170 LAMENESS OF THE HORSE 



high value, the Cochran shoe has attained considerable notoriety 

 and is being used by a number of practitioners. A disadvantage, 

 however, arises from the fact that few horseshoers other than 

 Doctor Cochran seem able to make the shoe, the peculiar shape 

 of which offers considerable difficulty in forging Concerning 

 the application of the shoe Cochran^ says : 



' ' The most important primary procedure is the preparation of 

 the foot to receive the shoe. All excess of growth must be 

 removed from the anterior face of the hoof. The outer face 

 must be reduced at the toe (not shortened), but rasped down 

 thin for the lighter the top of the foot is, the more chance the 

 sole and coffin bone will have of resuming their former normal 

 position. The pressure of the wall at the toe upon the exudate 

 between wall and coffin bone, tends to force the coffin bone and 

 sole out of their normal position. Leave the sole alone. You can 

 lower the excess of grow^th at the heels. 



"There are many designs of shoes to relieve this condition. 

 A great deal depends on the judgment of the shoer to meet the 

 conditions presented, depending on the degree of the convexity 

 and strength of the sole. In some cases we use a shoe that admits 

 of a large amount of sole room. Again, we shoe with a shoe of 

 wide cover. In other cases a shoe with even pressure over the 

 whole sole. In some cases a high, narrow shoe, resting only on 

 the wall, or the ordinary plain shoe with side calks welded close 

 to the outside edge and the shoe dished well from these as a 

 foundation. Then we have the air cushion pad designed after 

 the model of the bowl shoe." 



In cases when slight and persistent lameness interferes suffi- 

 ciently to prevent using an animal at any sort of work on hard 

 roads, median neurectomy will relieve all lameness in most in- 

 stances. This is a safe operation, moreover, in that no bad after 

 effects are to be feared, even though lameness were to continue. 



Calk Wounds. (Paronychia.) 



Etiology and Occurrence. — Injuries of various kinds are in- 

 flicted upon the coronary region but usually they are due to the 

 foot being trampled upon. When the foot that inflicts the in- 

 jury happens to be unshod, a contusion of the injured member 

 is occasioned, Init in the majority of instances, wounds that de- 

 mand attention are the result of shoe calks which have pene- 



'The Shoeing- of a Dropped Sole Foot by Dr. David W. Cochran. New 

 York City, The Horse Shoers Journal, March, 1915. 



