TEEADS, OE CALKS. 



949 



tow dipped in tincture of myrrh, or compound tincture of benzoin, 

 or Friar's balsam, which, if available, will be found an excellent 

 remedy. The point is now to prevent any excessive inflammation. 

 Keep the horse quiet, feed bran-mashes, etc., no grain; and if 

 there is enough inflammation to cause much soreness, cover the 

 foot with a large hot poultice. If the soreness becomes at all ex- 

 cessive, at once use hot fomentations, following up for at least one 

 or two hours three or four times a day; after which keep the leo- 

 tied up with wet cloths, or poultice. If there is extreme pain, 

 give an anodyne, or inject a lit- 



tle morphine under the skin, as 

 a horse cannot endure j)ain very 

 long, and continue fomentations 

 industriously ; this, at all events, 

 must not be neglected. 



In very severe cases it may 

 be necessary to put the horse 

 in slings, if he will not lie down. 

 When the inflammation sub- 

 sides, but little more is necessary 

 to be done than to let the parts 

 alone, dressed with any of the 

 preparations before given. 



To illustrate the seriousness 

 of these cases sometimes, I will 



Fig. 813. — The usual appearance of a 



foot badly ealked, and neglected 



or improperly treated. 



refer to an accident of the kind to one of my own horses. One of 

 my men, who had special charge of and drove a favorite pony, 

 took it into his head during the winter to have the calks pointed 

 with steel and made very sharp. While the pony was standing 

 in his stall, with one foot resting against the opposite, he was sud- 

 denly startled by some one approaching, when, throwing his weight 

 upon the elevated foot, the inside calk Avas driven well into the 

 coronet of the opposite foot. I was kept ignorant of the accident 

 for several days, when it was made known to me by discovering 

 the horse to be lame. The injury at the surface did not seem to 

 be serious, but it was deep. In consequence of being driven on 

 the road, the inflammation soon became so serious that it was nec- 

 essary, at great inconvenience, to leave the horse behind a couple 

 of weeks, the part in the meantime being thoroughly poulticed 



