hoof, 

 and above these horny walls the " cleft " is lined with skin. When the 

 points of the toes are spread apart, this skin is shown in front, covered 

 with short, soft hair. The back part of the toes, or the " heels," can be sep- 

 arated only to a little distance, and the skin in the cleft above them is 

 naked. In a healthy foot, the skin throughout the whole cleft is as firm, 

 sound, dry and uneroded, as on any other part of the animal. 



The first symptom of hoof-ail is a slight erosion, accompanied with in- 

 flammation and heat of the naked skin in the hack part of the cleft, imme- 

 diately above the heels. The skin assumes a macerated appearance, and 

 is kept moist by the presence of asanious discharge from the ulcerated sur- 

 face. As the inflammation extends, the friction of the parts causes pain 

 and the sheep limps. At this stage the foot externally, in a great ma- 

 jority of cases, exhibits not the least trace of disease, with the exception 

 of a slight redness, and sometimes the appearance of a small sore at the 

 upper edge of the cleft, when view ed from behind. 



The ulceration of the surface rapidly extends. The thin upper edges 

 of the inner walls of the hoof are disorganized, and an ulceration is estab- 

 lished betw^een the hoof and the fleshy sole. A purulent fetid matter is 

 exuded from the cavit)^. The extent of the separation daily increases, and 

 the ulcers also form sinuses deep into the fleshy sole. The bottom of the 

 hoof disappears, eaten away by the acrid matter, and the outer walls, en- 

 tirely separated from the flesh, hang only by their attachments at the coro- 

 net. The whole fleshy sole is now entirely disorganized, and the entire 

 foot is a mass of black, putrid ulceration ; or, as it more commonly hap- 

 pens, the fly has struck it, and a dense mass of writhing maggots cover the 

 surface, and burrow in every cavity. The fore-feet are generally first at- 

 tacked, and most usually but one of them. The animal at first manifests 

 but little constitutional disturbance. It eats as usual. ' By the time that 

 any considerable disorganization of the structures has taken place in the 

 first foot — sometimes sooner — the other fore-foot is attacked. That be- 

 coming as lame as the first, the miserable animal seeks its food on its 

 knees, and if forced to rise, its strange, hobbling gait betrays the intense 

 agony occasioned by bringing its feet in contact with the ground. There 

 is a bare spot under the brisket of the size of the palm of a man's hand, 

 which looks red and inflamed. There is a degree of general fever — and 

 the appetite is dull. The animal rapidly loses condition. The appearance 

 of the maggot soon closes the scene. Where the rotten foot is brought in 

 contact with the side in lying down, the filthy ulcerous matter adheres to and 

 saturates the short wool, (it being but a month and a half or two months af- 

 ter shearing,) and maggots are either carried there by the foot, or they 

 are soon generated there. A black crust is soon formed round the spot. 

 It is the decomposition of the surrounding structures, and innumerable 

 maggots are at work below, burrowing into the integuments and mus- 

 cles and eating up the miserable animal alive. The black festering mass 

 rapidly spreads, and the poor sufferer perishes, we cannot suppose other- 

 wise than in tortures the most excruciating. 



Sometimes but one fore-foot is attacked, and subsequently one or both 

 hind ones. There is no uniformity in this particular, and it is a sino-ujar 

 fact that when two or even three of the feet are dreadfully diseased, the 

 fourth may be entirely sound. So also one foot may be cured, while ev- 

 ery other one is laboring under the malady. 



(1045) 



