300 THE HORSE. 



It is always necessary to examine the inner quarter of the foot at the 

 time of purchase, for it has more than once occurred that, by low dealers, 

 and particularly at fairs, a sand-crack has been neatly covered with pitch, 

 and then the whole of the hoof having- been oiled, the injury was so 

 adroitly concealed that an incautious person might be easily deceived. 



Tlie crack sometimes does not penetrate throuo:h the horn : it then 

 causes no lam.eness ; nevertheless, it must not be neglected. It shews that 

 brittleness which should make the purchaser pause; and, if proper means 

 are not taken, it will generally soon reach to the quick. It should be pared 

 or rasped fairly out ; and if the paring or rasping has been deep, the foot 

 should be strengthened by a coating of pitch, with coarse tape bound over 

 it, and covered by another coating of pitch, and which may be moulded 

 and polished so as to be scarcely distinguishable from the natural horn. 

 Every crack should be pared or rasped to ascertain its depth. If it 

 penetrates through the crust, and no lameness exists, and is situated low 

 down on the foot, a firing iron, red-hot, should be run pretty deeply above 

 and below it to prevent its lengthening; the edges should be a little thinned 

 to remove any painfid or injurious pressure ; and it should be bound up in 

 the manner directed, taking care that the shoe does not press upon the crust 

 immediately under the crack. 



If the crack has penetrated through the crust, and lameness has ensued, 

 the case is more serious. It must be carefully examined to ascertain that 

 no dirt or sand has got into it ; the edges must be considerably thinned ; 

 and if any fungus is l)eginning to sprout through the crack, and is impri- 

 soned and pinched there, it must be destroyed by the application of the 

 butyr (chloride) of antimony. This is far preferable to the cautery, because 

 the edges of the horn will not be thickened or roughened, and thus become 

 a source of after irritation. The iron must then be run deeply above and 

 below the crack, as in the other case ; a pledget of dry tow must be placed 

 in the crack, with another over it, and the whole bound down as tightly as 

 possible. On the third day the part should be examined, and the caustic 

 again applied if necessary ; but if the crack be dry, and defended by a hard 

 horny crust, the sooner the pitch plaster is put on the better. The most 

 serious case is when, from tread or neglect, the coronet is divided. The 

 growth of horn proceeds from the coronary ligament, and unless this is 

 perfect the horn will grow down divided. The method to be here adopted 

 is to run the back of the firing-iron over the coronet at the division. Some 

 inflammation will ensue, and when the scab produced by the cautery peels 

 off, as it will in a few days, the division will be obliterated, and sound and 

 united horn will grow down. In this case, as in almost every case of sand- 

 crack, the horse should be kept as quiet as possible. It is not in the power 

 of the surgeon to effect a perfect cure if the owner will continue to use the 

 animal. When the horn is divided at the coronet it will take five or six 

 months for it to grow fairly down, and not before it is grown fairly down 

 should the horse be used, even for ordinary work : but when the horn is 

 grown an inch from the coronet the horse may be turned out, the foot being 

 well defended by the pitch plaster, and that renewed as often as it becomes 

 loose, a bar shoe being worn chambered so as not to press upon the hoof 

 immediately under the crack, and that shoe being taken ofl'', the sole pared 

 out, and any bulbous projection of the new horn being removed once in 

 every three weeks. 



To remedy the undue brittleness of the hoof, we know no better applica- 

 tion than that recommended in page 182, the sole being covered at the 

 same time with the common cow-dung or felt stopping. 



