DISEASES OF THE FEET. 227 



Treatment. — Remove the shoes; the frogs should be allowed 

 to touch the ground; blood is to be withdrawn from the toe, or 

 coronary plexus, and the feet placed in a cold water bath for 

 several hours during the day, and in a poultice at night. This 

 metliod of treatment, with the addition of six drachms of aloes 

 internally, has proven successful in the early stages. At the 

 end of a fortnight, whether the animal be lame or not, a mild 

 blister should be applied around the coronet. If this treatment 

 proves of no avail, a seton should l)e inserted through the frog. 

 The seton should enter the frog about one inch from its toe, and 

 brought out midway between the bulbs of the frcig and the 

 anterior boundary of the hollow of the heel. The cuds of the 

 tape must be tied together and of sufficient length to aduiit oi 

 a little movement in dressing. This should be saturated with a 

 strong licpiid preparation of mercury, red iodide, and cantha- 

 rides, and moved a little each day. Before the seton is intro- 

 duced, a high-heeled shoe should be applied to prevent the parts 

 from comine: in contact with the uround. The seton should be 

 allowed to remain three or four weeks. If the pain be not re- 

 lieved after the seton has been removed one month, treatment 

 will be useless, and the animal should be put to work and the 

 pain removed by neurotomy. 



The operation of neurotomy requires the employment of a 

 veterinary surgeon. It is a very simple operation to one who 

 understands the anatomy of the parts. It consists of a division 

 of the plantar nerves. • This operation, however successful in 

 some cases, should never be performed on a horse with thick 

 legs or thin feet, weak in the heels, or full in the sole, or with 

 high action, and only [tei-formed where tlir laiiicncss is other- 

 wise incurable. The bad results of the operation are fracture 

 of the navicular bone, rui)turc of the tendon, sloughing of the 

 hoof, and a gelatinous degeneration of the bursa, tendon, and 

 surrounding tissues. These results, however, in my experience, 

 seldom 0<.'cur. 



I have successfully treated what seemed incurable cases, and 



