578 THE FARM DOCTOR. 



In severe cases the coronet may be scarificed with a sharp 

 lancet and the foot placed in a bucket of warm water or fo- 

 mented with the same to favour bleeding. In the course of 

 two days, if the suffering, fever and local tenderness, are in- 

 creasing rather than abating, the sole may be thinned and 

 opened at the toe, so as to evacuate any serous exudation and 

 limit the separation of the horn from the quick, the poultices 

 being kept on after as before. In the course of ten days or a 

 fortnight the inflammation should have subsided far enough to 

 warrant the application of a blister to the pastern and an oint- 

 ment to the hoof, while the patient is turned out on a soft wet 

 pasture or kept standing a part of his time on wet clay. 



CHRONIC LAMINITIS. CONVEX SOLES. PUMICE FEET. 



If the inflammation persists in a slight form, an excessive 

 growth of soft, spongy horn takes place in front of the laminae 

 at the toe, separating the cofiin-bone from the hoof-wall and 

 allowing its anterior border to press upon the sole or even to 

 perforate it. The hoof-wall becomes covered with rings usually 

 running together at the toe, where it bulges out below and falls 

 in above. Complete restoration cannot be expected in the 

 worst cases of this kind, but much may be done for the 

 majority. Put on a thick broad webbed bar shoe bevelled 

 toward the inner side on its upper surface, and thinner at the 

 heel than the toe, dress the sole and wall daily with hot tar, 

 apply gentle blisters around the coronet, and keep in a very soft 

 damp pasture. The new growth of horn may grow down almost 

 perfect in appearance, but it retains an undesirable brittleness. 



CRACKS IN THE HOOF-WALL. SAND-CRACK. QUARTER-CRACK. 



The predisposition to this is usually to be found in rasping 

 and drying of the hoof-wall, in uneven bearing of the shoe, in 

 alternate soaking of the hoof in water and drying, and in treads 

 or other temporary wounds or injuries to the coronet. The 



